Travel Back in Time: Salem Common Historic District

Within the last several years, the town of Salem expressed interest in adding its Old Town Hall, located at 310 Main Street, on the State Register of Historic Places.

Eventually, they decided to go a step up: the national register, and not just the Old Town Hall.

On April 15, the Salem Common Historic District (which includes the Old Town Hall, the Alice Hall Library next door, and the nearby old town cemetery, town common and Hose House No. 2) were added to the National Register of Historic Places, the first of their kind in Salem.

Lisa Mausolf, Salem's historic preservation consultant, reviewed the historic nature of the places with the Salem Board of Selectmen in June. She provided them with the following information:

• The Old Town Hall was originally built as a meeting house in 1738 and was located at the present-day intersection of Main and Bridge Streets. In 1838 it was moved just up Main Street to its current location. Substantial renovations were made to the building in 1899 and it was used for town meeting until 1958. It presently houses the Salem Historical Museum.
• Right next to the Old Town Hall is the town burial ground, which dates back to 1741. Mausolf noted the "amazing work" for some of the headstone carvings in the cemetery. The rear of the cemetery includes four receiving tombs that are earthen mounds constructed between 1843 and 1861.
• Veterans Park on the Salem Common includes a 1922 monument that honors Salem residents who fought in the American Revolution, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and World War I as well as two Civil War-era cannons.
• Hose House No. 2 was built in 1906 and was one of two built in town so the town could receive reduced fire insurance rates. The building also had a lock-up for the Police Department on its lower level.
• The Alice Hall Library was built in 1861 as the District 1 School House. In the fall of 1895 it became the town library and was used for that purpose until 1966.

The Salem Historic Museum, located in the Town Hall, is open on Mondays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

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