DERBY STREET HISTORIC DISTRICT REPORT 14
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Salem Historical Commission
CITY HALL. SALEM, MASS. 6I970
GEORGE A. AHMED. VICE-CHAIRMAN
ELLEN C.WELCH, SECRETARY.
ERWIN BISHOP
RAYMOND L.CHALIFOUR - ACTINq C11AIRMAM
THOMAS MACLEAN GRIFFIN
EDI RRD Reetem
_JAMES F CPJ aANAM
DERBY STREET HISTORIC DISTRICT
Final Report by
Salem Historical Commission
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. Method of Inventory and Reasons for Choices
III. Justification of the Historic District
A. Description of Proposed District as a Whole
B. Boundaries of the District
IV. Options and Recommendations
V. Bibliography
A. Research
B. Map
I
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I.
INTRODUCTION
One of the duties of an Historical Commission as
provided for under Chapter 40C, General Laws, and amended
by Chapter 359 of the Acts of 1971", is not only to imple-
ment an approved ordinance as it relates to existing Historic
Districts but also to work as a study Committee in the
creation of new districts.
Thus, on September 6, 1972 , after careful consideration
by the Commission, and interest shown by the Maritime
National Historic Site , it was voted unanimously that
beginning with and including 727 Herbert Street down to
and including the Aum Shop on the north side of Derby
Street and on the south side of Derby Street, beginning
with and including 7159 Derby Street, proceeding_ along
Derby Wharf and the Naval Reserve property be included
In the area for study for the purpose of forming a new
district, to be known as the Custom House District.
As required, a, public hearing was conducted on
May 2, 1973, at the North Branch Library, that the Com-
mission might discuss the proposal in detail and obtain
a reaction from those residents involved. The plan was
favorably endorsed and as a result we received many re-
quests that the boundaries be extended to include a much
larger area.
Upon further study this was done, the name was
changed to Derby Street Historic District and a new
proposal was mailed to all residents, followed by a new
2.
public hearing on October 24th at the East Branch Library.
Again, we found our proposed new Historic District was un-
opposed by all residents who attended the meeting or when
personally interviewed. The new boundaries can be found
specifically described in Section III B.
IL
METHOD OF INVENTORY AND REASONS FOR CHOICES
Over the past year the Commission, with the assistance
of board members from Historic Salem, Inc. has followed the
example set forth by the Massachusetts Historical Commission
and its guidelines to properly make inventory of all
buildings and property related to the proposed Derby Street
Historic District. The result of this work is contained
L___._ on the forms entitled 113uilding Survey Forms B. "
Accompanying each .form is a zerox photograph as a visual
record of the information these contain.
Following individual study of other areas in Salem
worthy of Historic District status and protection, the
Commission decided that the Derby Street area, with its
boundaries which include the wharf area and Custom House
so related to Salem History, along with homes and
buildings of important architectural significance , would
be a logical area to be designated next as an Historic
District. *:
III.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICT
A. Description of Proposed district as a Whole
3.
Derby Street Historic District
It is rather difficult to discover the exact origins
of Derby Street because it was not all laid out at once .
The major part of the street seems to be accounted for in
this note taken from the town records by Felts "March, 8,
1762, A Way of two poles wide to be allowed from Daniels'
Lane to Becket's Lane, " The relative newness of the street,
however, does not mean that the area was inactive before
1762. The development of the street was probably closely
tied to the history of the wharves near it, Long Wharf, or
Union ,•lharf, at the end of Union Street, was begun in the
first half of the 1700' s, Derby Wharf was begun by Captain
Richard Derby in 1762 which, c6lncidentally, is the same
year in which the Street was continued as far as Becket
Street,
During the heyday of Salem' s foreign commerce, from
around the time of .the Revolution when privateers sailed
out to harass the British, to the 1820's when Salem' s
trade began to decline because the harbor wasn't deep
enough to accomodate the fast new clipper ships, Derby
Street must have been a very busy and exciting street .
where strange new objects were seen and smelled and
strange tales of wild adventures repeated. It was a
street of wharves, houses and shops. Hawthorne, writing
of the period when he was at the Custom House during the
18401s, described the street as one of shops , grocers,
4.
block-makers, shop-sellers , and ship chandlers.
Despite the fact that many of the old houses and shops
have been replaced by larger dwellings, the closeness of
the buildings , the remaining old structures , and the glimpses
of old houses down the streets on either side of Derby
Street still convey a general impression of an old Salem
Street, Certainly the Custom House, Derby House, Home for
Aged Women and Derby ;dharf are one of the most impressive
groups of buildings to be found anywhere which relate to
the early maritime history of this country,
The Custom House , an imposing brick (Flemish bond)
building, was erected in 1819. It was here that Nathaniel
Hawthorne was Surveyor of the. Port from 1846 to 1849,
where he is thought to have worked on the Scarlet Letter,
his first successful novel. Hawthorne , himself, described
the Custom House for us : "From the loftiest point of its
roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each fore-
noon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of
the republic . . , (the building' s ) front is ornamented with
a portico of half a dozen wooden pillars, supporting a
balcony, beneath which a flight of wide granite descends
to the street. Over the entrance hovers an enormous
specimen of the American Eagle , with outspread wings, a
shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a
bunch of intermingled thunderbolts and barbed arrows in
each claw, , , "
-- --------- -,ram--�
5.
Hawthorne also explained that the building was "intended
to accomodate a hoped-for increase in the commercial prosperity
of this place -- hopes destined never to be realized -- and
was built a world too large for any necessary purpose, even
at the time when India was a new region, and only Salem knew
the way thither, "
B. BOUNDARIES OF THE DISTRICT
The District we propose to be identified as the Derby `
Street Historic District is to include all the land and buildings
comprosing the parcels numbering, facing or abutting Derby
Street as follows : Beginning with and including, at the north-
westerly extreme, from -127 Herbert St, (at the intersection of
Herbert St. and Derby St, ) and extending east along Derby St.
beyond Y 6 Derby St. and including property designated as Block
House Square, On the southeasterly side, extending west
beginning with and including Y65 Derby St., the Derby Wharf
area and up to and excluding the George W. Pickering Co, Also,
including the west side of Kosciusko St. , Nos, 6 through 22.
IV. OPTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Historical Commission recommends that the Derby
Street Historic District be subject to the same conditions
as outlined in the Salem Historical Commission Ordinance
approved by the Mayor on November 30, 1971, as it now
applies to the Chestnut Street Historic District. We
recommend that an additional member be appointed to the
z
Salem Historical Commission from the newly proposed
district,
V. BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Research
The new Salem Historical Commission wishes to ack-
nowledge its great debt to the original Salem Historic
District Study Committee , chaired under Sumner Low
Raymond, and the valuable research of Mrs, Elizabeth
Reardon (Mrs, Theodore FrothinghamIII) as submitted to
the Mayor in 1968. Historic facts listed in this report
are a condensation of the original study and full
bibliography listed in Volume III of said study,
B. Map (see page 7, )
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