Fall Walking Tours

Written by Glen Hughes on September 9th, 2008 No Comments

In perhaps the worst email to make its way past my spam and junk filters all year I received a message containing no copy, no words, no communication. Like most people I have my images turned off in my email client so I didn’t see anything at all. On my way to press the delete button I noticed who it was from. One of my favorite groups in town with one of the worst web presence around (and that’s saying a lot with the number of craptastic sites here in Salem), Historic Salem Inc..

In a future post we will be discussing the disparity of good web designers and developers here in Salem to pathetic websites but you’ll have to wait for that…

On to today’s post.

So, when I moved to Salem I wanted to join the Historical Society. In my previous town I was a member and they were quite active in town. I’m also involved with the Dedham Historical Society and figured Salem would be just as active. Well to my dismay there isn’t really a Salem Historical Society. Bummer. What I did find was the Salem History Society, (another stellar website from 1992 maybe). If you can struggle through their site you would find that they host meetings at Cornerstone Books. In fact tonight September 9th at 7:30 is there first meeting of fall. Unfortunately we will be attending the Build Guild so we can’t make it there but if you go let us know how it was.

Getting back to my quest for history. So the Salem History Society didn’t look to organized nor did they have any offerings at the time I was looking so I moved on.

In my searching I found that the old Historical Society was assimilated quite some time ago by the Borg collective that is the PEM. My quest almost died there until I did some research on the house plaques you see here in town. That’s when I discovered Historic Salem Inc. and quickly became a member. They have done a bunch of tours and programs we’ve reported on in the past. And they’re at it again.

Have you heard of the Great Salem Fire on June 25th 1914? Well our friends at HSI are ready to tell you all about it.

Great Salem Fire

The Great Salem Fire started with a series of explosions, caused by a mixture of acetone, amalacitate, alcohol, and celluloid. At 1:37 PM, a fire alarm box was used to report a fire in the Korn leather factory, 57 Boston street.

The fire spread quickly down and across Boston Street. The police department sent out calls to 21 cities for assistance. One industrial department, the Fore River Shipyard, also assisted. Over 90 police men from out of town came to help. The Salem Evening News, (Friday, July 24, 1914, page 11), has a complete list of all responding departments and where and how they worked to fight the fire.

The fire burned 253 acres (1 km²) with 1,376 buildings. The entire loss was estimated at US$15 million; insurance policies paid US$11.744 million. Some 20,000 people lost their homes, 10,000 their jobs, and a few their lives.

Interesting - so what?

Remember last September when everyone was going bonkers over the Samuel McIntire anniversary? HSI did a series of Fall walking tours and we all learned about McIntire archetechure. This year their focus is on The Great Salem Fire.

The series will trace the path of the Salem Fire of June 25, 1914 focusing on three distinct neighborhoods.

September 14, 2008 The General Alarm: The First Streets to go up in Flames
September 21, 2008 The Conflagration Strikes South Salem
September 28, 2008 The Fire Swallows Salem’s Jobs: The Point, the Mills, and the Waterfront

So put on your walking shoes - bust out $5 and fire up some of your brain cells, its going to be a fun fall.