Essex National Heritage Area
Tom Leonard, President, ENHC

Tom Leonard,
President Emeritus, ENHC

Tom Leonard writes a monthly column for the community newspapers in the Essex National Heritage Area. This is a reprint of this month's column.
tleonard
at essexheritage.org.

Columns
Essex Heritage Supports Grant Applications and Announces new Film Partnership with The National Park Service

Town of Danvers to Join with the Town of Wenham to Apply for Rail Trail Grant
Kate Day, Sr. Planner and town liaison to the Rail Trail Advisory Committee is preparing a grant application to request $60,000 in funding from the Commonwealth’ of Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation to for surface materials for the Danvers and Wenham Trail.  This would make it possible to connect from the Peabody line to Topsfield Center.  The Topsfield section has already received grants from DCR for their trail.  

We were advised that Letters of support would help improve the chances for the approval of the grant application, and I was pleased to provide a letter offering my personal support for the grant application.  The Essex National Heritage Commission also weighed in on the project and provided a letter of support offering its support for the grant application.

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a adaptive sports hand cycling program to ride on the City of Peabody bike trail and having a paved surface on the path makes all of the difference in the world.  We are most optimistic that trough the efforts of the two Towns that have applied for the grant to complete the paving work on these two sections of the current trails  that residents would then experience a substantial improvement to what is already a wonderful recreational asset for the Town of Danvers.  The work that has been accomplished to date on this project has been completed without any appreciative commitment of community funds, and if this grant were approved, work would continue to improve this community asset.  Essex Heritage was pleased to provide a Partnership grant about a year ago to assist with the creation of signage at road crossings to help insure the safety of the riders using this path way.

The National Park Service and Essex National Heritage Commission Announce the Premiere of A New Interpretive Film at the National Park Service Visitor Center in Salem
Salem Witch Hunt: Examine the Evidence
The Essex National Heritage Commission, in partnership with the National Park Service, will premiere Salem Witch Hunt: Examine the Evidence, on Tuesday, October 4 at 7:00 pm at the National Park Service Salem Visitor Center at 2 New Liberty Street, Salem. Reservations are required.

The Opening Night will begin at 7:00pm with refreshments and a brief presentation followed by a 7:30pm showing.   Scholars, the director and many others involved in the making of the film will be on hand for questions and a discussion. For reservations contact Essex Heritage at 978-740-0444 or at  www.essexheritage.org,

The film about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials is based on the most recent scholarly research of the causes, events and aftermath of these famous trials.  Award-winning director Tom Phillips, in association with Professor Benjamin C. Ray of the University of Virginia, wrote and directed this film, which draws on a reexamination of nearly 1,000 manuscript records and published material associated with the witchcraft trials of 1692. The movie reveals newly found documents and research which shed new light on the trials, with reenactors speaking the documented words of the accusers and victims, and analysis by scholars who have studied the trials for many years.  

“This film, offers many new insights into a story that has been told and retold for hundreds of years. The history of these infamous trials is one of the most frequently asked questions by visitors at the National Park Service Visitor Center in Salem,” said Annie C. Harris, Executive Director of the Essex National Heritage Commission. “When we were offered the opportunity to re-examine this period of history with the benefit of the latest scholarship, we jumped at the chance.”

“While many visitors know of the trials, few know the history of the events that cost the lives of twenty innocent victims,” said Rita Hennessy, acting Superintendent of the Salem and Saugus National Historic Sites. “This historically accurate interpretation of the Salem witch trials will be a centerpiece at our Visitor Center in Salem.”

This film was shot on location at Massachusetts sites associated with the events of 1692, including the Rebecca Nurse Homestead and the Parris Parsonage foundation in Danvers and the Corwin House (Witch House) in Salem.

After the premier showing, the film will be shown four times daily (11.00, noon, 1:00, and 2:00) at the National Park Service Regional Visitor Center in Salem. These showings are expected to be a visitor favorite during the month of October and all through the year.

Thomas M. Leonard is President Emeritus of the Essex National Heritage Commission, Inc., the nonprofit management entity of the Essex National Heritage Area, and can be reached by clicking here.