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Water Street, later South Broad Street, was one of the earliest streets laid out in the 1802 plot of Salem. Water Street became the dominant center for Salem’s African-American community.
– The “Graded School A” was erected on Water Street as a six-room frame school in 1890-91 (the same year the Academy Street School opened for white students). By 1895, the school had an enrollment of 258 under the principal John Duckwilder.
The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was started in 1870 and at the date of this card’s printing (1912), it stood on the corner of Water Street and Calhoun.