Passages of the Past

Hello this is Carly Dwyer, founder and Creative Director of Intramersive Media LLC. We wanted to thank you for joining us today in exploring 500 years of communities that have formed the neighborhood in which you stand. We want to take a moment to give you some tips and heads up so that you can get your full enjoyment out of this tour. This tour was made possible by a grant from the Salem Cultural Council and the House of Seven Gables. Please support these amazing organizations who are keeping communities, art and culture alive.

This tour can be experienced on your own time. You can start and stop as you choose. We encourage you to stop and enjoy the shops and restaurants you will encounter along the way, all of these businesses are a part of this community and your patronage becomes a part of the story of the future of this neighborhood.

Please respect the private properties that are on this tour, while the businesses appreciate your company, not all the private citizens will. Please stay on the sidewalk when possible and keep an eye on traffic if traversing a narrow street.

Stay alert of your surroundings. We have designed an audio experience to be immersive but please please please stay aware of crossings, traffic and even footing. This neighborhood has been around for hundreds of years, sidewalks and streets are not always level and narrow driveways might be hard for a motorist to see you if they are backing out.

Check the text box in the app! We provide information about the people and languages you’re hearing and more information and follow up reading you can do if something piques your interest.

We hope you enjoy this immersive cultural experience and please check out our website for more ways to interact and play.

If you have any questions concerns or comments on this tour or the app please email us at info@intramersive.com

John Turner is played by Michael Barry

The seaside mansion known as The House of the Seven Gables was built in 1668 for Captain John Turner I, the head of one of the most successful maritime families in the New England colonies. The industriousness of Turner and his descendants in the fishing, trading, and mercantile businesses came to define the economy of Puritan New England and began New England’s maritime tradition.

The original part of the home featured a two-over-two floor plan around a large, central chimney. This was typical first period dwellings. His success in business allowed him to construct two additions before his death in 1680, including the great ell that featured grand proportions, high ceilings, and enormous windows.

John Turner II modernized the décor of the home in the Georgian style. Wood paneling was added to the walls of the Parlor, Great Chamber, and Dining Room Chamber. Many of the 17th century beams were cased in wood. All of the work was painted in the most modern of palettes. Today, these enhancements are considered some of the finest examples of the high-style Georgian paneling. From 7gables.org

Joan Sullivan is played by Arielle Yoder Mrs. Turner is played by Arielle Kaplan

Joan Sullivan was an Irish indentured servant who was briefly indentured to the Turner family, but at some point before 1681, her certificate of indenture was transferred to Thomas Maule, a Quaker who lived on the Northside of Salem, on Essex St. In November of 1681, she became one of the first indentured servants to bring a civil suit of abuse against a master. Typically, certificates of indenture last for a period of 7 to 10 years, and there are several recorded cases of abuse of this system, that would often result in an indefinite period of indenture, that would leave the contractee indebted to the previous contract holder, and therefore helpless to escape a system of servitude. Joan most likely came from County Cork or County Kerry in the far southwest of Ireland. Before Joan’s certificate of indenture was sold to Thomas Maule, she worked in the household of Captain John Turner, and his wife Elizabeth Roberts Turner, and we now know this home as the House of the Seven Gables. Historians surmise that Joan was probably transferred to Maule sometime either immediately before or after the death of John Turner in 1680. Her contract was transferred for 9 pennies, the approximate price for a pound of bacon in 1660. She took her case to the tavern of Bartholomew Gedney, a wharf owner and town magistrate of Salem, who would later go on to serve on the Court of Oyer and Terminer during the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. Joan’s case was ultimately dismissed, and Maule was only charged with breaking the Sabbath for making Joan work on Sundays. The abuse charges were dismissed, though Maule himself would have several run-ins with the court later in his life. Joan stands as a testament to the resilience of a young woman with no help in this colonized nation, who used the court system and took a stand against an instance of patriarchal abuse. Though she was discredited in court, and did not see any kind of justice, her story is a reminder of the struggles of many who built the neighborhood you now stand in, and admire.

Caroline Emmerton is played by Arielle Kaplan

From 7gables.org Caroline Osgood Emmerton was born on April 21, 1866 in Salem, Mass. Emmerton grew up in a city that was transitioning from its past as a major shipping port to its future as a manufacturing center for both textiles and the leather industry. George Emmerton, Caroline’s father, worked in the growing chemical industry. The Salem that Caroline grew up in was the Salem of “The Gilded Age,” when advances in machinery led to economic growth, waves of immigration, and tension around class inequality. These trends influenced Emmerton’s career choice later in life. Emmerton’s family valued community service. Her grandfather, Captain John Bertram, gave $25,000 in 1873 to build Salem Hospital. His heirs donated his mansion on Essex Street to Salem to be the public library. Her mother, Jennie Bertram Emmerton, was well known for her charitable work with the Salem Society for Higher Education for Women and the Old Ladies’ Home. When Jennie Emmerton died in 1912, her obituary read: “She was the richest woman in Salem, well known for her charitable disposition and ever ready to extend a helping hand to those who were desirous of helping themselves, and to those who were unable to help themselves.”

Joan Sullivan is played by Arielle Yoder

For much of the colonial period in 17th century Massachusetts and elsewhere in the colonies, indentured servitude was widespread. So widespread in fact, that anywhere between one-half and two-thirds of European immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies between 1630 and the American Revolution came under indenture contracts at some point. This was usually an agreed-upon term of employment to pay for passage to the colonies, and was used to encourage population in various places. If the indenture was a teen or younger, the certificate would be signed by a parent, usually a father. Certificates of indenture typically lasted between 3 and 7 years on average, but could be extended due to instances such as accrued debt, increase in needs, or truancy if an indentured servant ran away. People who were prisoners were often given the option of signing an indenture contract and being shipped to the colonies to avoid jail time, and more often than not, took the offer. The difference, however, is that an indenture contract would eventually end, and the indentured person would receive “freedom dues,” and become a free member of society. This is what differentiates the system of the African slave trade from the lives of indentured servants like Joan Sullivan. The indenture system started to die off toward the end of the 17th century, and by 1775, this economic system would start to give way in favor of the African slave trade.

Mariner is played by Deity Dionysus Joan Sullivan is played by Arielle Yoder

In the late 17th century, and onward toward the American Revolution, due to changes in the English colonies, and differing labor demands, the system of indentured servitude declined. This increased the demand for enslaved African labor, thus creating a new system of laws needed to uphold a system of involuntary servitude. In 1662, a European law was adopted in the Virginia House of Burgesses, that quickly spread into use throughout the colonies. Partus sequitur ventrem, often abbreviated as partus, was a legal doctrine that dictated that the status of the mother would fall to the child. In short, children born to enslaved mothers would themselves be enslaved at birth. Partus was the beginning of what would become the system institutionalized chattel slavery that lasted centuries in the Americas. On February 28, 1638, governor John Winthrop wrote about a ship coming in from Bermuda that had enslaved Africans on board. According to the letter, “Mr. Pierce, in the Salem ship, the Desire, returned from the West Indies after 7 months. He … brought some cotton, and tobacco, and Negroes.” While this was probably not the first ship to bring enslaved Africans to Massachusetts Bay Colony, this is the first documented case. While the system of partus was passed in 1662, Massachusetts Bay Colony itself became the first English mainland colony to make slavery legal in 1641. For more on the impact of the African slave trade on Massachusetts, please visit: https://www.massmoments.org/moment-details/first-slaves-arrive-in-massachusetts.html

Mariner is played by Deity Dionysus

The house described in this scene is located at 54 Essex St. It was built circa 1805 as the shop of shipmaster (meaning Captain) Daniel Sage. Sage came to Salem in the 1780s from Greenock, Scotland (his home is located next to the shop, at 52 Essex St., purchased in 1800) and made a life for himself as a mariner. He would later become a member of the East India Marine Society, and the Essex Lodge of Masons. The Derby St. neighborhood saw many mariners, workers, and people who made a life on the waterfront build homes around where you now stand. For more information on Daniel Sage, and the life of Salem’s seafaring folk, visit: https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/28828/archive/files/48acd6f2fb1e028bb2055937d4905f2c.pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAI3ATG3OSQLO5HGKA&Expires=1597276800&Signature=RjFuOUQTam1Bpgo4K6iJn5m5iP8%3D

Mariner is played by Deity Dionysus

By 1790, free blacks made up 2% of Salem’s population, and many took up work as sailors, and workers on the waterfront. Many black sailors elsewhere in Massachusetts went on to have prominent careers in maritime trade. For more information visit: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/mus/pdfs/From-Slavery-to-Freedom-African-Americans-and-Maritime-History.pdf

Mariner is played by Deity Dionysus

The full history of the Salem Witch Trials is a complicated one, that cannot be condensed and explained fully in a short story format. This was a tragic event in the history of Salem, and to treat it with proper due and respect, we urge you to seek out more information in town, by visiting the Essex National Heritage Area site at the Salem Visitor’s Center, where you can see an informative film on the trials, with information from respected historians on the subject. You may also wish to stop and pay respects at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, dedicated in 1992, and located on the outside of the Charter St. cemetery, in the downtown neighborhood. Please note, that the cemetery is off-limits after dusk, and visiting time may be limited depending on tour group capacities and city ordinances. Please be respectful, and obey City of Salem laws accordingly For more information, and access to primary source material on the Salem Witch Trials, visit http://salem.lib.virginia.edu/home.html

For more history on the Daniels House, visit their website here: https://www.danielshousesalem.com/about

Mariner played by Deity Dionysus Herman Tyburc played by Michael Barry

While smaller than many other Polish communities in major cities in the U.S., Salem’s Polish community has contributed to the fabric of the Derby St. neighborhood for hundreds of years. As you walk down this path, you may notice the Polish American Citizens Club on your left, at 9 Daniels St., which became a meeting place, and organizing front for Polish workers starting in 1928, when the PACC moved its headquarters to the brick building you see now. For more information on Salem’s Polish community, the St. Joseph Society, and Herman Tyburc, visit https://www.nps.gov/sama/learn/historyculture/polish.htm

Herman Tyburc played by Michael Barry

For more about the involvement of the Polish community, and others in the industrial development of Salem, you can read “In the Heart of Polish Salem: An Ethnohistorical Study of St. Joseph’s Hall and Its Neighborhood” by Cathy Stanton, PhD., and Jane Becker, PhD. here: https://www.nps.gov/sama/learn/historyculture/upload/sama-rpt-small.pdf

Polish Woman played by Arielle Kaplan

We encourage you to take a look at the text panels in the windows of St. Joseph’s Hall, while you listen to the story of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish hero who aided in the Battle of Saratoga and other military action during the American Revolution, and from whom the street across from you gets its namesake. While gazing at the windows, you can see how the St. Joseph Society, and the hall before you contributed greatly to community building for Polish people living in Salem for generations.

Mariner played by Deity Dionysus

For more information on the East India Goods Store and the types of things making their way to Salem as a result of maritime trade, carefully cross the street, to read the text panel facing the building!

Mariner played by Deity Dionysus

Salem has done work over the years to expand its understanding of the impact of slavery on the town, as well as continuing the work to situate Salem’s free black community in its history and spaces. In 1998, with the help of the National Park Service, local historians started a pamphlet of information speaking on the work of famed abolitionists from Salem, who had an impact on local history. If you are interested in learning more about some sites around town that explore Salem’s Black History, you can see the original pamphlet here: http://npshistory.com/brochures/sama/african-american-heritage-sites-2003.pdf For more information on the Salem Women’s Anti-Slavery Society, and Sarah Parker Remond, visit here: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/female-anti-slavery-society-salem-massachusetts-1832-1866/ and here: https://www.salemdaughtersofdarkness.com/post/seven-badass-women-of-salem-sarah-parker-remond

Mariner played by Deity Dionysus

In 1741, Salem, along with a few other Massachusetts towns, started allowing enslaved and free blacks to gather together once a year and elect their own Black Governor, who would act as a judge, mediator, and liaison, and who would speak on behalf of the black community. This tradition carried on for generations, and is widely known as the first occurrence of voting rights for blacks in the United States. In 1885, the picnic became more of a community/church gathering, and was permanently moved to the Salem Willows Park. Now called the Black Picnic, this gathering is still honored and held every year in Salem.

Polish Worker is played by Michael Barry

Adelard Gagnon is one of many who remembered the Salem Fire of 1914, which destroyed 1,376 buildings, and made over 18,000 people homeless or jobless. Because the Pequot Mill, and other buildings owned by the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company were destroyed, meaning that the city’s biggest employer was in ruin, it became the impetus for the forming of the United States Employment Service. For more information on the impact of the Great Salem Fire on both the Gagnon family, and Salem as a whole, visit here: https://morningsonmaplestreet.com/2014/12/18/adelard-gagnon/ and here: https://phillipslibrarycollections.pem.org/digital/collection/p15928coll2

Mary Spencer is played by Arielle Kaplan

From the Ye Olde Pepper Companie website: Early in the 19th century an English family, Spencer by name, sailed for this country. On the passage they lost all their worldly goods in a shipwreck and the family arrived in Salem in a rather destitute condition. They took up a residence in North Salem, on Buffum Street, and such were their privations that their neighbors determined to offer assistance. It became known that Mrs. Spencer was a candy maker, so a barrel of sugar was donated. It was this barrel of sugar which laid the foundations of the well-known ‘Salem Gibralter’ business.

There is no need to say “What’s in a name?” No other name would ever apply to these sweet memories of our childhood. Their fame has gone forth and people come from far and near to buy these delightful little dainties, done up so mysteriously.

When one is enjoying the purity and delicious flavor of this confection it is hard to realize that they are made and wrapped in exactly the same way as sold by Mrs. Spencer from a pail, on the steps of the Old First Church, over 200 years ago. Gibralters at once became very popular and the storekeepers placarded their windows with their name. A prosperous business was established and so rapidly increased that Mrs. Spencer bought a wagon from which to peddle her wares, and might be seen driving this quaint outfit, a picture of which is reproduced here, through the streets of Salem and surrounding towns. Isn’t it amazing that a woman in that day could start and own a business, all starting with a piece of candy. Today the Peabody Essex Museum has custody of her wagon and the firkins she used to deliver her sweets.The Gibralter needed not the insignia of nobility to make them popular is very true, for their fame went out so broadly that they were known from Salem to the Far East, China, India, the East Indies and Africa. In the days of Salem’s commercial prosperity her sea-captains would not think of making a voyage without a case of Salem Gibralters. Their purity is proved as they keep fresh in all climates.After Mrs. Spencer’s death in 1835 her son Thomas Spencer continued the business for a short while, and the surprise was very general when people learned one day that Thomas had fallen heir to a fortune and Title in England. He disposed of his business to a local confectioner from Salem, John Pepper. After proper arrangements concluded Thomas would leave for England with all his household goods, taking with him the body of his mother. That they had been expecting this event there is no doubt, as the body of his mother was embalmed and placed in a metallic casket, a thing so unusual then that it caused one old gentleman to remark, “I guess she will never hear Gabriel’s trumpet through that thing.”

Joan Sullivan is played by Arielle Yoder

From the House of Seven Gables website: Emmerton used proceeds from museum visitors to fund The House of the Seven Gables Settlement Association. In the early 20th century, the settlement house movement was seen as the progressive method to help newly arriving immigrant families adapt to life in their new cities. Settlement houses offered a variety of services including classes, medical care, and recreational opportunities.

In Salem, the first settlement house was run by the YMCA. By 1908, the YMCA settlement house was located in the Seaman’s Bethel at the bottom of Turner Street where The Gables’ seaside lawn is today. The Bethel was a church for sailors associated with the Young Men’s Bethel Society that formed in the 1820s. In 1908, Emmerton assumed responsibility for the settlement house. She said the offerings included, “sewing…and some of the other handicrafts, dancing and gymnasium work.”

Emmerton expanded the programs and services of the settlement house to the point that they exceeded the capacity of the Seaman’s Bethel. When Emmerton learned that the neighboring Turner-Ingersoll Mansion was up for sale, she purchased it as the settlement’s practical and collective center.

Emmerton wrote of her choice: “If, as is generally conceded, the settlements do the best Americanization work, should not this settlement excel whose home is the ancient House of Seven Gables, the foundations of which were laid by the first immigrants who came here long ago, strangers in a strange land?”

Residents in the surrounding Derby Street neighborhood were the primary beneficiaries of the settlement house. The area was an enclave for Eastern European immigrants, especially from Poland and Russia. Other communities served by Emmerton’s work included the Irish, Italian, Syrian, and African. https://7gables.org/

Polish Laborer is played by Arielle Yoder

From the House of Seven Gables website: How does The House of the Seven Gables, this icon of American culture, leverage its power to do good? Through stimulating, thoughtful conversations on Immigration and Immigration reform; through innovative programming developed to find and tell new stories, such as Caribbean Connections, a summer enrichment program for elementary school students; through classes that serve adult students striving to learn English and acquire citizenship, preparing them for oral interviews and supporting their naturalization applications; through partnerships with organizations that provide literacy-building programming to preschoolers and their mothers, immigrant students and their families, and other at-risk youth.

The unbounded vision our founder, Caroline Emmerton, carries a remarkable, generative force: it continually inspires us to dig deep into community, reach out to partners, and magnify good. https://7gables.org/