Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2003

1. SALEM COUNTY COURTHOUSE, NE. corner Broadway and Market St., is a square, two-story building, whose bricks have been repainted a dark red. A cupola rises from the center of the roof. The present structure, rebuilt in 1817 and in 1908, stands on the site of a brick courthouse erected 1735. On the lawn is an old BRASS CANNON of Italian manufacture, taken from the British in the Battle of Plattsburg, N. Y., in 1814. The cannon and its wooden carriage have been painted the same color as the courthouse.

2. OFFICES OF THE COUNTY CLERK AND SURROGATE, Market St. N. of the Courthouse, are in a high, one-story stucco building adorned with Corinthian columns and pilasters, built in 1851. On the curb is a FOUNTAIN, erected in 1901, which bears the legend: "Let him that is athirst come. W. C. T. U." The fountain is dry; the town is wet.

3. SALEM COUNTY JAIL (open 2-5 Wed. and Sat.), Market St., between E. Broadway and Grant St., occupies a building which also houses the offices of the mayor and sheriff. It is a two-story, red-brick, squat structure with a wing at the left which contains the cells. Scrolled decorations above the window sashes match an ornate cornice.

   Although the present jail was erected 1775 and rebuilt in 1866, Salem County prison records date back to 1709. The exact location of the earliest jail is not known, but there are several anecdotes about prisoners of Iong ago. Jailbreaks were frequent, and the sheriffs constantly advertised for the return of escaped prisoners.

   The roof was a favorite medium of escape. In the very early days or John Mackentyre placed a candle on the end of a stick, thrust it through the window, and set the roof on fire. He failed, however, to escape. School boys for years afterward chanted a ditty opening with the lines:

   Old John Mackentyre,
   He set the jail on fire . . .

   
   In 1884 Jim Sullivan, a Negro sentenced to death for murder, tore a hole through the roof in order to watch a passing parade. The keepers, also among the spectators, did not see Sullivan on the roof. After the parade had passed, he returned to his cell. Three days later he was hanged, the last execution of this type by the county. The jail roof today is of slate. Near the jail stood the whipping post, where the backs of women as we as men were bared to the lash.

4. ALEXANDER GRANT HOUSE (open by arrangement with pres. Salem Co. Hist. Soc.), 83 Market St., is a two-and-a-half-story brick structure, painted yellow. An extension reaches out about 6 feet toward the street. The windows, except two dormers in the worn shingle roof, a: shuttered. The house was built in 1721 by Alexander Grant, whose descendants, Anna and Helena Hubbell, gave it to the Salem County Historical Society. For a time Robert Gibbon Johnson, one of Salem's earliest historians, lived here.

   Exhibits on the main floor include Indian relics, Colonial kitchenware; farm implements, early deeds, manuscripts and books and a collection c pre-Revolutionary china and glass. A replica of a Colonial bedroom, old wearing apparel and other items are on display on the second floor. Also on the second floor is the Heinz collection of 300 canes, on display in the ELLEN MECUM MEMORIAL Room, meeting place of the Oak Tree Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The Sarah Bradway Harris collection of early kitchen utensils is on the attic floor.

5. GREEN'S HOTEL, 115 Market St., erected 1799, is a four-story greenish-yellow, mottled stucco building. From the second floor a veranda that stretches the length of the house overhangs the sidewalk. On the street level are stores with old-fashioned fronts painted a dingy dark green. The city's sporting element congregates here to listen to the stories of yesterday's baseball hero, "Whitey" Witt, the inn's host, and Salem County's Leon (Goose) Goslin, who returns each winter between seasons spent the big-league diamonds to his home about 5 miles from the city.

6. MUNICIPAL BUILDING, 1 New Market St., a red brick structure dating from 1889, was used by a bank until 1926. It has an ornately de- signed front with a round tower on one side, and a superimposed, slatecovered dormer on the other. Across the front is a huge ribbon scroll with a dark green border, inscribed, "City of Salem-Municipal Building."

7. An OLD LAW OFFICE (private), directly behind the Municipal Building, reputedly one of the earliest law offices in the country, was also used as a medical office by Dr. Ebenezer Howell, Revolutionary patriot. Built in 1732 for John Jones, the one-room octagonal structure of red brick with a conical wood-shingle roof is now in poor condition.

8. FRIENDS BURIAL GROUND, W. Broadway between 4th and 5th Sts., was set aside in 1676, a year after the town was founded. The plot contains the remains of some of Salem's oldest settlers. Typical of Quaker burial grounds the low white headstones, few of them more than 1 foot high, have no inscription but the name and dates of birth and death.

   The ancient SALEM OAK, the community's pride, stands within the cemetery, near the main entrance. John Fenwick sat beneath its branches when he bartered with the Indians for the Salem territory. Its age has been variously estimated at from 500 to goo years. Robert Burdette, the humorist, judged that "Salem Oak is 4 years older than the Atlantic Ocean." Cared for by the Society of Friends, the tree is in excellent condition, and its acorns are collected each year to fill requests from all parts of the world. When last measured the oak was 8o feet high with a maximum circumference of more than 30 feet.

9. ORTHODOX FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE (private), 107 W. Broadway, is a replica of the Friends Meeting House on East Broadway. It is a two-story, rectangular red brick building with a sloping tin roof. and separate entrances for men and women. The tall shuttered doors and window trim are painted yellow. At each end of the roof is a small red brick chimney, one covered with cement. The structure was erected in 1852, 20 years after the Orthodox branch of Friends separated from the Hicksite branch over a doctrinal argument. Only one family uses this meeting house (1938).

10. BRADWAY HOUSE (private), 32 W. Broadway, built in 1691. is a rectangular, two-story brick building, the white paint now turned gray. A red tin roof provides the only color. The house has been known by a succession of names: "Governor's House," the "Light House," any "Capital House." Royal Governors of New Jersey occupied the mansion. notably Governor Cornbury, who arrived soon after the death of Edward Bradway, said to have been the builder. Several times the provincial congress of West Jersey met here. The practice of placing a light in the gable to guide mariners to the nearby wharf originated the name of "Light House." Present-day Salemites refer to the building as the "Old Yellow House," because of the paint once used. Surrounded now by cheap dwellings, the old house serves as an office for the Gaynor Glass Company. whose plant extends to the rear.

11. FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE (open meeting days), E. Broadway opposite Walnut St., was erected in 1772 to replace an earlier brick building that stood within the Friends Burial Ground. Set behind a broad lawn and picket-fence, it is a well-kept, two-story, red brick rectangular building, with two shuttered entrances on the street level. The entrances are protected by small overhanging roofs supported by slender columns. On one side is a porte cochere. These entrances, originally built for the men's and women's sections, are now used by both sexes. The early Quakers who rounded the colony frequently met here for discussion of common problem. During the Revolution the building served as an overflow court for the trial of Tories.

Pledger House, 1 m. (see Tour 28); William Hancock House, site of Revolutionary massacre, 4.1 m.; Fort Mott, 8.4 m. (see Tour 29).

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