Improving upon "The Witch City"

An article from the July 30, 1925 edition of The Salem News found its way onto my desk last week, and I have to share it.  You may have noticed that we have launched a new logo and tag line for Salem this year - officially declaring that Salem is Still Making History.

We spent months in meetings working to find the best graphic and slogan for a city that has such a breadth of assets, a wealth of history, and a very eclectic nature.  It would seem, from this 1925 article, that our quest for the perfect trademark predates us all. 


It is hard to read, so I've typed the content of the story:

WHO CAN THINK OF A NEW TRADE MARK FOR SALEM

"The Witch City" Might be improved upon... 

"The Witch City is a fairly good trade mark.

"Hawthorne Land" sounds good, too. It tells of the famous author and brings in the new hotel, too.

"Blubber Hollow" is a rugged trade name. It satisfies tanners.

"City of shoes" no longer fills the bill. Salem has lost too much shoe business of late.

"Where we make your sheets" might get a cheer from the Naumkeag cotton mills.

"Settle in Salem and Succeed" once was heard. But the population is less than it used to be.

"City of Homes" is too commonplace. 

"Historic Salem" is familiar, but it tells of the past. Somebody ought to get up a new trade mark for Salem and everybody ought to sound it. 

A city can struggle along without a trade mark, just the same as a man can struggle along without a name. But it sounds better to have a trade mark.  

You can still find information on Salem's tannery history and blubber hollow and the Naukeag Mills (now Shetland Properties) on some of Salem's walking tours and at the National Park Service.

I'm happy to say that more and more people do "settle in Salem and succeed," which is testament to our great downtown and the wonderful shop, dine, explore, live, play atmosphere that has been fostered in Salem by people, organizations and businesses that are invested in the success of Salem.

1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts

What's your favorite place in Massachusetts?

Winter Island? The Peabody Essex Museum? Salem Common?

The Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism is working with legislators to create the first list of 1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts. Nominations are being accepted until April 1, 2010, and the list will be published in May.

Derby Wharf? Chestnut Street? Salem Willows?

This new program has been created to celebrate what is unique about Massachusetts, its communities, and its people.

The House of the Seven Gables? Peabody Essex Museum? Forest River Park?

You can, of course, nominate sites that are not in Salem. But I don't know why you would!

Submit your nominations at massvacation.com/1000 before April 1!

Taste of the Wharf this Weekend

Join the wonderful restaurants on Pickering Wharf for Taste of the Wharf this Sunday, September 20th from 12:00 - 5:00 PM.

There will be live music from noon - 5pm, including the Jessica Prouty Band (noon-2pm) and Soul Baby (2-5pm). From 3pm-5pm you can sample tastes at Sixty2 on Wharf, Regatta Pub, Capt's, Victoria Station, and Finz.

Bring your canine companions to Living with Pets for their special treats and samples.

In addition, all of the restaurants will be offering 10% discounts on meals, retailers will be offering Taste of the Wharf discounts, and the kids can get their faces painted.

Admission is a $5.00 (or more) donation, and all proceeds will benefit St. Joseph's Food Pantry.

Good eats for a good cause! Come on down!

Sizzling Summer Cruises from Salem

Experience a new wave of entertainment cruises departing from Salem this summer! Join Salem Harbor Cruises on the Voyager III for a series of spectacular evenings filled with music, dancing, food, and fun! The vessel features a fully stocked cash bar, appetizers from Finz Seafood and Passage to India, and three decks for maximum comfort and enjoyment.

Schedule

June 6: Salem PRIDE Cruise to benefit the Matthew Shepherd Foundation, tickets $39.00
June 27: Sunset Dance Cocktail Cruise
July 18: Jolly Roger Reggae Cruise
August 1: TBA
August 23: Blues of the Bay
September 20: Sinatra Saturday
October 25: Halloween Costume Cruise

Details

• All cruises run from 8:00 pm - 11:00 pm
• $35.00 at the dock, or save $5.00 by booking in advance.
• Advance sales made online or over the phone at (978) 741-0220
• Cruises depart from the Salem Ferry dock at 10 Blaney Street, Salem, MA 01970
• Parking is free!
• All cruises are 21+

Visit Destination Salem on Facebook!

Destination Salem is a new group on Facebook. Most of the information you will find there, you can find on Salem.org, but on Facebook you can post your feedback, your photos and videos of your trip (trips?!) to Salem, and invite your friends to learn more. Join the Destination Salem group on Facebook, and invite your friends!

C'mon Ladies - It's Girls' Night Out in Salem!

Let's fight those winter doldrums with a night on the town, shopping and playing in Salem! Mayor Kimberley Driscoll and Salem Main Streets have organized a Ladies Night in Salem on Wednesday, March 5 that will encourage all of us to shop, eat, and Think Pink.

The Wellness Community is co-sponsoring the evening, and they will be distributing brochures and information to support people who are affected by cancer. The Wellness Community at Sue's Circle of Hope in Salem provides professionally-led support groups, educational workshops, nutrition and exercise programs, and mind body classes to help people affected by cancer learn vital skills that enable them to regain control, reduce isolation and restore hope regardless of the stage of their disease.

Show your support for Cancer research when you stop by A Touch of the Past on Washington Street - two Salem women who are participating n the Avon Cancer Walk will be at A Touch of the Past seeking sponsorship for their walk.

The Mayor will be visiting businesses on Washington Street, Essex Street, Front Street, and Derby Street before ending the evening at Strega on Lafayette Street. (If you want to know the Mayor's tentative schedule for the evening, let me know and I'll post it.) Many of the businesses will be providing complimentary refreshments, and socializing is encouraged!

So, you and your girlfriends should come on out to shop and dine on Wednesday, March 5 from 5-7pm. See you then!

Friendship's Mighty Volunteers

Yesterday Captain Jim Fox, who is the volunteer captain of Salem's replica tall ship Friendship was recognized for his contributions to Salem and the region with a Hospitality Award, given at the annual Governor's Conference on Travel & Tourism. Captain Fox leads an incredible group of volunteers who not only keep Friendship ship-shape, but who actually sail her to ports of call including Gloucester, Newburyport, Boston, and Newport.

The Boston Globe ran a wonderful article about the shipwrights who donate their time to Friendship last year. I recommend reading The Old Men and the Sea.

The original Friendship was built in 1796-1797. The three-masted, square-rigged, 342-ton vessel was an “East Indiaman,” the type of merchant ship that made Salem a leader in trade with the Far East in the years after the American Revolution. The model used to construct Friendship is on display at the Peabody Essex Museum. The National Park Service has a bulletin about Friendship available on their web site, www.nps.gov/sama. Friendship is open for visitation year-round.

Congratulations to Captain Fox on his award, and many thanks to Captain Fox and all of the volunteers and NPS staff who contribute so much to ensure Salem's maritime heritage is alive and well on Derby Wharf.

Where Past is Present

Have you seen the Ten Free Things to do in Salem list? It's worth checking out, especially since most of the things on the list are available year-round (although the gardens are, admittedly, a bit drab in February).

The best, and first, thing on the list is the free film at the National Park Service Regional Visitor Center. It is the 27-minute film, Where Past is Present. The film provides an overview of the history of Salem and the entire Essex National Heritage Area, which is the 34 communities of Essex County. Whether you are from the area or visiting, it will give you a sense of place and a sense of the historical significance of Salem and its surrounding communities.

For more information on the National Park Service in Salem, visit www.nps.gov/sama. It is an excellent web site, chock full of "did you know" facts and links to Salem walking tours and brochures.

It's Cold Outside...

Which makes me want to retreat to a warm corner, preferably by a fire. Here three of my favorite fireside retreats in Salem:

• The Tavern at the Hawthorne Hotel (pictured at left). When the weather outside is frightful, there's no better retreat than this cozy room with an excellent menu.


• Finz on Pickering Wharf. Grab your favorite 'tini concoction at the bar and get comfy by the fire. You may never want to get up!


• Capt's Bar & Grill on Pickering Wharf. For winter retreats, I like to sneak into the bar & grill, which is below the formal dining room. The ambiance is cozy and dim - if you're with the right someone, it would be romantic. And the view is one of Salem's best.

Spring isn't too far off. Take advantage of these cozy corners soon. Before too long I'll be writing about dining alfresco and how to keep cool on hot New England evenings!

Last Chance for Samuel McIntire!

The Peabody Essex Museum's wonderful exhibit, Samuel McIntire, Carving an American Style, closes on Sunday - and if you have not yet seen it, I recommend finding some time this weekend to get here!

McIntire heavily influenced the architecture in Salem and throughout this region. People who are lucky enough to have a McIntire detail, a mantle, a doorway, in their house are very proud of it! Further afield, McIntire's work is exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and in 1792 he submitted a proposal for the design of the Capitol at Washington, DC (alas, it wasn't chosen). His carvings are beautiful, and we are fortunate that its significance was recognized and preserved through the past 200 years.

The following is excerpted from the exhibit microsite: Samuel McIntire (1757–1811) was one of America’s most versatile artists during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the young nation explored new intersections among ideas, concepts, and cultures to create the foundation of its artistic traditions. Recognized as the architect who transformed his birthplace, Salem, Massachusetts, into the epitome of an elegant American town, after 1795 he also gained prominence as a wood carver. The original design vocabulary that he developed from confident and ambitious experimentation produced one of the first significant carving traditions in the new nation.

McIntire played a major role in expressing the new British neoclassical style, which drew its primary inspiration from the art and architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. He then developed his own distinct version of the style to express the beliefs and aspirations of the first generation of Americans to experience economic, political, and artistic freedom. McIntire worked cooperatively with the town’s leading cabinetmakers, carpenters, and shipbuilders, providing them with carved ornamentation, but his most important surviving carvings are found on furniture and woodwork of his own design done for Salem’s Derby family. His sensitivity to design as a whole produced some of the most beautiful rooms created during the Federal period (1780–1820).

For more on the Peabody Essex Museum, visit http://www.pem.org/. The Boston Globe review of the exhibit ran on November 4, 2007. Read it here.

Shopping in Salem

I can't explain how much shopping has improved since I first visited Salem in 1998. Signatures just opened their new space at 181 Essex Street, on the Pedestrian Mall, and it's a great store for women's fashion! Better yet, it completes a really nice block, with Bernard's Jewelery and Pamplemousse (www.pmousse.com - the image to the right is from Pamplemousse). Those of us at the ribbon cutting today were marveling at how much shopping we can do during our lunch hours and on our walks from office to car. There is lots of shopping to be done!

If you need a scheduled excuse to check out Salem's retail, watch the calendar on www.salem.org. for Girl's Night Out with Mayor Kim Driscoll in early March. Salem Main Streets is working with the Mayor's office to organize a night of shopping and treats geared toward the girls. I'll post the date here, too, when it's confirmed.

Visit Salem

Welcome to Destination Salem's new blog about Salem, visiting Salem, what there is to do in Salem, and why you should be making plans to come to Salem.

I should let you know right out of the box that I am the executive director of Destination Salem, which means it is my job to talk about Salem as a great destination. However, I would not be able to do this job if I didn't believe it. And I know Salem is a unique place to spend time. In fact, it's such a great place to visit, lots of people move here after visiting (myself included), and that's the best evidence of a good destination.

Salem has a lot going on. You may know Salem because of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Salem also has an incredible maritime heritage, remarkable architecture, literary history (think Nathaniel Hawthorne), and military heritage. Not to mention the art and culture, shopping, dining, psychics, lighthouses, classic New England vistas, tall ships, cobbled streets... should I go on? I'll talk about all of these things in my posts, but I know attention spans are short and time is shorter, so for now I'll say welcome - to you and to myself - to the new Destination Salem blog.

Discover the magic of Salem!

Kate

PS: The picture is of the tall ship Friendship, a replica of the 1797 East Indiaman ship that sailed from Salem to ports all over the world. Friendship is part of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site. Thanks to Colleen Bruce who took the picture.