Category: Vintage Salem Morning

Vintage Salem Morning

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Tunnels Around Salem

Winter Street Tunnel Hole Salem MA

Old Tunnel entrance on the island in between Washington Square North and Winter Street. Closed up to keep the kids out. Now there is a war memorial boulder on top of it.

For more info read Salem Secret Underground: The History of the Tunnels in the City by Chris Dowgin available at Jolie Tea, Remember Salem, Wicked Good Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com.

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have some to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem Morning

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Washington Street and the First Train Tunnel in America

4 Views of a Secret. This tunnel running from Essex Street to the Tabernacle Church under Washington Street was used to hide the loading of contraband from the smuggling tunnels in Salem. The first track on the frog entering the tunnel was built by George Peabody whose plan has bankrupted our country every 20 years up to 2008. The second track on the frog was owned by Thomas Perkins the opium dealer who would smuggle runaway slaves to his sweatshops in Lowell. Eight tunnels met in the back of the Kinsman Building (Opus Underground) and one left the front to this tunnel in the photos. Kinsman was superintendent of the Eastern Railroad owned by Peabody.

For more info read Salem Secret Underground: The History of the Tunnels in the City and Sub Rosa by Chris Dowgin available at Wicked Good Books, Jolie Tea, Remember Salem, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com.

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have some to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem Morning

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The First Congregation Church in America’s Second Building

This is the second church of the First Church of Salem. This was the first Congregation Church in America. During the time of the Witchcraft Hysteria, this building was on the other side of the river that the cart followed to the hanging site on the ridge to the left outside of this photo. Later this building was moved to the location in this picture by the Proctor family.  This was the lot owned by John Proctor of the Crucible. He was hanged on the back left corner of his own lot. After crossing the drawbridge the cart turned left uphill on Pope Street. Pope Street led to the dump and was named by anti-papists. The Proctors used the building as a tavern and a horse stable. So it is safe to say the first church in the country was full of horse shit.  Later this building was removed to behind the Essex Institute. Later in 1914, this was the site where the 1914 Fire started in the Korn Leather Factory.

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have some to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comment section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem Morning

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CORNER OF ESSEX STREET AND SAINT PETER’S STREET

Corner of Essex Street and St. Peters Street with Sign reading Ted Coles

This is the second location of Ted Cole’s Music shop. The first I believe was on the corner of Front and Central Street in a building replaced by a cherry dogwood tree and an air conditioner unit. Previously in the location above was an Eaton Pharmacy. Now the East India Mall and the fountain have closed off Saint Peter’s access to this corner. Can you name where Ted Cole’s final location was?

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have something to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem

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Jean Missud’s Second Corp Cadets Marching Band

Jean Missud and his Second Corp of Cadets Marching Band in a parade down Essex Street in Salem MA. Jean wrote famous pieces like the March of the Witches and the Salem Gazebo is dedicated to him. It is even said that his band still can be heard around the gazebo playing a few ghostly tunes….

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have some to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section. Do you remember band and color guard practice in the Armory before the fire? Let us know in the comments section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem

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WURLITZER ORGAN,
PARAMOUNT THEATER
ON ESSEX STREET

Wurlitzer Organ Paramount Theater Salem Ma

Now replaced by the East India Mall, the Paramount used to be a Salem favorite with its organ that would rise out of the floor to provide the sound effects and score to the movies during the silent era. I was asked recently, ‘were did the organ go?’, but I had no answer. Do you?

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have something to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section. Do you know where the organ is today? Let us know in the comments section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem Morning

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TOWN HOUSE SQUARETown House Square Salem MA 1891

The Stearn Building which housed H.P. Ives Bookstore once was flush with the corner of Short Street, which was long gone even in this photo. The building opposite the Stearn Building, on Short Lane, once held the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, after John Hancock took up Reverend Bentley’s offer to move it here after Boston was invaded during the Revolutionary War.  The offending part of the Stearn Building has been removed to make it now flush to the new corner of Washington Street and Essex Street. Most of the buildings behind it have long since been removed and the new ones are also flushed to the current location of Washington Street.

Also, you can see the beginning of the tunnel that led to the underground train station in which goods were smuggled through from the Kinsman Building in the distance. Do you remember the fortune telling machine or the traffic cop in the box from here? Tell us below?

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have some to add to the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section.

Come back every Wednesday morning to see another glimpse into Salem’s past.

Vintage Salem Morning

adminLeave a comment

Welcome to another Vintage Salem Posts. Every Wednesday we will post another image from our home town’s past. If you have any other images of the buildings or locations we offer each Wednesday, please share them below.

Paramount Theater Salem MA

Paramount Theater on Essex Street

Now this is the location of the East India Mall. This theater was gorgeous with a Wurlitzer organ which would rise out of the floor to play music for the silent films.

Cheers,
Chris
Owner Salem House Press

Vintage Salem Morning

adminLeave a comment

Welcome to another Vintage Salem Posts. Every Wednesday we will post another image from our home town’s past. If you have any other images of the buildings or locations we offer each Wednesday, please share them below.

Dixon Chapel and Greenhouse in Greenlawn Cemetery

Greenlawn Cemetery, Chapel, and Greenhouse. Under this chapel 4 tunnels meet. One heading out to Orne’s Point where the Widow Orne sold bricks to keep her property to be used to create the tunnels in Salem. Her kin Secretary of State Timothy Pickering bought 40,000 bricks from her in one order when a house only needed 8,000 bricks.

For more info read Sub Rosa by Chris Dowgin available at Remember Salem, Jolie Tea, Wicked Good Books, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.com.

Cheers,
Chris
Owner Salem House Press

Vintage Salem Morning

adminLeave a comment

Welcome to another Vintage Salem Posts. Every Wednesday we will post another image from our home town’s past. If you have any other images of the buildings or locations we offer each Wednesday, please share them below.

Wurlitzer Organ Paramount Theater Salem MA

Wurlitzer Organ in the Paramount Theater on Essex Street

Now replaced by the East India Mall, the Paramount used to be a Salem favorite with it’s organ that would rise out of the floor to provide the sound effects and score to the movies during the silent era. I was asked recently, ‘were did the organ go?’, but I had no answer. Do you?

Send us your favorite vintage Salem photos to info@salemhousepress.com and we will post them and give you a shout out! Also if you have something to add about the photo from family histories, your readings, or your memories, please share them below in the comments section. Do you know where the organ is today?

Cheers,
Chris
Owner Salem House Press