Red line to ... everywhere? Salem's Heritage Trail leads pretty much where anyone wants

By Chris Cassidy
Staff writer

June 11, 2008 12:59 am

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SALEM — The city's Heritage Trail isn't supposed to run all the way up to the front entrance of The Salem Witch Museum. So why is there a red line guiding tourists there?

"We paint it every year," said Biff Michaud, who owns the popular tourist attraction.

That's right — just before sunrise on a Sunday morning each year, a line-painting crew hired by the museum arrives near the Roger Conant statue and paints its very own extension of the Heritage Trail.

This rogue red line guides tourists across a green crosswalk and up a sidewalk — right to the entrance of the museum.

You won't find it on the city's official visitors map — because it's not official — but to the typical tourist, it looks like part of the Heritage Trail.

In a city where nearly all downtown buildings have a quirky story behind them, so, too, does the ubiquitous red stripe that leads thousands of visitors past them every summer.

Just look at Pickering Wharf. A few months ago, a red line suddenly sprang up, guiding walkers past shops and restaurants all along the wharf. The city didn't paint it, and it doesn't appear on the official visitors map.

But it really is part of the Heritage Trail, merchants say.

Because the area is private property, the city declined to extend the line there, so shop owners organized the line-painting themselves. Now, the area is officially part of the Heritage Trail.

Well, sort of.

Somewhere in the process, there was a mix-up. When the visitors guide went to print, Pickering Wharf's new line was somehow left off the map.

"It was purely accidental," said Kate Fox, executive director of Destination Salem. "Next year that will be corrected."

"We're not part of the fake red line," said Dianne Saia, the owner of Quint Essentials, a shop on Pickering Wharf. "We're really part of the red line."

Of course, this being Salem, the Heritage Trail has sparked political controversy.

Michaud said his museum was originally part of the Heritage Trail until Mayor Stan Usovicz came into office.

"If there's anybody who has a gripe, it's me," Michaud said. "Year after year, we've had to paint across that green crosswalk. During the Usovicz debacle, they painted us out of the red line. I said, 'I'm not going to fight with you,' so I painted it myself. ... We are the busiest front door in the entire 34 cities and towns in the county. We make tourism happen in Salem, and you don't paint the red line to our door?"

But the city never gerrymandered the red line, one Usovicz defender said.

"The Heritage Trail as punishment?" wondered attorney Jim Gilbert, the city solicitor under Usovicz. "There was no conspiracy to knock the Witch Museum off the Heritage Trail."

Gilbert knows a few things about being ousted from the Heritage Trail. His former law office on Front Street used to sit just a few feet from the red line. Then one day, shop owners asked the city's planning office to move the line across the street to bring in more foot traffic. So crews "erased" the existing line by painting over it with a thick coat of black paint.

"We managed to get over it," Gilbert said.

Ironically, the building where Gilbert worked actually has some historical significance — it was the old police station until the department moved to Central Street in 1914.

So in some ways, the term "Heritage Trail" may be misleading. The trail doesn't enter Salem Common anymore, but it was recently extended down to Blaney Street to accommodate Salem Ferry passengers. And city officials plan to bring it to the MBTA commuter rail station soon.

"It really has evolved into the red line moreso than the Heritage Trail," Fox said.

"I sort of consider it now a Heritage Trail Plus," said Lynn Duncan, the city planner. "But we're not painting the whole city red."

Then again, it's hard to find anything in this 382-year-old-downtown without a story.

"It doesn't matter where the line goes," Gilbert said. "It's going to lead to a historic spot."

Staff writer Chris Cassidy can be reached at ccassidy@salemnews.com.

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