On "The Line" 1880-1940

From 1880 to 1940, the line’s main attraction was the Willows Pavilion, an unusual structure with a roller skating rink, a 300-seat second-floor restaurant, and a rear-tower camera obscura that projected scenes from the surrounding area onto a table in a darkened room. Nearby stood a theater built largely of recycled materials from the Siege of Paris pavilion from a Boston exposition. At the very end of the line, a building originally housed a carousel powered by an unpredictable mule tethered to a central pole in the basement. In 1897, Everett Hobbs and Wilbur Eaton, sellers of popcorn, taffy, and other summer treats, acquired that building. Other early businesses on the line included Downings’s seafood restaurant, Blind Pat Kenneally’s double-jointed peanut stand, a shooting gallery, a pool room, a bowling alley, and an arcade. One of the most popular commercial attractions in the early 20th century was the Willows Casino dance hall. In the 1920s, the Casino reopened as the Charleshurst Ballroom, and for the next two decades locals flocked there to dance to bands headlined by Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, and other leading performers of the era. By 1940, the Charleshurst had been joined by a new carousel, Dodge-Em Junior bumper cars, The Whip, and other modern amusements, while the Salem Willows chop suey sandwich remained as popular as it had been in the 1930s.

Salem, Massachusetts · United States