Salem, Connecticut
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Salem, Connecticut | ||
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Town of Salem | ||
FIPS code 09-66210 | | |
GNIS feature ID | 0213499 | |
Website | www |
Salem is a
History
Pre-incorporation
The area was originally inhabited by the
Because of the remote location of these settlements and the considerable distance to
1819 to the present
Salem was incorporated as a town in 1819 from lands of Colchester, Lyme, and Montville.[2] The rocky and craggy land that constituted much of the town kept the population low and new settlement at a minimum. Salem has always been a crossroads town; the old Hartford and New London Turnpike (now Route 85) was a toll road, traveled frequently by legislators during the winters of the 19th century when the Connecticut River was impassable. The Turnpike provided stage coach service until the 1890s.
Music Vale Seminary
Salem became a well-known location upon the founding of Oramel Whittlesey's Music Vale Seminary in 1835. Students of the school not only learned music, but also provided self-sustenance through farming, as did most Salem households at the time. Pianos were manufactured up the Hartford and New London Turnpike about two miles (3 km) north from the seminary, at the present location of the firehouse and Maple Shade General Store. The seminary burned down and was rebuilt. However, when Whittlesey died in 1867, it was the beginning of the end for the school; when it burned down again shortly thereafter, it was never rebuilt. Today, all that remains of the seminary is a barn and a state historical marker.
Early rural electrification in the United States
Salem is the site of one of the first rural electrification projects in the country, at the farm of Frederick C. Rawolle Jr. Rawolle was an engineer from New York who retired at the age of 32 after he sold to a major manufacturer the patent rights of an explosive device he had invented to fracture oil wells. His net worth at this time was approximately $50,000,000, an enormous sum for the time period. He decided to settle in the remote woods of Salem and build a farm, purchasing 2,800 acres (11 km2) of land between 1917 and 1924, completely surrounding Mountain Lake and Fairy Lake. This land, once called Paugwonk, had been jointly owned by a Niantic sachem named Sanhop, a Mohegan named Chappattoe and another kinsman from Uncas. The combined area became known as Fairy Lake Farm, located near the lake of the same name. Carr Pond, which today supplies water to the city of New London, was created by Rawolle in 1920 from Fairy Lake as a means of docking his boat near the turnpike.
Rawolle decided to generate his own electricity when he learned that bringing transmission lines to his farm from the city of New London, about 12 miles (19 km) away, would be virtually impossible. At a cost of about one million dollars, extremely expensive at the time for a single project, a hydroelectric system was completed in 1922. Airplanes flying from New York to Boston used the glimmering lights of Fairy Lake Farm as guidance. Rawolle also opened a store in New London to sell produce from the farm. This endeavor collapsed, however, when the stock market crashed in 1929 and Rawolle lost all of his money. He died in 1954; the large stone mansion he lived in at the farm is still standing at the end of Horse Pond Road, though it is abandoned.
Hiram Bingham III and IV
Hiram Bingham III, from Salem, was an adventurer, U.S. senator, and explorer who rediscovered Machu Picchu in Peru in 1911. He retrieved artifacts for Yale University, which in 2011 returned many items to Cusco, Peru, pursuant to an agreement with the Peruvian government. His son, Hiram Bingham IV, was the Vice Consul in Marseilles, France, during World War II, and rescued thousands of Jews from death at the Nazi concentration camps. Much of the Bingham family still lives in Salem and is active in town politics and local issues. Hiram IV died in 1988, and a U.S. Postal Stamp was issued in his honor on May 30, 2006. In 2011 the Simon Wiesenthal Center produced a film tribute to Hiram ("Harry") Bingham IV concerning his life-saving actions during the war.[3]
Salem today
Over the decades, Salem has slowly progressed from a small and remote farming town to a
During its early years, Salem had several schoolhouses scattered throughout town, like most New England communities of the time; one is still visible on White Birch Road. Salem School was built in 1940 near the town green as little more than a large schoolhouse. Several additions have been built since then, the most recent opening in 1994. Today, Salem School is one of the largest K–8 schools in the state, with about 600 students. Students in grades 9 through 12 attend high school in the neighboring town of East Lyme; this will be the case until at least 2039[4] , when the current co-op agreement between the two towns expires.
Salem has very little commercial and industrial development, which has not kept pace with the rapid residential growth; the "four corners" area, at the busy junction of Route 85 and Route 82, is virtually all that exists. As a result, taxes in the town are generally high.
The last operating dairy farm in Salem, near Gardner Lake, which was an official supplier of Cabot cheese, closed in 2004, though there remains a small dairy goat farm, Syman Says Farms, that produces goat milk bath and body products.
In 2006 Salem Boy Scout Troop 123 was one of the largest in the state of Connecticut. In 2006 this troop sent more scouts to summer camp than any other Connecticut troop. Most years more than 50 percent of second grade boys are enrolled in the Salem Cub Scouts.
Salem traditions
Salem is host to several long-standing traditions. Some annual traditions include:
- Memorial Day Parade
- Salem 5K Road Race
- Salem Apple Festival, held at the end of October on the town green. It features everything from apple pies to apple fritters to hot dogs with apple sauerkraut. Today we also sell pies and apple merchandise across the street from the town Green. In concert with the festival, the Salem Public Library holds its annual book sale at Salem School.
On the National Register of Historic Places
- Abel H. Fish House – Buckley Hill and Rathbun Hill Roads (added 1982)
- Salem Historic District – state Route 85 (added 1980)
- Ebenezer Tiffany House– 460 Darling Road (added 1983)
- Woodbridge Farm – 29, 30, and 90 Woodbridge Road (added 1997)
Salem Town Green
As in many
The green has changed little over the past two hundred years, the most changes being in the last two decades. Salem School has undergone many additions since its original construction in 1940. The townspeople in 2003 voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to build a new library, which opened in 2004. The new structure replaced the original library, a tiny structure donated by the Bingham family in 1928, which is now vacant. Also in 2004, construction began on expanded recreational fields.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 29.8 square miles (77.2 km2), of which 29.0 square miles (75.0 km2) is land and 0.8 square miles (2.1 km2), or 2.79%, is water.
Demographics
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
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1820 | 1,053 | — | |
1850 | 764 | — | |
1860 | 830 | 8.6% | |
1870 | 717 | −13.6% | |
1880 | 574 | −19.9% | |
1890 | 481 | −16.2% | |
1900 | 468 | −2.7% | |
1910 | 443 | −5.3% | |
1920 | 424 | −4.3% | |
1930 | 403 | −5.0% | |
1940 | 504 | 25.1% | |
1950 | 618 | 22.6% | |
1960 | 925 | 49.7% | |
1970 | 1,453 | 57.1% | |
1980 | 2,335 | 60.7% | |
1990 | 3,310 | 41.8% | |
2000 | 3,858 | 16.6% | |
2010 | 4,151 | 7.6% | |
2020 | 4,213 | 1.5% | |
U.S. Decennial Census[5] |
As of the
There were 1,358 households, out of which 43.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.9% were married couples living together, 6.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.8% were non-families. 15.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.20.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 29.4% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 32.8% from 25 to 44, 25.9% from 45 to 64, and 6.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.4 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $68,750, and the median income for a family was $75,747. Males had a median income of $48,173 versus $36,364 for females. The
Education
The Salem School District operates a Pre-K–8 school that serves the town.
Residents in grades 9 through 12 are zoned to East Lyme High School in East Lyme, which is a part of East Lyme Public Schools.
Miscellaneous
There is a Witch Meadow Lake and Witch Meadow Campground in Salem, perhaps a tongue-in-cheek homage to the infamous witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts.
Notable People
- Hiram Bingham III (1875–1956), Connecticut governor, U.S. Senator, adventurer, discovered Machu Picchu; long-time town resident
- Marseilles, France, during World War II; rescued thousands of Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust; hometown and lengthy resident[7]
- Daryl Blonder(1981–2012), television actor and author
- Samuel M. Hopkins (1772–1837), lawyer and congressman for New York; born in Salem
- Rachel Robinson (born 1922), widow of baseball great Jackie Robinson and civil rights activist; lengthy resident
References
- ^ "Census - Geography Profile: Salem town, New London County, Connecticut". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
- ^ The Connecticut Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly. Connecticut Magazine Company. 1903. p. 334.
- ^ "More than 450 supporters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center gathered for the 2011 Humanitarian Award Dinner. The Medal of Valor was awarded posthumously to Sir Winston Churchill, Hiram Bingham IV, and Pope John Paul II...." Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2011
- ^ "Salem, EL agree to new 20-year high school agreement". The Day. The Day Publishing Company. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
- ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
- ^ YouTube link to Simon Wiesenthal Center film tribute to Bingham
http://www.usmarshals.gov/readingroom/us_marshals/index.html