Celebrate Women's History in Salem on Saturday

Mayor Kim Driscoll has officially declared Saturday, March 27, 2010 to be Women's History Day in Salem! Salem has been home to a lot of remarkable people, male and female, and this weekend you can have the opportunity to celebrate women from Salem who changed the world locally and globally.

In addition to a few special events, a number of stores - many women-owned - will be offering Women's History Day discounts on Saturday. You can learn more about Salem Women's History and those discounts at SalemWomensHistory.com.

From Elizabeth Peabody who established the first kindergarten to Caroline Emerton who established the House of the Seven Gables in order to fund the social mission of the Settlement House to Mary Spencer who created the first mass-produced candy in America... Salem has a rich history of feminine history.

If you can't make it this weekend, the Salem Women's Heritage Trail is available through HurdSmith Communications ($15). It's a great feminist tour of this bewitching seaport.

Here are a couple of events to put on your calendar for Saturday. Bonnie and Emily both do a fantastic job, so try to catch both events, if you can!

Walking tour with Bonnie Hurd Smith
10-11:30 a.m.
Meet at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site Visitor Center across from the entrance to the Peabody Essex Museum
$10/person the day of the event
Hear inspiring and entertaining stories about women in Salem history as you visit the places where they lived, worked, and even changed the world. Rain or shine!

“Salem’s She-merchants: Women in Commerce 1670-1780"
Illustrated talk by Salem Maritime National Historic Site
Park Historian Emily A. Murphy
2-3 p.m.
Salem Maritime National Historic Site Visitor Center
Free
By the end of the seventeenth century, Salem was a bustling seaport
community with a thriving economy. But who was behind that economic
success? As part of the celebration of Salem Women`s History Day, the National Park Service will present a lecture by Park Historian Emily A. Murphy, Ph.D. Dr. Murphy will explore some of the little-known women who contributed to the economy of colonial and revolutionary Salem. Meet the tavern keepers, printers, and merchants -- all women -- who helped Salem to become an economic powerhouse in early America.

CityView's New Trolley

Check out the snazzy new CityView trolley! This new Salem Harley Davidson Trolley is spending its time shuttling visitors from the Salem Ferry Landing as well as running CityView's one-hour tour of Salem.
For more information on CityView Trolley Tours, visit www.salemtrolleytours.com.

Historic Pedicab Tours - A Great Way to Go!

Last week I experienced Salem in a whole new way - from a pedicab. Joel Carron took me along for Historic Salem Pedicab Tours' Lace Reader Tour. Now, I was a person who had seen the pedicabs peddling around town for the past few years, but has never availed myself of their services. Joel has changed my perspective, however - pedicabs are a great way to see Salem!

Historic Salem Pedicab Tours offers a few different tours - a McIntire District Tour that highlights the architectural splendor created by Salem native Samuel McIntire, historic tours customized to your wishes, and The Lace Reader tour. I climbed aboard for The Lace Reader tour in front of City Hall last week, and we were off.

Joel let us know that there are some challenges with this tour because of Salem's one-way streets. The funeral procession, for example, would be a great addition to any pedicab tour - but it traveled up and down Cambridge and Chestnut Streets the wrong way, which works great for pall bearers, but is an illegal maneuver for a pedicab. Joel did a great job improvising despite this challenge.

We traveled past The Witch House, The First Church, and the Ropes Mansion (which may be the next best thing to seeing Eva's gardens), stopping briefly to discuss the significance of the three sites. We cut down to Broad Street and Joel talked about the Broad Street Cemetery, where the Whitney's fictitious plot is located. Joel also talked about the Pickering House across the street, which was continuously occupied by 10 generations of Pickerings. The Pickering plot really is in the Broad Street Cemetery, which gave a nice touch of reality to a tour that is about a work of fiction.

Along Chestnut Street we paused to hear about some of the most significance doorways, architectural details, to ponder which house held the man who watched the procession pass by, and to talk about the significance of Hamilton Hall. We then left the Chestnut Street neighborhood and headed toward Roger Conant (and, yes, we what Beezer and Anya saw) and Salem Common. Joel talked about Eva's fictitious house and it's possible location as we headed down Orange Street toward the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, where the tall ship Friendship is located, and where Eva's boathouse would be.

The tour concluded as we passed by Pickering Wharf and headed back toward the center of Salem. It would be very easy to customize this tour to begin or end at the Salem Ferry landing, where Towner arrived in town, and the MBTA Commuter Rail station, which is close to The First Church.

The greatest thing about this tour for me was the book-club style discussion we had while we were traveling through the streets of Salem. It was a beautiful day, perfect for sight-seeing, and the speed of a pedicab is great for taking it all in. No matter how many tours of Salem I do, there is always something new to learn. The Historic Salem Pedicab Tour was no exception!

Twilight at the Phillips House

One of Salem's hidden treasures is The Phillips House at 34 Chestnut Street. It is the only house on Chestnut Street that is open to the public, and the collections are an incredible sampling of souvenirs from around the world. The house provides a window into Salem's most elegant era.

The Phillips House is launching a new program this week: Thursdays at Twilight. You are invited to visit the Phillips House at twilight and see how electric light of the early twentieth century transforms a Federal-era house. Selections from Phillips family home movies provide a glimpse of how the family lived in the house and entertained, and where they traveled in their leisure time.

Registration is required, and you can visit historicnewengland.org or call 978-744-0440 for more information. $10 Historic New England members / $15 nonmembers. If you can't go this week, the program will be offered again on July 3, August 7, September 4, and October 2.

Garden Spots

Today I want to shout to the world, "The Dogwoods are blooming! The Dogwoods are blooming!" The Hawthorne Hotel has bright yellow pansies in its flower boxes, and gardens are coming alive all across Salem.




Here are three of my favorite garden paths to follow:

1. The seaside garden at The House of the Seven Gables, which incorporates "four centuries of floral color" into the property's landscape.
2. The 18th century formal garden behind the Derby House at the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which "contains more than 150 varieties of heirloom annuals, perennials and bulbs, all documented to 1798 or earlier."
3. The Ropes Mansion, 318 Essex Street - The Peabody Essex Museum meticulously cultivates and maintains the Colonial Revival garden, which dates to 1912, behind the Ropes Mansion.

It is still early for gardens, but they are budding and this is a great time to begin observing the gardens, and chart their development as the season continues.