SALEM — In 1930, 275 markers were installed around the state to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Six were installed around Salem.
Today, they’re all missing.
“Of all the towns, you’d think Salem — steeped in history — would have been more mindful of them, and there is some real curiosity,” said Michael DiGregorio, a Revere resident who began researching the markers several years ago. “It really is difficult trying to get a read on any of these markers.”
Salem isn’t the only place with missing markers. The 300-pound iron sign marking the home of accused witch George Jacobs in Danvers has vanished. Prides Crossing in Beverly has lost its marker, too.
In Salem, markers for the Witch Jail, the Witch House and even Simon Bradstreet’s marker in front of the Phillips Library are nowhere to be seen. Hugh Peter, an English preacher who died in 1660, had his own sign. There were two more on Routes 1A and 107.
“By my count, there are 137 originals that still exist today and 138 missing,” DiGregorio said. “So almost exactly half of them are just ... gone.”
DiGregorio said his interest in the markers was sparked several years ago while tending to a sick relative in Chelsea. He passed the city’s Bellingham-Cary House repeatedly. “We must have driven by it 100 times,” he said.
Of course, it had a large, iron plate overlooking the road telling the centuries-old story of the property. Across the top of the marker, the years 1630 and 1930 surrounded a rendering of the state’s seal.
“So I started doing research and realized there were originally 275 of them,” DiGregorio said. “It sort of became a road-trip hobby at first, driving around to see how many were still existing.”
The work was informed by the original card system the state used to record what the signs said and where they were installed. For example, the card for sign number 15 in District 5 was installed on Route 107 in Salem, about 1,000 feet from an artillery camp. The sign was for an “Indian region called Naumkeag,” the same name as the original Salem settlement.
As he traveled around, DiGregorio discovered that 93 of the 275 signs are missing. There are 32 “early replicas” made of a different material years or decades later, and 13 more that are “modern replicas” made of wood or sheet aluminum.
Of the 137 originals that still exist, 13 are in storage with state or local historical groups, DiGregorio noted. The remaining 124 are in their original locations.
“It has been kind of a treasure hunt almost, driving around and trying to find them,” DiGregorio said. “A lot of them have been moved.”
Local discovery
The project turned heads locally once DiGregorio brought his findings about Salem to a private group of history enthusiasts on Facebook. The thread quickly picked up traction as Salemites started speculating on what happened to the signs, including one note from local historian Jim McAllister.
“I remember seeing the Downing Farm sign (from Peabody) in Ferris’ auto junkyard,” McAllister wrote.
Speaking this week, McAllister said he saw it at the Ferris Auto site in Salem on the North River years ago.
“If you looked at Ferris’, to the right of their office building, there was the Downing sign, the Downing Farm one just standing up like it was the site of Downing Farm,” McAllister said.
DiGregorio said he believes the sign has been recovered and is being stored on Peabody city property.
“I have a count of 13 signs that are in storage by various municipalities and cities, historical societies and what have you,” he said. “It’s good to know they’re being stored rather than being scrapped.”
Of course, that begs the question of how Downing Farm’s sign ended up in Salem.
Dan Doucette, Peabody’s purchasing agent and a local historian, said he last remembers seeing the sign in the early 1980s. It marked the former site of Downing Farm, a portion of which was once farmed by John Proctor, a victim of the Salem Witchcraft hysteria.
“I remember the marker in the Square,” Doucette said. “I’m going back a ways; the geometry of the Square has changed several times ... the movement of the monument, the plaza being constructed, etc.”
It’s possible, Doucette speculated, that the sign was lost during a project in the Square nearly 40 years ago. If Peabody has it back, he said, he’s not aware of it.
After this story appeared in The Salem News, Curt Bellavance, Peabody's community development director, called to say the city does have the Downing Farm marker in Public Services storage.
"We talked to the state probably... I want to say at least a year ago," Bellavance said. "They asked us — because it was down — what we were going to do with it."
Bellavance said the marker came down during a project in the Square, though he wasn't sure when that happened. The city plans to put it back up later this year.
In Salem, the Simon Bradstreet sign that used to stand in front of Plummer Hall can be seen in photos as late as 1992. But that area, too, has undergone major construction, dating back to construction of the Armory Park next door in 2002.
Historic value
Whether the signs are lost or stolen, McAllister said they have historic value, but not because they tell tourists about history.
“These things have been around for so long that they become history themselves,” he said. “It’s like Pioneer Village. Pioneer Village was really important at the time that it was built historically. It didn’t have historic importance at the time, but all of a sudden, after it has been there for 50 years, it has a history itself.”
The question about the markers reminded McAllister of another situation exclusive to Salem: a project from Historic Salem Inc. in the 1970s “to do these (different) historical markers around town.”
Many can be found today at places such as Salem Willows and Greenlawn Cemetery, he said, but a lot of them are missing.
“Those things now ... I say, where are those? They were fantastic,” McAllister said. “I remember a lot of people who used to live here and would be waiting to cross Riley Plaza. They’d be sitting there and say, ‘Oh, wow. There used to be water here. Did you know that?’”
Contact Salem reporter Dustin Luca at 978-338-2523 or DLuca@salemnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/dustinluca or on Twitter @DustinLucaSN.
Editor's note: This story has been updated since its original publication. The city of Peabody has the tercentenary marker for Downing Farm and plans to install it later this year.
