HISTORICAL COMMENTS BY GEORGE CHEVALLIER 4-4-15

 Salisbury’s Bicentennial

Salisbury was in the middle of the Great Depression in 1932, as was the rest of the country. The only difference was that Salisbury and the entire Eastern Shore didn’t depend on the world “west of the Chesapeake Bay” as it does today. My grandmother once told me that she would never have known that the rest of the country was having hard times except for the fact that more tramps appeared at her back door asking for something to eat. The Eastern Shore had practically everything it needed, and there was work for anyone willing to go for it.

A lot of the money was provided by the “alphabet agencies” of FDR’s New Deal that was supposed to get the country out of the doldrums of the Depression. Salisbury benefited to the tune of a new City Park and the 300-ft.long concrete and steel dam on Johnson’s Lake.

It was during this time that Salisbury decided to pull out all the stops and celebrate their 200th birthday. The city had been founded on August 8, 1732. The whole week of August 7-13th was decided upon to have this grand celebration. You name it and they had it. Parades, band concerts, sporting events, competitions for the children, a carnival, stunt flying, exhibitions of historic relics, school exhibits, a circus, the official ceremonies, a Historical Pageant held in City Park that included 330 participants, and the grand lighting of the new “electric” fountain in City Park (the one across from Wicomico Middle School). It seems as if everyone in town was involved in some way. There were traffic and parking regulations clearly designated and posted so that everything went smoothly.

The mayor of Salisbury, England, J. S. Rambridge, was present to help its sister city celebrate their 200th birthday. Special medals were struck for the occasion and they are frequently encountered today. A few of them had a loop attached that allowed it to hang from a ribbon attached to a bar that declared that the wearer was a “guest”. I think these were for the visitors from England as the only one I have ever seen is the one I bought from someone in England.

The Queen of the Bicentennial was Carolyn Waller, daughter of local attorney G. W. D. Waller. Their home at the time was what the Poplar Hill Mansion is now. She presided over a parade that must have been truly spectacular. Besides the Queen’s float, there were floats from other towns on the Shore with a Princess presiding over each float. Cars carrying political and local dignitaries, marching units of firemen and policemen, bands and comic divisions were also included. There were also fourteen floats that portrayed the city of Salisbury as a place of happy and healthful living. The categories for these floats were Hospitality, Agriculture, Dairying, Industry, Merchandising, Transportation, Financial Strength, Health and Hygiene, Recreation, Sportsman’s Paradise, Religion, Education and Aesthetics (whatever that was). The parade started at the college and proceeded to wind through downtown Salisbury on a route that covered a full four miles in its entirety.

The “Relics House” was at 704 N. Division Street. The number has since been changed to 320 N. Division Street. It was described as “one of the oldest houses in Salisbury, considerably more than one hundred years old”. It is still there and has an historic plaque out front that describes it as “The Little House – 1790”. The house itself is set back a good 75 feet from the street, but the sign designating it as 320 is right on N. Division St. In the early days, Miss Elizabeth Roxburgh lived there. Her father was an aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. There were displays set up to show how the early settler operated a loom and a spinning wheel. The loom, built in 1825, was hewn out by the hand of an early patriot. It was operated by his grand-daughter. She was 76 years of age at the time of the Bicentennial. Some of the rooms had been furnished with furniture of an earlier period in Salisbury’s history.

Since this was the year the Wicomico Historical Society was formed, the relics were under the care and direction of the Wicomico Chapter of the Women’s Eastern Shore Society of Baltimore. This Society lasted until 2007 when attrition and age diminished their ranks. At that time, they equally distributed their treasury to the nine counties on the Eastern Shore to further their historical endeavors.