NOVEMBER 19, 1814
200 years ago today, John
DePauw filed a plat for the first addition to the original plat of the Town of
Salem. This plat consisted of 44 lots
and laid to the west of the original plat on both sides of Brock Creek. 20 of the lots were on the east side of Brock
Creek. Mill Street was added as a street
by this plat. 19 of these lots east of
Brock Creek were located north of Mulberry Street. Lot number 143 was separate
from the other lots in this new plat and placed at the southwest corner of
South Water Street and West Cherry Street.
The remaining 24 lots were west
of Brock Creek and ran from West Small Street to West Mulberry Street. All of these lots on the west side of Brock
Creek were east of present day Posey Street which was created in 1815. Part of
this area on both sides of Brock Creek was left unplatted until December of 1883
and would become known as “The Salem Commons”.
This plat indicated that
Walnut Street was the connecting street between the east and west banks of
Brock Creek. Presumably this was where
the ford across Brock Creek was located that Benjamin Brewer used to get to
each side of his homestead before he sold his 160 acres to John DePauw for the
development of the Washington County seat of government. The public road established by the Washington
Circuit Court that ran from the Knox County line to Salem connected to the
northwest part of this first addition and then crossed at Walnut Street.
DePauw probably assigned Mill
Street its name because it connected to the wagon road that coursed along the
west side of Blue River to William Lindley’s mill southwest of Salem. Lindley’s Mill was not very accessible by
this route but at least Blue River didn’t have to be crossed when using this
route. DePauw planned for a bridge
across Royse’s Fork at the foot of South Main Street when more lots were sold
in the Salem Plat. Much of the lumber that was used in the construction of the
new Court House and the first houses and buildings in Salem was sawed at this
mill.
Although only 6 lots in the
original plat of Salem had been sold in the 6 months since the plat was filed
and advertised, many persons had made their 25% down payment and were waiting
for the streets to be cleared of trees and undergrowth before making their final
payment to receive their title. John
DePauw must have been optimistic about the new Washington County seat’s
prospects to have platted more lots for sale.
He didn’t plat the area on the slope of the ridge west of Brock Creek as
many families and individuals were squatting around the Benjamin Brewer
blockhouse which was located west of where West Walnut Street and South Posey
Street intersect today. The area around
present day DePauw Park was also left unplatted as a graveyard containing
members of the Brewer family and those who met their demise in the Salem area before
they had the opportunity to claim land or buy a lot from John DePauw.
Many people asked DePauw why
he designed the Court House Square with the main streets entering from the
sides of the square rather than at the corners.
DePauw may have obtained his inspiration for this design from Bardstown
which was the county seat of Nelson County Kentucky. DePauw had grown up in nearby Lincoln County
Kentucky and undoubtedly had often been to Bardstown before coming to the Indiana
Territory. The type of square in the
Salem plat was known as the Lancaster plan.
Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the source of this style of town layout and
several settlers or their parents had lived in the area of Lancaster County
Pennsylvania before moving south into Virginia, North Carolina and
Kentucky. The style of square selected
for Salem by DePauw did not prove to be prevalent as only Paoli (1816) and
Jasper (1819) also have a Lancaster plan square in Indiana. The most popular style of public square in
Indiana is the Shelbyville plan named after the layout of Shelbyville,
Tennessee. Over 80 county seats have this design in Indiana.
One can speculate as to
whether the local officials of Salem and Washington County, Indiana in the late
20th century and the Indiana Department of Transportation would have
perceived the need for a highway bypass around the Salem Public Square if it
had been a Shelbyville design instead of a Lancaster design. Perhaps the State Road 60 truck route around
Salem completed in 2012 should be called the John DePauw Memorial Highway.
LOCATION OF DEPAUW FIRST ADDITION
TO SALEM
AERIAL VIEW OF SALEM BYPASS
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
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