Discover Delmarva Arts: Memories of Downtown Salisbury

SALISBURY, Md. — When Artist Susan Holt moved to Salisbury in 1999 — she didn’t understand why the downtown area wasn’t more vibrant… “it seemed like a nice enough place, the nice architecture, the plaza was lovely, but there where never many people,” Holt said.

So, she got to thinking about how she could help bring downtown back to life… “I came up with this idea to interview people who were old enough to remember when downtown was a vibrant place, and I wanted to hear lots of different voices… The stories that came out were just fascinating… I had this idea of making a kind of tapestry, a kind of woven piece with phrases from the kinds of answers that I got.”

Susan learned all kinds of things about what downtown once was — including the people and businesses that kept it alive for generations. “There was the white downtown and the black downtown — and in both parts there were night clubs, stores, restaurants, hotels, it was really vibrant.”

She heard the good memories — like grabbing lunch with friends and summer days on the plaza, but she also heard stories about some of Downtown’s most troubling moments — like the 1931 lynching of Matthew Williams. “It really made me think… history is history — we have the good, the bad, the ugly, and it’s who we are. It’s our history.”

Now, with “Memories of Downtown” front and center on West Main Street, Susan hopes that when passersby see her piece — they’ve given this important reminder. “A lot has been done downtown. Downtown is looking for a lot more vibrant than it was back then, so we have made progress.”