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Lord & Fuller Archts.

Perspective View [of the Salem Willows Pavilion].

Boston, [ca. 1878]. Watercolor, 14” x 19.75”, plus margins, mounted on paperboard.

An original rendering for the Salem Willows Pavilion in Salem, Mass., marvelously depicting this historic summer destination for Bostonians.

Designated a city park in 1858, Salem Willows Park is a thirty-five acre oceanfront neighborhood and amusement site named after the white willow trees planted on the site around 1800 for convalescing smallpox patients at a nearby hospital. In 1877, the Naumkeag Street Railway Co. (est. 1875) extended its horse-drawn trolley line to Salem Willows and began acquiring land for a planned amusement park. This handsome perspective rendering depicting the Salem Willows Pavilion shows a two-story stick-style building at the harbor’s edge, with two observation towers and a dormer. In the foreground a trolley full of passengers approaches. A sign on the side of the trolley reads “Willows.”

Two inset images appear in the upper corners, captioned “Interior view of Dance Hall” and “Interior view of Dining Hall.” Visitors are shown on the porches and elsewhere about the building, and Baker’s Island, with it’s two lighthouses, is visible in the harbor in the background.

One of the major attractions of the trolley line, which ran every fifteen minutes from downtown Salem, was this Pavilion—a structure that housed a roller-skating rink as well as a restaurant. Opening for business in 1880, Salem Willows Park quickly became a popular destination and by the turn of the century was in full bloom. At its apogee, the park apparently saw as many as 10,000 visitors in a single day. Other leisurely activities at Willows Park included a harbor cruise via steamboat, a carousel, shooting gallery, merry-go-round, the Willows Casino, and the Willows Park Theatre, which attracted popular musical groups. When the Charleshurst Ballroom opened in the 1920s, the nightspot became a prime social center of North Shore Massachusetts—attracting popular big bands from around the U.S. such as Duke Ellington’s jazz orchestra.

REFERENCES: Salem Willows at noblenet.org; Salem Willows at salemweb.com; Salem Willows The Trip to “The Willows” at salemweb.com

CONDITION: Scuffed and stained, chipped along top edge.

Item #5518

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