About Urban Renewal - a photo on Flickriver

"In the early 1960's Salem's downtown shops and businesses were facing eroding sales, partly from the opening of the new North Shore Shopping Center in nearby Peabody. A comprehensive plan for the renewal of downtown Salem was necessary. In 1962, Mayor Francis X. Collins created a special department to handle urban renewal in Salem. The Salem Redevelopment Authority was created. It began researching, devising and implementing a total plan in order to secure Federal grants from HUD. The plan was to demolish 39 acres of the city's downtown commercial district called Heritage Plaza East. At the time, rehabilitation was considered economically unfeasible.

Beginning in 1968, demolition began and some 25 buildings were leveled. The one building that brought demolition to a standstill was the home of Bessie Munroe on Ash Street. She refused to leave. Because she was old and frail, they let her stay.

Things changed in 1970 when Samuel E. Zoll became mayor and appointed Tim Noonan and Bill Tinti to the SRA. These members brought a new approach. They tried to retain the buildings by recognizing the value of them rather than tearing them down. Under the new SRA, imaginative techniques were devised to save old buildings. Salem became the first community in the country to use urban renewal funds for historic renovation rather than demolition.

Nearly 50 buildings were rehabilitated and more than a dozen new buildings were built. One technique they used to refresh the buildings was "facade easements" of 33 historic buildings. Today, many of the originally doomed buildings still stand, including the Bowker Block, bought by L.H. Rogers and the brick buildings around Old Town Hall.

Today, the Authority is part of the Planning and Community Development Department at the Salem city level, meeting monthly." - Salem Public Library

View Photographs:
www.flickr.com/photos/salemstatearchives/albums/721577105...

Read our Blog Post:
libguides.salemstate.edu/home/archives/blog/urbanrenewal

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Taken on: December 10, 2019

Sets appears in: • Urban Renewal

Stats: 4,690 views

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