Paving the way for Route 28

By Doug Seed
MethuenLife Writer

Editor’s note: This column first appeared in our sister paper, Salem Life.

By now, you probably know that our Route 28 began in 1804 as the Londonderry Turnpike – a generally straight highway that ultimately connected Boston, Mass., and Concord, N.H. It was constructed with the most modern skills and materials available for a road being cut through rural New Hampshire when Thomas Jefferson was president. Two-hundred-and-twenty years ago, “state-of-the-art” meant men, oxen, horses, wagons, wheelbarrows and shovels. Forward-thinking visionaries did, however, plan for a lot of traffic and designed the road a whopping 66 feet wide. That’s 11 rods in 1804 surveyor jargon. Of course, they weren’t planning for 35,000 automobiles a day. Instead, they planned on thousands of heads of cattle, turkeys and hogs being herded to market along their privately funded toll road.

The finalized route through Salem was on somewhat loose and sandy soil. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice that South Broadway makes a gentle left curve just above Seed Street, crosses the Spicket River, then curves again to the right at Kelly Road and continues on a straight line north to Windham and beyond. This avoided lowlands and Spicket River overflow in the area of today’s T-Bones and JayGees sites. It was difficult to keep a firm top on the original dirt road. For a century, repeated repairs with gravel provided only temporarily relief. Footing for animals, people and wagon wheels was equally poor.

Century later,
a real road

In 1904, the town held a special meeting to vote permission for Mr. Edward F. Searles to “macadamize” the turnpike from the state line to Salem Depot, including Hampshire Street southeast (behind Lowe’s) to the state line near the farm of George E. Townsend, now Oakridge Avenue Apartments. This joined the macadam road from Methuen, Mass., making one unbroken stretch of good road from Lawrence to the Depot. Two other public-spirited and wealthy land owners of Salem, Charles H. Tenney and Levi Woodbury, completed the work from the Depot to the Windham town line.

What was
macadam?

Macadam was a labor-intensive road structure consisting of several rock layers. The bottom layer was at least grapefruit-size stone, firmly and tightly laid. The next tier was stones of approximately 2-inch diameter, firmly packed and heavily rolled. The top surfaces were even smaller stone to fill the gaps and a final topping of crushed stone dust. The design was heavily crowned to shed rainwater and snow melt. Unfortunately, the severely arched design actually made it difficult to follow a straight line and drivers often found themselves wobbling off into the ditches at the edge of the road.

Soon after those more-than-generous donations, Salem put in long stretches of macadam road, such as the entire length of Main Street from the Old Stone School at the corner of Policy Street to Pine Grove Cemetery, and a long stretch of “the Lawrence road” south from Main Street. –By 1925, the automobile had become king of the road and the now-antiquated macadam road structure was overwhelmed by the weight and volume of traffic. Route 28 was replaced with an up-to-date, concrete two-lane highway. That effort served its purpose as the traffic increased over the next two-and-a-half decades. By 1950, however, more modern cars and even heavier trucks poured into and through the town. Trailer loads of horses were brought to and from Rockingham Park and the “race traffic” dramatically increased when railroad passenger service was eliminated in 1954. Salem’s tax-free status, state liquor stores and abundant vegetable stands drew shoppers from as far south as Boston – many of whom wrapped up their visits with a bag of Granite State potato chips or ice cream cones from Quintal’s, Bourge’s or Findeisens. Canobie Lake Park drew millions of visitors to town, all obliged to come via Route 28 since I-93 didn’t yet exist.

In 1950, Route 28 was rebuilt once again, from the state line to the Depot, this time replacing the two-lane concrete road with a modern, four-lane asphalt highway. George Brox brought in his men and heavy equipment and accomplished the massive undertaking for $286,000. The impressive four-laner still stayed pretty much within the 1804 design’s 66-foot width. Again, the foresight of the original planners is remarkable.

It wasn’t until 1986 – 182 years after the original road was built – that more land finally needed to be taken along the length of Salem’s highway. Over the course of a couple of years, South Broadway was expanded with sidewalks, turn lanes and strategically located traffic lights to manage heavy traffic.

Work continues today and will probably never truly be complete as the town, business and traffic inevitably grow. Wouldn’t those 1804 guys be amazed to see what they started?

Doug Seed is a longtime resident of Salem, N.H., who writes about the town’s history.

In 1950, Route 28 underwent an ultra-modern rebuild from Salem Depot to the state line at Methuen. A new, four-lane highway replaced the thumpety-thump of the old, two-lane concrete road installed in 1925. Looking southerly, this view is of the Lawrence Road (lower left), Route 28 intersection at Hampshire Road. CVS Pharmacy is now to our right (out of camera range) and the new Shell gasoline station is directly behind us.