In the decade following the end of World War II, the United States experienced an economic boom. This was partially due to the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (G.I. Bill) which assisted veterans with purchasing homes and seeking higher education opportunities. This prosperity created a surge in building new homes, car sales, highway construction, and ultimately the creation of modern shopping centers and malls. In October 1956, America’s first mall opened in Minnesota. The mall contained an indoor courtyard, bird sanctuary, water fountain, and art installation. At the time, it was promoted as being on par with a visit to Disneyland. In the next four years, more than 4,500 malls and shopping centers would be built in America’s growing suburbs.
Salem, which had long been a hub for shoppers north of Boston saw many downtown businesses relocate to Peabody with the opening of the North Shore Shopping Center in 1958. Salem had just completed the decade-long construction of a new railroad tunnel under Washington Street which had caused traffic congestion, blocked businesses, and alienated shoppers from the area. Within just a few years, Salem’s once thriving shopping scene was eroding.
In 1962, Salem Mayor Francis X. Collins created the Salem Redevelopment Authority (SRA) to secure federal grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which since 1949 had underwritten funding for the purpose of modernizing and improving aging infrastructure. HUD provided the authority to seize land through eminent domain and offered financing for projects but left the final designs to the individual municipalities. For this, the SRA hired a firm, Blair and Stein Associates to conduct architectural studies of downtown, which proposed a Master Plan that favored preservation and restoration. 112 of the buildings surveyed were described as historically significant and thirteen were highlighted as exceptional.
Planning Services Group of Cambridge was hired to carry out the proposal created by Blair and Stein and to secure thirty-nine acres in Salem’s downtown for the project, then titled Heritage Plaza East. The SRA mapped out an area of downtown between Derby and Bridge streets with an assessed value of nearly $8 million and submitted it to HUD.
As the project got underway, it increasingly grew in favor of demolition and focused on the construction of new shopping centers, parking garages, and street redesign which would funnel visitors into downtown Salem. The project was subsequently met with opposition from residents, including 250 business owners. Historic Salem, Inc. sponsored open forums with residents and the SRA to discuss other options. At the time, it was estimated that 119 out of 151 structures in the outlined area would be razed and that between 80% and 90% of Salem’s downtown would be affected by the project.
The plan included a new four-lane loop that would channel traffic around downtown by widening St. Peter Street and removing the Japanese Garden and outbuildings belonging to the Peabody Museum on Essex Street. In 1965, the museum was attracting 75,000 visitors per year, including students from 375 schools throughout New England. The museum argued that the project would eliminate any possible future expansions and hired a consultant to draft alternate plans. At one time, a $750,000 traffic tunnel under the museum was suggested but it was decided that the vibrations would be detrimental to the museum’s collections.
The SRA’s plans were halted for months while the Peabody Museum waged a public campaign against the project and sought Historic Landmark status from the Department of Interior. That designation was granted in 1966. Meanwhile, architecture critic and writer, Ada Louise Huxtable became aware of the issue while summering in nearby Marblehead. Huxtable submitted a special report to the New York Times in 1965, chronicling Salem’s struggle with Urban Renewal. Huxtable was especially concerned about the lack of “a sympathetic setting” for the remaining historic structures when surrounded by new construction. The outside media attention is credited with pressuring the SRA to forgo their plan for a four-lane highway through downtown.
A new plan received the endorsement of a panel of federal representatives who visited Salem in April 1966, making Salem the first historically significant city to be inspected under the urban renewal program. The panelists urged the SRA to preserve early commercial blocks and outlying neighborhoods, such as Salem Common and the McIntire District.
By 1967, residents collected signatures for the business district to be restored similarly to Colonial Williamsburg and attempted to get the project put on the November ballot. Salem had lost more than $1 million in taxes downtown in just five years and the SRA and City Council were eager for change. Many of Salem’s 19th century storefronts were now long vacant and plans pushed for them to be demolished in favor of a modern shopping area with parking.
Despite opposition, the project continued to seek approval and funding, which it received from HUD in April 1968. Demolition began in 1969 with the razing of 25 buildings. Work was brought to a standstill when Bessie Munroe refused to leave her c. 1811 home at 7 Ash Street. Munroe was well into her 80s and the city agreed to let her remain in her home while demolition continued elsewhere.
Samuel E. Zoll replaced Francis X. Collins as Mayor in January 1970. Zoll had largely campaigned on addressing the discontent surrounding Heritage Plaza East and restructuring the SRA. By 1971, the project had moved away from demolition in favor of more historically sensitive renovation, primarily using façade easements to restore buildings instead of obtaining them through eminent domain.
At the time of Bessie Munroe’s death in 1975, the SRA’s approach to Urban Renewal had completely shifted. Ada Louise Huxtable published two follow up articles in the New York Times, including one titled “How Salem Saved Itself from Urban Renewal.” Huxtable wrote “Today, many of the doomed buildings still stand and have been renovated…a past sensitively linked to the present and future for a city of quality rather than a sterilized non-place. Salem has been saved from a fate worse than renewal for genuine revitalization.” Bessie Munroe’s former home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The SRA still actively oversees commercial design in Salem’s downtown.
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Digitized Archives
Urban Renewal Photographs and Ephemera
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