St. Joseph Society and St. Joseph Hall

The three-story brick building at 160 Derby Street known as St. Joseph Hall was built in 1909 by the St. Joseph Society. The St. Joseph Society was founded in 1899, as a branch of the national Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. It was unique among Salem's Polish organizations in constructing its own meeting hall rather than adapting an existing building—a clear statement that Poles intended to set down roots here.

The 50th anniversary of St. Joseph Hall was a major celebration by the St. Joseph Society.

Courtesy of Dorothy Filip

The Society was instrumental in the founding of a Polish Catholic Church in the city, as well as supporting cultural, political, and sports activities, providing space for meetings and social events, and renting apartments on the top floor to those in need of housing.

As a mutual assistance organization, it also offered life insurance (and, in its early years, health benefits through the Society's doctor) to its members. The St. Joseph Society and St. Joseph Hall thus played many roles in helping Polish immigrants and their children adjust to life in the United States and creating a shared sense of ethnic and community identity.

St. Joseph Hall after its restoration by the National Park Service, 2008.

Courtesy of Cathy Stanton

St. Joseph Hall fulfilled its role as a community base for many decades. But by the 1980s, the neighborhood around it was no longer primarily Polish, and the dwindling number of Society members, like those of other ethnic organizations in the city, were finding it difficult to maintain their building.

In the same decade, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, established in 1938, was undergoing a period of expansion and revitalization. The park was seeking not only additional space but new ways to tell the story of Salem's waterfront area and a way to connect to a set of park neighbors and others who shared long-time memories and associations with the Derby Street neighborhood.

When St. Joseph Hall was put up for sale in 1987, the park was able to acquire it. The building has been extensively renovated and was re-dedicated in 2005 at an event that included Polish food, speeches, and dancing to live polka music played by Buddy Walker's Warszawiacki Orchestra, a group that has performed countless times in this hall and other venues in Polish Salem over more than half a century.