Danvers Strikes $750K Deal To Preserve Rebecca Nurse Homestead

DANVERS, MA — The 26-acre Rebecca Nurse Homestead will become property of the town of Danvers and the Danvers Alarm List Company under a conservation restriction after the town finalized a $750,000 agreement with Historic New England to preserve the link to the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692.

The property on Pine Street near the Danvers Rail Trail has long been identified in the town's Open Space Plan as a priority preservation site. The conservation restriction will be held by the Commonwealth and the Danvers Conservation Commission.

Town Manager Steve Bartha credited former Assistant Planning & Human Services Director Susan Fletcher for her persistence in keeping the issue on the forefront and former DALCO President Jackson Tingle, who helped rekindle dialogue for the preservation in 2019 after a failed bid in 2010.

"The Danvers Alarm List Company is pleased that our historic landscape will be protected in perpetuity, remaining as it was from the founding of Danvers, and providing an authentic setting for our nationally important historic site," DALCO President Kathryn Rutkowski said. "The funding will allow us to maintain and improve our historic buildings and visitor amenities and aid in our mission to educate and demonstrate local colonial life, especially the Revolutionary War era of 1775 and the Witchcraft era of 1692."

DALCO said the payment will allow for installing upgraded water and sewer services for on-site events, and potential revenue opportunities, and will help create an endowment to ensure the sustainability of DALCO and the site.

"This public-private partnership is a win-win-win," Select Board Chair Daniel Bennett said. "It will ensure that an important Danvers site is protected for and enjoyed by future generations, it will help to sustain an important local non-profit dedicated to teaching the world our important history, and it will boost our local economy through enhanced tourism."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)