Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1
Introduction

Chapter 2
Urban Development

Chapter 3
Maritime Activity

Chapter 4
Agriculture

Chapter 5
Industry

Chapter 6
Transportation

Chapter 7
Education

Chapter 8
Religion

Chapter 9
Social/Cultural

Chapter 10
Recommendations

Appendix 1
Patterned Brick Houses

Appendix 2
Stack Houses

Appendix 3
Existing Documentation

Bibliography

SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY and the DELAWARE BAY Historic Themes and Resources within the New Jersey Coastal Heritage Trail Route

City of Salem

The City of Salem (New Salem), oldest of the three major municipalities, was established by John Fenwick in 1676, and despite his legacy of problems, it prospered as a successful river port through the nineteenth century. One remaining symbol of its early government is the reworked Old Salem County Court house at Broadway and Market streets (1735, 1817, 1908), a two-and-one-half story square brick block laid up in Flemish bond. Salem's eighteenth century Georgian dwellings reflect its foundling Quaker traditions, though the frequency of patterned brick work here is limited to occasional Flemish-bond coursing and dated gable ends. A stunning example of later Queen Anne architecture is found in the Salem Municipal Building (Fig. 6), with its irregular jumble of fish-scale shingles, scrolls, dormers, and elaborate iron weather vanes. The building was moved to its present site from West Broadway at the end of Market Street where New Market Street now opens on to Broadway.

Figure 6. Salem Municipal Building (1899)—with contrasting red brick, stone, and white trim—is exemplary Queen Anne styling.

Figure 7. City of Salem, Atlas, 1875. (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

Among the better known Georgian residences are the John Worledge House (1727), with an elaborate horizontal zigzag pattern on the east end, and the Alexander Grant House (1721). The Grant House is among the approximately seventy-six structures included in the National Register of Historic Places's "Market Street Historic District," which suffers little or no intrusion by twentieth-century structures (Fig. 8). Most of these buildings are two-and-one-half or three-story brick houses facing onto Market Street, the historic commercial thoroughfare. The prosperity of the Federal era is represented by formal interiors and exteriors, classical trim, fanlights and fireplaces. Later Greek and Gothic Revival styles are depicted by the use of marble for porch and window trim and gougework in the architraves. The texture of the wealthy Italianate homes extends onto the street by elaborate cast-iron fencing that is produced locally, as in the William Sharp House (1862), for instance (Fig. 9). The housing is punctuated by alleys that once led to the livery stables behind Market Street and the wharves at water's edge.

Figure 8. View of West Broadway, Salem.

Figure 9. William Sharp House (1862), on Market Street, has 19th-century cast-iron fencing found throughout Salem.

Not all of Salem's deserving resources are included in the historic district. Along the north and south sides of Route 49 there are fine examples of Georgian rowhouses, as well as Victorian and Gothic Revival structures. The Side streets east of Market Street are lined with examples of two-family double houses, which probably served as worker or middle-class housing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Their form and features vary: steeply pitched roofs with center gables, or paired gables with decorated vergeboards, pointed-arch windows, or a one-story porch. The Victorian-influenced buildings have one- or two-story bay windows, a mansard or cross-gable roof, and spindlework on the cross gables and porches.

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Last Modified: Mon, Mar 14 2005 10:00:00 pm PDT
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