WASHINGTON SQUARE HISTORIC DISTRICT STUDY REPORT fu�As�� i . gra J scav`�tL H ST25P-Ac
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Af�lMme o°�
OF
Salem Historical Commission
CITY HALL, SALEM, MASS. 01970
WASHINGTON SQUARE HISTORIC MSTRICT
Final Report by
Salem Historical Commission
September 1997
•
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
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 implement an approved ordinance as it relates to existing
Historical Distridts but also to work as a Study Committee in the creation of
new districts.
Thus, after careful consideration, on June 6, 1972, the Salem .
Historical Commission voted unanimously that properties facing or
aboutting-on Washington Square be included in an area for study for the
purpose of forming a new district by the Salem Historical Commission.
II:
14ETHOD OF INVENTORY AND REASONS FOR CHOICES
• The Salem Historical Commission, 'wiih the assistance of board
members from Historic Salem, Inc., 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 Salem Common
area. The result of this work is contained on the forms entitled "Building
Survey Forms B." Accompanying each form is a colored 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
Salem Common, with its easily identifiable natural boundaries along with
its relation to Salem history.and containing a majority of homes and buildings
of important architectual significance, would be an appropriate area to
• be designated as an Historic District.
A public hearing was held by the Salem Historical Commission on
May 2, 1973 '-t that time, representatives of several businesses located
2/
• around the Common expressed opposition to being included in an Historic
District. Although the majority of property owners on Washington Square
favored the creation of a district, the Commission decided to proceed with the
proposal for the Derby Street District (which was presented at the same
hearing and had stronger support) and to postpone submitting the Common proposal
in the hope that some of its opponents might subsequently change their
minds. During the intervening time, a neighborhood association, The Salem
Common and Custom House Association was formed, and its officers expressed a
desire to reactivate the proposal. A second public hearing was held on
March 17, 1976 and a third has held on February 10, 1977. Opposition
has, however, remained strong among some business interests and some
residents on the East side of the Common. The Commission has worked
with the Salem City Council's Community Development Committee in an
• effort to define boundaries which would be acceptable to Common
property owners and which, therefore, the Community Development Committee
could support. As a consequence, the Commission would now like to propose
a district encompassing most of the North, West, and South sides of the
Common but deleting most of the East side. Five adjacent properties on
Winter Street have been added due to requests by property owners, and
the entire Essex Institute complex has been joined to this district as well.
III.
JUSTIFICATION OF THE HISTORIC DISTRICT
A. Description of Proposed District as a Whole
To avoid confusion, since the National Register district in the
area is named the Salem Common District, the local district will be
referred to as the Washington Square Historic District. The Salem
Common and its boundaries, also referred to as Washington Square,
is comprised of four streets known as Washington Square East, Washington
«-� 3!
Square North, Washington Square West, and Washington Square South.
Washington Square is the name given to the Common in 1802 by the
selectmen. The old street names of Pleasant, Brown, Newbury, and Bath
were not changed until 1880, however.
Town Swamp has the original name for the area which was established on
November 16, 1713 by a town vote to be and remain to continue forever
for a Training Field for the use of the town. Governor Hutchinson, just
prior to being supplanted by General Gage as Governor in 1774, came to
Salem and reviewed the First Essex Regiment there. In 1781, the firing
of a cannon on the Common was an event to mark the news that Cornwallis
had capitulated had reached Salem. It was also fired in honor of
George Washington on his birthday, February 11, 1790, and other festive
occasions.
• A subscription drive in 1802 transformed the Salem Common from
this undeveloped tract of swampy town land with roaming animals into
a desirable residential area to which successful merchants looked as a
location for the large brick Federal mansions they built. The drive
was sparked by Elias Hasket Derby, just elected Colonel of the newly
reorganized Salem Militia, and the project graded and filled the nine-
acre tract, planted grass and a double row of Lombardy poplar trees, and
O
added gravel walks and a wooden fence with four grand arches. Samuel
McIntire carved a medallion portrait of George Washington for the arch
today reproduced in the south-east corner, and it was at this point that
the selectmen renamed the town common Washington Square. All this
followed a general increase in interest in this section of town due
to the completion of the bridge to Beverly in 1788.
. With the leveling of the Common, land use patterns began to change,
elegant houses replacing the tanyards, ropewalks, and artisans' shops
which had located there for many years and were further stimulated by
4/
. the Beverly bridge completion. Wealthy merchants built on the North
and East sides, John Andrews on the short :Jest side, and John Gardner on
adjacent Essex Street. Mansion scale structures did not appear on the
South side, then Bath Street, the lots there apparently being to shallow
to accomodate these large houses with attendant chaise houses and gardens.
Today Greek Revival and Italianate houses have joined the Federal
period structures, and the iron fence erected in 1850 compliments those
which enclose front yards of many of the houses. The Salem Park
Department acquired the Common's nine acres in 1928 as a playground,
and Washington Square along with the 1926 bandstand continues to be
an active scene of private recreation and repose as well as numerous
public events.
B. Boundaries of the District
• The district we propose to be identified as the Washington Square
Historic District is to include the Common, the monument at Washington
Square North and Winter Street; Washington Square North numbers 192
through 47-49, but excluding number 45; 2 Oliver Street; Winter Street
numbers 21, 23, 24, 242, and 26; Washington Square West number 2-28, the
Hawthorne Inn and number 139 the Andrew-Safford House; 120.126 Essex
Street, the Crowinshield-Bentley House; 128 Essex Street, the Gardner-
Pingree House and barn; 132-134 Essex Street, the Essex Institute and
Library, the Doll House, and the Lyle-Tapley Shoe Shop; 9 Brown Street,
the John Ward House, 3-5 Brown Street; 1 Brown Street; Washington Square
South, numbers 38 through 60-62 and 84-88 Essex Street, the Phillips School,
but excluding number 46 Washington Square South; Washington Square East
numbers 72 through 80; and 1 Forrester Street.
C. Description of Individual Buildings
See Building Survey Form B previously submitted to the Massachusetts
Historical Commission and also National Register forms. ,
51
IV.
OPTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Historical Commission recommends that the `.Washington Square
Historic-iDistrict 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, the Derby
Street Historic District, and the Federal Street Area Historic District.
V.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Research
The Salem Historical Commission wishes to acknowledge 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 Frothingham III) as submitted to the Mayor in 1968• Much of
the historical and architectural information contained in this report is drawn
from the Salem Historic District Study Committee Investigation (S.H.D.S.C.I.),
the full bibliography for which isllisted in Volumie III of said study.
Research by Historic Salem, Inc. has also been helpful as has information
in the Essex Institute Historical Collections and Salem assessor's records.
B. Map
See attached map. Source for base map, Salem Assessor's Maps.
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