Our History

The Salem Common was founded in the 17th century. In 1637 the first muster on Salem Common took place where for the first time, a regiment of militia drilled for the common defense of a multi-community area, thus laying the foundation for what became the Army National Guard. On August the 19th 2010, the Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick signed HB1145, “An Act Designating the City of Salem as the Birthplace of the National Guard.” This is the first step and then was later approved by the House in Washington in March 2012. President Barack Obama on the 10th of January 2013 signed executive order HR1339 “which designates the City of Salem, Mass., as the birthplace of the U.S. National Guard.”

Each April, the Second Corps of Cadets gather in front of St. Peteras Episcopal Church, where their founder, Stephen Abbott, is buried. They lay a wreath, play Taps and fire a 21 gun salute. In another annual commemoration, soldiers gather at Old Salem Armory to honor soldiers who were killed in the Battles of Lexington and Concord. On April 14, 2012 Salem celebrated the 375th anniversary of the first muster on Salem Common with over More than 1,000 troops taking part in ceremonies and a parade.

Today the Common is used for recreation, concerts and other cultural events, weddings, an annual muster, family fun – movies in the summer, pizza night, ice cream social, local “green” initiatives, and as a place for rest and reflection. According to the Salem Department of Parks and Recreation, the walkway around the perimeter of the Common is one-half mile. This walkway was recently restored thanks to the generosity of Aggregate Industries.

Salem Common Bandstand

The bandstand at the Salem Common was constructed in 1926 in commemoration of the city’s Tercentennial. Philip Horton Smith designed this finely-proportioned bandstand in Colonial Revival style, domed and temple-like. In 1976, the bandstand was dedicated to longtime Salem Band director, Jean Missud of the Salem Cadet Band fame.

Washington Arch

The saga of the Washington Arch on the Common spans more than 200 years of Salem history. The original arches were four gateways to the Common – north, west, east, and south – when, during the first half of the 19th Century, the grounds were enclosed by wooden fencing. The main entranceway on the west bore carvings by Salem’s woodworking luminary, Samuel McIntire (1757-1811): on one face, an oval profile of George Washington flanked by curtain swags; on the opposite face, a martially-embellished version of the State Seal; and, atop the Arch’s peak, a boldly-perched American Eagle. When iron replaced the wooden-fence enclosure in 1850, McIntire’s carvings (except the curtain swags) were conserved, but the Arch was not.

More than a century later, in 1976 (as part of the national bicentennial) a scaled-down replica of the Arch was erected on the Common. Carved wooden copies of McIntire’s Washington profile and its flanking swags, and his version of the seal, were mounted on the replica, but the eagle was omitted. Restoration efforts culminated in the Spring of 2023, with the installation of faithful scaled reproductions of McIntire’s original work on Washington’s profile, the swags, and the pinnacled eagle, now prepared for greater endurance against the elements.