Salem’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Salem. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Salem was settled in the summer of 1790 — as "New Salem" — by forty Seventh Day Baptist families from Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Notable settler family names included Lippincott, Maxson, Babcock, Plumer, Davis, and Fitz-Randolph. New Salem was formally chartered and made a town by legislative enactment of the Virginia Assembly on December 19, 1794, on land owned by Samuel Fitz Randolph. John Patterson, John Davis, Samuel Lippincott, James Davis, Zebulon Maxon, Benjamin Thorp, Thomas Clayton, William Davis, Jacob Davis, George Jackson and John Haymond were appointed its first trustees.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Salem’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Salem’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSalem, West Virginia 1899, 1899: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Salem
See all 4 →
Salem, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Salem, West Virginia 1899 (1899) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.