Letter: A historical walking tour in Salem

Opinion

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File photo The Lydia E. Pinkham Memorial was built in 1922 for Aroline Gove in memory of her mother, Lydia Pinkham, founder of a company that sold a popular patent medicine. Her daughter established a baby clinic there. File photo

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December 14, 2012

Letter: A historical walking tour in Salem

Anonymous The Salem News The Salem News Fri Dec 14, 2012, 03:30 AM EST

To the editor:

The elections are behind us, and winter is approaching. Maybe it’s time to test an offbeat walking tour in Salem. There are probably many candidates; below are some of my selections:

1. Murphy Funeral Home — site of first smallpox inoculation in the “Witch City,” in the late 1700s, 85 Federal St.

2. Putnam-Balch House (“Greymoor”), X-ray experiments in basement in late 1800s, 329 Essex St.

3. Residence of one of Brigham Young’s daughters (when she was attending college), near the corner of Charter Street and Hawthorne Boulevard, in the late 1800s (house later moved to this site).

4. Choate Memorial Statue, corner of Essex Street and Boston Street. Appearing to be an ancient lady sitting on a throne, the Choate Memorial honors a noted Salem attorney in the late 1800s.

5. Site of telephone experiments, Alexander Graham Bell’s workplace, 284-296 Essex St.

6. Bell’s call to Boston, experiment (1876) from Lyceum, 43 Church St., Salem.

7. Lydia E. Pinkham Memorial, built in 1922 at 264 New Derby St., children’s agency built on site of buildings lost in Salem fire (1914).

8. Surviving Salem apartment house, Pinkham block, 21 Lynde St., built 1911, escaped 1914 Salem fire

9. Union or Brown building, 2-4 Union St., first apartment house in Salem, built 1808-1809.

A mixture of other Salem historic sites!

Edward W. Carberg

Gloucester