Danvers’ Ingersoll Tavern is inextricable from New England’s history. The first three women to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials were scheduled to be examined there. After that, it served as a gathering place for militias before the American Revolution.
Now, the site is on the brink of becoming a relic of history.
Since 2011, the tavern, which sits on the corner of Hobart and Centre streets in Danvers, has been vacant, slowly deteriorating to the point where it now has a red X plastered to an exterior wall, indicating to public safety officials that it would be unsafe to enter in the case of a fire. A tarp has been plastered over a hole in the roof for five years and its exterior is “rotting,” a report by Danvers’ Ad-Hoc Historic Preservation Study Committee found.
A barn in the backyard is now just a “pile of bones” after falling down five years ago — the last time town officials in the North Shore suburb got a look at the property beyond what is available from the street. Town officials have been barred from entering the home for a decade.
Now, officials say, the clock is ticking to prevent the tavern itself, which served as a single-family home prior to its most recent sale, from meeting the same fate.
”We need some sort of intervention,” Danvers Director of Land Use & Community Services Aaron Henry told MassLive. “But unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of tools at our disposal.”
Efforts to reach the owner of the property, a New Hampshire resident, to bring him to the table to discuss rehabilitating the tavern began in earnest five years ago, Henry said. Since then, town officials have only been able to communicate with the man through email and while he has indicated he is willing to make improvements, Henry said his actions have not backed up his words.
Last town officials spoke to the man he intimated he would retain an attorney, according to Henry.
So, left with no other choice and with growing fears about how rapidly the property could deteriorate, Henry said town officials are pursuing receivership with the attorney general’s office. Receivership allows a court to appoint a person or organization to temporarily manage a property to enforce the state’s sanitary code and respond to an absent landlord, according to Massachusetts Legal Help.
“We didn’t undertake our current response lightly,” Henry said. “We just don’t feel we have another option.”
“Once we get water infiltration and all that stuff, things can go quickly,” he added.
Barring a last-minute reversal from the property owner, receivership is town officials’ best hope for a swift resolution. But even that isn’t a guarantee.
What could a demolition-by-neglect bylaw do?
If all else fails, a salve could come later this year in the form of a new demolition-by-neglect bylaw up for a vote by town meeting this month.
The bylaw, developed by the ad-hoc committee, would prevent what town officials fear may be happening on Hobart Street — a property owner allows a regulated historic building to denigrate to the point where they could circumvent local regulations barring the demolition of such buildings. If the state of the property deteriorates enough, the owner could apply for an emergency demolition permit and circumvent those rules entirely.
The committee, in its report, cites Ingersoll’s Tavern specifically, writing that it “has potentially the strongest ties to the 1692 Salem Village Witch-Hunt out of all structures still standing in Massachusetts today.”
Should the bylaw clear town meeting, it would require approval from the attorney general’s office, and only at that point could it go into effect, meaning there is no guarantee it could save the tavern.
To Henry, time is of the essence.
“It’s not a good outcome if we’re there,” he said.
Places such as the tavern are what give communities like Danvers their individual characteristics, Henry said.
“We have structures in this town that are unique to our town and tell a story that only is relevant to our town. Every town has its differences, but this is one of those sites that means something to us and means something to this community’s history,” he said. “It’s got a story to tell that no other property can.”
