History – Page 19 – Salem Main Streets

Salem Salutes Itself with Community Service Awards

Contests, History, New Businesses, Salem Dining, Salem Event, Salem Shopping No Responses »

Apr 262015

Who are the “best of the best” when it comes to business & community activity over the past year in Salem Ma? The Salem Chamber of Commerce asked residents to select from 36 nominees in six categories. Over 1900 people responded.

Awards were handed out at the 93rd annual Celebrate Salem Awards Dinner, on April 22at the Peabody Essex Museum.

2014 Businesswoman of the Year: Brandi Dion – B&S Fitness Companies & CrossFit IronSpider

Businesswoman of the Year is a Chamber member who has demonstrated excellence in business practices throughout the year and has demonstrated a sincere commitment to Salem.

B&S Fitness Companies’ goal is to improve the quality of life and health for every customer through innovative and effective fitness programs. CrossFit IronSpider is a fitness community dedicated to helping everyone achieve their individual goals within an inspiring group setting. In addition to fitness programs, B&S offers event management which raises and donates over $50k each year to non-profit organizations.

2014 Businessman of the Year: Paul Van Ness – CinemaSalem, Salem Film Fest, The Cabot, Van Ness Creative

Businessman of the Year is a Chamber member who has demonstrated excellence in business practices throughout the year and has demonstrated a sincere commitment to Salem.

CinemaSalem is more than a film-lover’s movie theater; it’s also a café, an art gallery, an art house, a live music venue, and a home Salem Film Fest, one of America’s largest all-documentary film festivals. Van Ness and a group of investors recently acquired The Cabot in Beverly, MA. Van Ness Creative is a full-service film and video production company

2014 New Business of the Year: The Ugly Mug Diner

The New Business of the Year award is given to the best new business that opened in 2014.

The Ugly Mug Diner is a twisted American Diner in the heart of Salem. A foodie haven, serving beer, bacon and espresso, with a soda jerk, hand cut fries, and biscuits with red gravy.

The 2014 Excellence in Retail Award: Milk & Honey Green Grocer

The Excellence in Retail Award showcases the outstanding achievements of Salem retailers and will be awarded to the retailer that applies superior knowledge, creativity and industry know-how to develop innovative strategies, and contributes to the growth of the Salem retail sector.

Milk & Honey Green Grocer is the local grocery store for people who care about the environment, community, and sustainability. Offering residents of the North Shore carefully selected products of the highest quality.

The 2014 Community Service Award: Creative Salem

The Community Service Award is awarded to a member or organization who has an outstanding record of community service and volunteer participation.

Creative Salem celebrates the city of Salem as a hub of creativity, providing contemporary tools for local creative professionals to find and connect with new audiences while encouraging them to apply their skills to help solve challenges facing the community.

The 2014 Long-Term Achievement Award: Jim & Nancy Hurrell (Salem Trolley, Pirate Museum, Witch History Museum, Witch Dungeon)

The Long-Term Achievement Award is given to a business that has achieved 10 or more years of success in the community.

Witch History Museum: The stories of 1692 told through a historically accurate live presentation and tour. Witch Dungeon Museum: An award winning reenactment of the trial of beggar-woman Sarah Good – from the original transcript of 1692. Salem Pirate Museum: The unique and little-known history of New England sea-robbers comes alive at the Pirate Museum. The Salem Trolley provides visitors with a narrated one hour tour and all day shuttle service through beautiful and historic Salem.

This year, winners received an original wood sculpture created by Tommy Gagnon of Boston Woodturning.

For more information on the event or the Salem Chamber please visit www.salem-chamber.org or call 978-744-0004.

Get Up, Get Out There, It’s YOUR National Park

History, Salem Event, Salem Festivals No Responses »

Apr 202015

Discover the treasure that is a National Park this week as visitors to Salem Maritime National Historic Site are being treated to free ranger-led tours, a Junior Ranger Program, the free award-winning film “Where Past is Present” and a comprehensive audio-walking tour of the 9-acre site. It’s all part of a USA-wide celebration (April 18-26) to encourage everyone to find their park and share their stories online at FindYourPark.com.

Salem Maritime National Historic Site offers 12 historic buildings, wharves, and a reconstructed tall ship which tell the stories of the sailors, Revolutionary War privateers, and merchants who brought the riches of the world to America. But it is more, as the video below explains, the Find Your Park program invites the public to see that a national park can be more than a place — it can be a feeling, a state of mind, or a sense of American pride.

Did you know that Salem Maritime was the first National Historic Site established in the United States (March 17, 1938)?

Beyond vast landscapes, this Find Your Park campaign highlights historical, urban, and cultural parks, as well as the National Park Service programs that protect, preserve and share nature, culture, and history in communities nationwide.

In fact, the National Parks initiative works with local agencies to build trails and playgrounds, return historic buildings to productive use, revitalize neighborhoods, expand affordable housing, protect watersheds, recognize and promote local history, and introduce the next generation to stewardship opportunities.

A National Park is more than grass, trees, and some old buildings.

Visit www.NationalParkWeek.org to learn more about how you can join parks, programs, and partners in celebrating National Park Week across the country.

And then visit our own National Park, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, located at/and around 160 Derby Street. For more info, go to http://www.nps.gov/sama/index.htm or call 978-740-1650.

Global Event ‘Record Store Day’ to Have Salem Connection

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Apr 162015

Vinyl, wax, platters, discs…. all names for the LP, more lovingly recalled as a ‘record.’ Yes, the round thing that rotated on a record player your parents or grandparents talked about from their youth. To celebrate the continued existence of records and spread the word about the unique culture surrounding independently owned record stores in the US and world-wide, Record Store Day was created. Locally the Salem Theatre is partnering with Salem’s own independent record store, The Record Exchange, to promote an entire weekend, April 17-19. (Record Store Day usually takes place on the third Saturday of April. )

The day is for the people who make up the world of record stores to celebrate the unique culture of a record store and the special role these independently owned shops play in their communities. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day.

The Record Exchange advises from its Facebook page: Come and celebrate records, music & YOU, our amazing customers & friends, this Saturday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Yup…it’s RECORD STORE DAY! We’ll have Ziggys and Sons Donuts for all, some very cool RSD limited edition records, and we’ll be putting used CDs & DVD sets on sale just for the day.

As for the live musical contribution from the Salem Theatre, kicking off the weekend on Friday, April 17 at 7:30pm is a returning favorite Don White with opening act Julie Dougherty.

Saturday, April 18 at 7:30pm is a CD Release for Justin Goodrich. Justin is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Independently he has released two solo-acoustic EP’s, “A Revenant Affair” and “Fallen Angels, Tears of Stone”. Each ticket purchase for the Justin Goodrich concert will include a free copy of the new album “Steadfast Hearts and Borrowed Time”.

Wrapping up the weekend on Sunday, April 19 at 5pm is An Evening with Chris Noran and Kevin William. Chris and Kevin are Indie Folk artists from Salem and Boston respectively. Together these two will play two full sets of Bon Iver-esque, ambient rock-folk in a warm and intimate space.

To give you an idea of how the “culture” of a record store can have an effect on someone, David Grohl of the Foo Fighters, who is the 2015 Ambassador for Record Store Day, recalls: “I found my calling in the back bin of a dark, dusty record store.

1975’s K-Tel’s Blockbuster 20 Original Hits by the original Stars featuring Alice Cooper, War, Kool and the Gang, Average White Band and many more, bought at a small record shop in my suburban Virginia neighborhood, it was this record that changed my life and made me want to become a musician. The second that I heard Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” kick in, I was hooked. My life had been changed forever. This was the first day of the rest of my life.

I believe that the power of the record store to inspire is still alive and well, and that their importance to our next generation of musicians is crucial.”

Record Store Day is managed by the Department of Record Stores and is organized in partnership with the Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS), the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale.

The Record Exchange, located at 256 Washington Street, is one of the oldest used brick & mortar record stores in the United States; it was founded in Salem, MA in 1974.

Founded in 2002, Salem Theatre aims to enrich the artistic, cultural and economic life of the Greater Salem region and build connections with new, diverse audiences and theatre artists through the performance of classic, contemporary, and new works of exceptional theater as well as through the arts education outreach. It is located at 90 Lafayette Street.

For more info on the concerts, either call The Record Exchange at 978-745-0777 or directly contact the Salem Theatre at www.salemtheatre.com or call 978-790-8546 .

(Record/turntable photo courtesy of J Fry from FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

Paranormal Convention to Manifest Itself at Hawthorne Hotel

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Apr 082015

Do you sense something in the air? Some level of seismic activity of a paranormal nature? You would be tuning in to Salem Con, the first ever celebrity-filled paranormal convention, to be held in Salem Ma, April 10-12 at the Hawthorne Hotel.

Mass Ghost Hunters Paranormal Society, a Gloucester-based historical preservation and paranormal event group has established the weekend. Salem Con will be filled with celebrities, lectures and vendors. Paranormal and historical enthusiasts are welcomed.

Marc Arvilla, Founder/Lead Investigator explains “We decided to call it Salem Con because that’s exactly what it is. Yes it’s a paranormal conference, yes most folks involved are in the paranormal field, but this is also about Salem’s history, culture, and the true stories of the people that shaped this area.”

For example, among the speakers, Jeff Belanger hosts the New England Legends series on PBS and John Zaffis is the director of the Paranormal Research Society of New England.

Arvilla continues “Our goal for this conference is to teach people about the history of Salem, the history of paranormal investigating, and that they can have fun while doing it. If someone can walk away from this event learning something new it will be a success.”

The weekend begins with a “Celebrity VIP Party” on Friday April 10th from 8 pm to midnight at Nathaniel’s in the Hawthorne. Guests will mingle with their favorite celebrities and hear some of their “behind the scenes” stories.

And, who will be there on April 11th?

9 am JOHN TOBIN -“Exploring the Psychology of the Paranormal” with Chris DiCesare & Joe Chin
10 am JEFF BELANGER– “The Witches Warty Nose”
11 am BRIAN CANO – “‪#‎Paralosophy‬”
12 pm DUSTIN PARI – “The Bigger Questions”
1 pm JOHN ZAFFIS – “Q & A with John Zaffis”
2 pm TIM WEISBERG – “Maybe Ghosts WEREN’T People Too…Alternate Theories of the Paranormal”
3 pm SCOTT GRUENWALD – “God Ate My Lunch”
3:45pm MICHAEL DIAMOND – “Moving Forward

All lectures will take place in the Hawthorne’s Library Room.

“The Hawthorne Hotel seemed like the best choice for this event,” reveals Avilla. “The hotel has such a rich history and is central to everything there is to explore in Salem. When we approached Thomas MacDonald, the sales director at the Hawthorne, with the idea of a paranormal conference he offered his full support. Plus there is that ‘rumor’ that the hotel is haunted…”

Speaking of haunted, Gone Haunting will sponsor a “Celebrity Ghost Hunt” Saturday at 8pm. Location not yet revealed.

And what is a convention without vendors? The Hawthorne Ballroom will house the vendor area:

Deadly Grounds Coffee
Gone Haunting Apparel
The Generic Black Shirt Paranormal Group
Parahunter
Paranormal Warehouse
Brian J. Cano
John Zaffis
Dustin Pari
Jeff Belanger
Tim Weisberg
Scott Gruenwald
Christopher DiCesare
DTM Wicked Radio
Frank Cinelli
Paranormal For Paws
Gettysburg Ghost Gals
MGHPS
Rosalyn Bown
Salt City Paranormal
East Ghost Paranormal
S.T.U.R.S/Rise Up New Hampshire
Spirits of New England
White Light Research
Rome Investigators of the Paranormal
The Mechanical Meow
Paranormal Reactions
Author Joni Mayhan & Paranormal Xpeditions
The Mountain Gypsies
Rise Up Paranormal
Mirror Magazine
Dark Side Ink
Psychic Medium Coryelle Kramer
Raven Shoppe/Gotham Paranormal
Brooke’s Nook
Dawn Slocum
Black Cat Tours
Witch Tees

The weekend concludes with a Sunday morning breakfast at the Hawthorne where Mass Ghost Hunters Paranormal Society invites people to share some stories, revelations, even a “sighting” or two if anything happened from the previous night.

Sounds like an interesting effort to connect the dots between the paranormal and the history of Salem, while at the same time giving you the opportunity to have an entertaining & educational experience. For ticket and other information, go to http://www.mghparanormal.com/ or write to mghparanormal@gmail.com.

Slow Art Day— Time Well Spent at Salem’s PEM

History, Salem Event, Salem Festivals, Workshops No Responses »

Apr 062015

Explore the Peabody Essex Museum as you possibly never have before— and be part of a global experience as PEM joins other museums & organizations world-wide in celebration of Slow Art Day, Saturday, April 11th.

Slow Art Day ? Yes, you are invited to “take your time” for a closer look at art. Too often “appreciation” of art is measured more by the moving strokes of your watch than the brush strokes of the artist. In other words, for this one day, the world is being asked to stop and smell the roses of fine art.

Championed by The New York Times’ art critic, Michael Kimmelman, Slow Art Day is part of a global, grassroots movement with a simple mission: help more people discover the joy of looking at and loving art.

PEM welcomes you to explore from 10 am -2 pm suggested works in the galleries at your own pace. It’s ok; spend as many minutes as you need. Choose your own favorite works, or join PEM for discussions in the galleries of three selected objects to explore, at 10:30 am, 11 am, and 11:30 am. Then, join fellow visitors for lunch in the Atrium at 1 pm to discuss what you saw and felt.

Yes, share your perceptions. Absorb what others saw from their points of view. An inanimate painting or sculpture will create some animated discussions.

This year’s program will be led by Rebecca Rohloff from the Art & Design Department at Salem State University.

Registration is required for this free event. The Peabody Essex Museum is located at East India Square (161 Essex St) Salem. For additional details, call 978-745-9500.

(Photo by Robyn Gesek/PEM)

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