Danvers, Massachusetts
Monday, June 10, 2019

Find more about Weather in Danvers, MASpanning almost 400 Years as you Walk Thru History!

The Two Town Walking Club is hosting a pre-convention walk in historic Danvers, Massachusetts!
derby summer house  danvers   library   glen magna

It all began when the English colonists improved an existing Naumkeag trail to be the Old Ipswich Road connecting Boston to Salem.
  On that road in 1636, Salem Village was founded.
The present name was adopted in 1752 in honor of Sir Danvers Osborn, the colonial governor of New York
The town was incorporated in 1757, but  King George II declared that null and void.
  The Danvers town seal quotes the motto “The King Unwilling!”
 As you walk in Danvers, also unofficially known as Oniontown, you’ll be walking thru almost 400 years history!

The Importance of Danvers in History

           o    John Endecott (Endicott), the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, lived here
           o    The oldest cultivated fruit tree in America, the Endicott Pear Tree, is still thriving in Danvers.
           o    The 1692 Witchcraft Hysteria began in Danvers (Salem Village).
           o    Danvers made many important contributions to the American Revolution.
           o    George Peabody, internationally acclaimed banker and philanthropist, was born in South Danvers and is memorialized in the U.S. and Great Britain.
           o    Danvers was prominent in the shoe industry and brick manufacturing.
           o    Magnificent Glen Magna Estate with formal gardens  was visited by presidents and international statesmen. 
           o    The McIntire Tea House was designed and constructed by famed architect Samuel McIntire of Salem and is a National Historic Landmark.    
           o    The original crayon factory, owned by Binney & Smith, became the Crayola Crayon factory and was located in Danvers.
           o    Danvers was a station on the Underground Railroad.
           o    Danvers is the former International Headquarters of the Sylvania Lighting Company.
           o    The site of the movie, “Three Sovereigns for Sarah,” with Vanessa Redgrave – the most accurate movie of the Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692.
           o    Home of Meghan Duggan, Captain of the Gold Medal Winning  Women's Hockey Team at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and Mark Bavaro,  All-American football pro!

Highlights On The Walk
st. john  nurse homestead   witchcraft 

              o    Carriage House Visitor Center in Endicott Park.  The barn there has live animals
            o    St. John’s Preparatory School, a private Roman Catholic Boys’ School, founded by the Xaverian Brothers in 1891
            o    Wadsworth Cemetery (1640) which has the burial plots of some accusers of the Witchcraft Hysteria as well as plots of an African slave, Native American Indians,
                    and plots dating back to the American Revolution.
            o    The site of the original crayon factory that became Crayola Crayon.
            o    Memorial to then-patriot Benedict Arnold’s encampment with his Colonial troops on his way to invade Quebec during the American Revolution.
            o    The Page House, home of the Danvers Historical Society and the temporary headquarters of General Thomas Gage, the Commander of the British forces in North America
                    and the Royal Governor of the colony.
            o    Tapley Memorial Hall (1930) which houses a small museum with exhibits on Salem Village/Danvers
            o    Houses on the Underground Railroad
            o    Site of one of the factories of Mrs. Day’s Baby Shoes (1902), worn by Queen Elizabeth and the Dionne Quintuplets among others.
            o    War Memorials for the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War are in front of the Town Hall.
            o    Peabody Institute Library built with funds from banker and philanthropist George Peabody, who was born in South Danvers.
                  He also generously funded the Peabody and Essex Museum in Salem, the Peabody  Museums at Harvard and Yale, the Peabody Institute in Baltimore,
                  and the Peabody Homes for the “industrious poor” in London.
            o    Nurse Homestead (1678), a National Heritage Site.   Rebecca Nurse was falsely accused of witchcraft and was hanged with the first group of accused witches.
            o    Foundation of the home of  Rev. Samuel Parris where the Witchcraft Hysteria began.
            o    Judge Samuel Holton House, a National Heritage Site.  Judge Holton served in the Continental Congress
                  during the American Revolution and was the president pro-tempore of the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation before George Washington became president.
           o    The Witchcraft Victims Memorial to the victims of the 1692 Hysteria erected in 1992 for the Tercentenary.