Shetland Park celebrates 50 years

SALEM — Robert Lappin may not have had an actual epiphany in the early 1980s, but he certainly made an important discovery. After owning Shetland Park for more than two decades, he decided to install a large window in his office to get a better view of the harbor, the fishing and commercial boats, and the little shops at Pickering Wharf.

That light-bulb moment was an important milestone in the history of Shetland Park, a sprawling complex of old factory buildings on the waterfront that Lappin bought in 1958 — 50 years ago this fall.

The former Pequot Mills, home to the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Co., was an industrial facility when Lappin acquired it. It had about a dozen manufacturers and businesses, but mostly empty buildings.

The installation of picture windows with scenic views was the start of Shetland Park's transformation from an industrial to an office park. Private companies and public agencies came to look, saw the view and stayed.

Today, Shetland Park has 85 tenants ranging from Perkin-Elmer, a global technology firm, to Salem Academy Charter School and a state juvenile court. It is the city's second-highest taxpayer, has an assessed value of $29 million and may be worth a lot more. Not bad when you consider Lappin bought the place for $1 million.

Although Shetland Park may be a landmark, its owner keeps a relatively low profile in the city, outside of his major involvement in Jewish institutions and causes. He runs the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation from the same little green office building near the Congress Street bridge. The charity hands out about $1.5 million every year.

Most people would not recognize the elderly man with the white ponytail if he passed them on the street.

At 86, Lappin spends part of the year in Florida and, when back on the North Shore, stays out of the limelight. People may know the name only from the city park at the corner of Essex and Washington streets dedicated to his parents. Lappin Park gained its own notoriety a few years ago when the cable network TV Land erected a statue there of the old television show "Bewitched."

That little park, in a way, also tells the story of a family that rose, almost literally, from rags to riches. Lappin's father came here from Jerusalem in 1910 and worked as a peddler, going door to door with a pack on his back. He later graduated to a horse and buggy, selling his wares in Salem and beyond.

"He accumulated some money, which was under the mattress in 1914," Lappin said, referring to the year of the great Salem fire that wiped out much of the downtown. "He lost it all. ... It was not inconsiderable. He had done well."

The senior Lappin, a Talmudic scholar, continued to work hard and went on to buy property and build houses and apartment buildings. In fact, he built a house on Lafayette Street for his family that still stands today. It was not far from Horace Mann School, which his son, Robert Israel Lappin, attended.

"That name was a problem for me when I was a little kid," Lappin said. "When I went to Horace Mann Training School, my name revealed me as Jewish. I took a lot of beatings."

At the age of 6, Lappin had a real epiphany. He decided to stop running and stand his ground. The beatings stopped.

"I decided at that point in my life I would never let anybody hit me without hitting them back," he said.

In some ways, Lappin has followed his father's footsteps, working hard and acquiring property, but he also has carved out his own American success story.

He went to Dartmouth College and served in the Navy during World War II, as an electronics officer.

"I'm not a hero," he said, "but my ship was in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa."

He had planned to become a doctor, but everything changed when he met Mimi, his wife of 62 years. He went to work for her father's manufacturing business, eventually becoming president of the Signal Manufacturing Co. of Lynn.

When the company outgrew its Lynn building, Lappin bought the Naumkeag property and moved to Salem, his old hometown.

In 1983, after a quarter-century at Shetland Park, he began installing windows. It was a daring move, considering a business survey he commissioned advised against it.

"The survey essentially said there was not a sufficient market to support significant office space in Salem, but my gut told me otherwise," he said. "I felt they had given insufficient weight to the attractiveness of the views."

Lappin, a slight, soft-spoken man, gave a lot of credit for the success of Shetland Park to the bankers who loaned money to a 36-year-old and to the many employees who have stuck by him, some for decades.

This sprawling waterfront complex has always had a special place in his heart. It was the first large industrial site he bought and was followed by acquisitions in the Midwest and Canada. He has sold the others, but somehow can't let this one go.

"I love this property," he said. "I love coming to work every day. I go by my old house where I grew up, I go by Horace Mann Training School. It just feels good."

Private businesses: PerkinElmer, Crystal Systems, McCue Corp., Rose Displays, CBS Outernet

Public agencies: Department of Transitional Assistance, Department of Social Services, Department of Revenue, Juvenile Court, Southern Essex Registry of Deeds

Owner Robert Lappin named it for Shetland Road in Marblehead, where he built a home and used to live.

Photos

Robert Lappin, owner of Shetland Park, bought the property 50 years ago and has turned it into a successful enterprise. From his office in a small colonial building in the front of the park, he has seen Salem's waterfront change over the years. Staff Photographer