Hawthorne Hotel History Tidbits

The Salem Evening News, on Saturday May 24, 1975, wrote an interesting article about the Hotel Hawthorne, as it was known then. The article lamented the fact that the hotel had fallen on hard times, and was being foreclosed upon. In it the editor Jim Shea shared his view that the hotel was a centerpiece of Salem, and had hosted so many important as well as familiar events, that there was no way that Salem could afford to lose the hotel.

One of the interesting facts related in the article was that President John F. Kennedy made his maiden Salem speech in the ballroom of the Hawthorne before he ran for his first elective office.

I'll post some other interesting facts in future daily diary posts.

I hope you enjoy learning this as much as I did.

Juli