Tag Archives: Public Policy

April 4, 2023

Public Works: Salem 1957-1958

By daseger

“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.” Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Do cities ever stop building? Are they ever finished? I don’t think so, and for a relatively small city, Salem seems to me to have been especially busy building over these past few decades with more to come. Its 21st-century building boom began with courthouses: the Ruane Judicial Center which set the standard for the expanded scale of new construction and a gorgeous renovation and addition at the Probate Court next door, leading to a new parking garage across the way and ultimately to an adjacent residential building which will block the view of the Probate Court as one drives into town but also provide the funding for the restoration and redevelopment of the obsolete and proximate Victorian and Greek Revival courthouses. The Ruane courthouse also rendered the 1970s District Court across Washington Street obsolete and so it was demolished and replaced by a large residential builing called the Brix, and at the southern end of this same street an even larger Lego-like Hampton Inn now rises above the fray. This has all been a bit overwhelming, and more big projects are on the way! When I feel pressed by the present I always escape to the past for some perspective and a newly-digitized collection from the PEM’s Phillips Library gave me just that: photographs taken by Salem contractor William Franklin Abbott, chiefly of Salem’s big tunnel project of the 1950s as well as the construction of Lee Fort Terrace, a public housing community for the elderly of which he was Clerk of the Works. There are other collections of photographs of the the tunnel construction (I’ll put some links at the end) but I find Abbot’s color images especially captivating: how did the residents of Salem live through this all-consuming Big Dig???

October 1957

Well, they persevered, I guess, as Salem residents always do. The newspapers report that between 25 and 40 downtown merchants shut their doors during the delayed construction, some for good, apparently. The timing of the project was not good: construction of the Northshore Shopping Center, just a few miles away in Peabody, was concurrent, and as been noted millions of times, the latter had a great deal to do with the end of Salem’s reign as shopping center of Essex County. There were rats, there was noise, there was a rank odor present downtown due to the diversion of sewage pipes into the North River. Yet the City had been gearing up for this project since the beginning of the twentieth century, particularly as the grade crossings at Bridge and Norman/Mill Streets were seen as a “constant menace” and the source of increasing congestion. WPA funds were designated for a comprehensive plan including the construction of a new tunnel and station to replace the pioneering 1839 tunnel and 1847 Gothic Revival depot, fondly referred to as the “Old Castle” but not as beloved in its declining years as it became after it was gone. Nevertheless, work did not begin for a decade later, with the commencement of construction on the Bridge Street overpass. After its completion in 1952, there seems to have been a pause until 1954, when the Depot was demolished and work commenced on the southward extension of the tunnel. The target completion date was 1956, but its completion was delayed until 1959 due to (take your pick): 1) the over-his-head contractor; 2) poor management at the state level; 3) a national cement drivers’ strike; 4) change orders—especially a switch to steel pilings. The summer of 1957 was hot with hearings! Abbott’s photographs illustrate the most intense phase of construction, from a professional perspective.

Above: Boston Globe: Salem’s “ancient” station featured in a December 1938 article; headlines from the summer of 1957; Below, Abbott’s photographs of the construction, 1957-58, first looking south, then north.

November 1957-February 1958, looking southward.

April 1957-January 1958, looking north.

There are more photos, especially of the southern extension of the tunnel, but I was focused on downtown: I can’t even begin to imagine the daily disruption! We hear about the suffering merchants, but I can’t find a source that testifies to the experience of mere Salem residents, trying to go about the business of daily life. I can imagine Abbott walking over from his office on Norman Street during his lunch, observing and documenting the ongoing construction with great interest. You can discern a much more personal perspective in his photographs of the construction of Leefort Terrace as he is as focused on the workers as the work-in-progress. Pride comes through, and there are photographs of the dedication ceremony, including a nice shot of Governor Foster Furcolo and Mayor Francix X. Collins looking like the pols they were (actually I don’t know much about either of them, but those hats make them look like pols). These little brick buildings are not long for this world, as a the City has established a partnership with a Boston development firm, Beacon Communities, to replace them with a multi-story building. Public-private partnerships seem to be the trend going forward with Salem construction projects, including the Offshore Wind Terminal which will be built on that part of the site of our former coal plant which was previously designated for public use. While this project has the potential to reap huge benefits for the economy and the environment, its scale is huge, and its construction and operation will affect the residents of the greater Derby Street neighborhood in myriad ways. They will have to persevere, as will my neighbors in the greater Endicott Street neighborhood, who are faced with a dramatic expansion of the presence of a Marblehead-funded philanthropic organization in the form of three five-storey buildings which will cast their much-smaller dwellings into perpetual shade.

Building Leefort Terrace in 1957-1958; Governor Furcolo and Mayor Collins.

Appendix/ More Sources for Salem’s Tunnel project:

Salem’s “Big Dig” at SSU Archives & Special Collections.

Historic Beverly’s Walker Transportation Collection.

Baccari Collection of “New Salem Tunnel” project photographs at SPD.

1 Comment | tags: Big Boxes, Development, Phillips Library, Photographs, Public Policy, Repositories, Salem Neighborhoods, Transportation, urban planning | posted in Salem

August 30, 2019

Losing our History? Two Years Later……Where are We with the PEM?

By daseger

Two years ago tomorrow, the temporary location of the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum shut down rather abruptly with a succinct notice of when it would be reopening but no reference to where. As the Library is the primary repository of documents relating to Salem’s history, there were concerns among scholars (including a friend of mine who was writing her dissertation based on materials in the Phillips and was quite suddenly shut out), but I don’t think the general public was too concerned: increasing inaccessibility in terms of hours–and then location—had been the trend for about a decade. I had never really depended on the Phillips for research or teaching (only this blog) so this was a big wake-up call for me: I started thinking, what if it is not coming back? And then a few months later, in early December: the big non-announcement at a meeting of the Salem Historical Commission. The Phillips Library of Salem was no more: all of its holdings would be deposited in a giant Collection Center in Rowley, a half hour to the north. The special library—consolidated from collections of both the Peabody Museum and Essex Institute and housed in the spectacular purpose-built Plummer Hall on Essex Street—would now be part of a much larger modern warehouse of texts and objects located on a commercial strip of Route One. An Indiana Jones image formed in my mind, and the contrast between the genteel, accessible Plummer Hall and the post-modern former toy factory seemed too cruel, even discounting the distance factor.

pem-2

Early 2018 was all about resistance and defense: there was a very dramatic public forum at the Museum during which then-PEM CEO Dan Monroe justified his decision according to the priority of preservation: it was impossible to house these materials in Salem due to the deficiencies of the Plummer and adjoining Daland buildings and there was no other sufficient space in the city. The “preservation vs. location” argument is still authoritative: with no discussion of why the PEM did not use the substantial monies donated to it for the library to improve and expand these facilities in Salem. Also still with us is the conflation of objects and texts, justifying the move to the Rowley storage center; the Phillips Library literally gets lost in this configuration. There was lots of press coverage in January, 2018: in both the Salem News and the Boston Globe, where a front-page story included the quote below from Mr. Monroe of which I just can’t let go. A “Friends of the Phillips Library” group, established right after the December 2017 Historical Commission meeting, expanded its presence on Facebook and eventually launched its own website, which remains the essential archive of this story.

The official way forward seemed to be through a “working group” established by the Mayor of Salem, Kimberley Driscoll, and Mr. Monroe and including members of the city’s heritage organizations, most of which (with the exception of Historic Salem, Inc. and the Salem Athenaeum) were silent during the uproar and remain so. Almost immediately the PEM announced a compromise: a reading room would be reinstated in Plummer Hall (although what would actually be in this reading room is still unknown), a Salem history exhibit installed next door, and rotating exhibits of Phillips Library materials would be installed in the main museum buildings down and across Essex Street. I don’t think we’ve really moved much beyond this agreement, but there were also discussions about digitization, as the focus on the historical collections revealed just how far behind the PEM was in such initiatives, despite misleading news stories to the contrary. Once the library collections were moved to Rowley, digitization of some of the Phillips’ most popular items began, and consequently we can now see Frank Cousins’ photographs of Salem in the 1890s at the Digital Commonwealth and a variety of interesting texts at the Internet Archive. I give all credit for this ongoing development to Collections chief and Library Director John D. Childs, as I remember him stating that digitization was a priority at the January 2018 forum, while Dan Monroe would only offer that it was “expensive”.

Entrance to the George Peabody Estate, “Kernwood”, in North Salem, Frank Cousins Collection of Glass Plate Negatives at the Phillips Library via Digital Commonwealth; just one Phillips text at the Internet Archive.

And that brings us to the biggest development in these two years: the retirement of Dan Monroe, effective this past July. The new director of the PEM, Brian Kennedy, is not only an experienced museum administrator, but also a scholar, who began his first day at the Museum with a staff meeting in East India Hall referencing the vision of the founders of the Essex Institute and Peabody Museum. This was encouraging to those of us on the outside, as the founders were overwhelmingly Salem men who believed that they were contributing to a repository of Salem history and culture, but we must remember that Mr. Kennedy is learning the lay of the land and that only one trustee on the PEM’s Board is a resident of Salem. The will of the founders—and successive donors—has always been the most pressing factor in my mind: I asked Mr. Monroe about “donor intent” at the January 2018 forum but he expressed no concerns. However, I’ve heard many, many, many concerns here (and in emails) from many of you. Both founder and donor intent can rise to the level of legal action, of course, and are administered within the purview of the office of the Attorney General. Very soon after the “non-announcement” of the move, we found the Essex Institute’s incorporation charter from 1821, which asserted specifically that its “cabinet” be situated in Salem. We assumed that this article was made null and void years ago, or at the very least through the merger of the Institute and Peabody Museum in 1992, but apparently that is not the case.

And so at the invitation of Mr. Michael Harrington, former Congressman and present owner of the Hawthorne Hotel who has taken a very active interest in this “case”, a group of concerned citizens, heritage professionals, and local political leaders met with Attorney General Maura Healey and her staff this past eventful July. It was a great meeting to which I was privileged to be invited. Ms. Healey listened intently to us over several hours, and explained the process by which the PEM has to petition the court to be released from the above article, a process that is overseen by her office. Apparently the PEM has not initiated this process (at least formally) yet, but can at any time, and presumably will (although they haven’t indicated that they were bound by any restrictions to date, so I’m wondering if things will just continue as they are). I voiced all of the concerns I’ve written about and heard here at this meeting, as well as my belief that the removal of the Phillips Library will cause economic harm to Salem over the long run, as the city has no professional historical society or museum to take its place. When history is only for sale, money determines everything: the topic, the take, the truth.

I’m not sure what will happen now; obviously the Attorney General’s office is invested in this issue but it has been for some time. The Peabody Essex Museum is focused, with good reason, on opening its brand new wing at the end of September and branding itself as the #newpem. No doubt Mr. Kennedy is preoccupied with that, and with learning all about his new institution. Not only has the new wing been completed recently but substantive renovations to both the interiors and exteriors of the Plummer and Daland buildings are ongoing: the 1960s “stacks” addition has been shorn off, and many wonder where the Phillips materials could be housed if they were returned to Salem. The PEM had a viable plan for the expansion of the Phillips Library in these buildings and in Salem, but that plan was abandoned in favor of the new wing and Collection Center in Rowley.

So I think that’s where we are, but any good summary should also include what remains to be seen, or what I still don’t understand. After two years of immersion in this very singular issue: these are the concerns, problems, and questions that still linger in my mind:

I don’t understand why the City didn’t try harder to retain our history. It’s been dawning on me for some time that this entire proceeding reveals more about the City of Salem than the Peabody Essex Museum. Recently I’ve heard that the City’s tourism office, Destination Salem, plans to focus on genealogy or “roots” tourism over the next few years. This makes sense on one level, as this is the most dynamic trend in the tourism industry currently and Salem is Ellis Island for many Anglo-Americans, but it makes no sense on another, as Salem has no genealogical records because they are all in Rowley.
I don’t understand how the Phillips Library is going to survive as a library in Rowley: a real library, with regular patrons, events, talks, exhibits and a sense of community. I can understand how it will exist as a repository, but not a library. Every research library I’ve ever worked in–the Folger, Houghton, the Massachusetts Historical Society—is an active gathering place, but I can’t see people gathering at that sterile place in Rowley. It’s a professional operation to be sure, and researchers will go there to do their research, but that’s about it. I guess that’s what the PEM wants, as the promise to offer exhibitions of Phillips collections is being kept, with a Hawthorne exhibition opening next month in the new wing, in Salem.
Speaking of comparable research libraries, I don’t understand why a “Harvard Depository” system cannot be utilized with the Phillips Library, retaining the offsite Collection Center as a storage facility from which materials can be retrieved and brought to the MAIN Library, which could be reinstated in the Plummer and Daland buildings on Essex Street in Salem. This would solve the storage issue and retain the traditional space, place, and role of the Phillips Library, and it could be operated as an accessible facility that would serve researchers and the general (curious) public. I’m sure there’s a reason why this can’t happen, but I wish I knew what it was, as it seems like the reasonable solution to a layperson like me, and one which would benefit all parties: the PEM, the City of Salem, and the Phillips Library itself.