Fence in Washington Square, Salem 
COLONIAL GATEWAYS AND FENCES IN NEW ENGLAND 
By Walter H. Kilham 
/^\NCE more the fence has come to the 
front as an important accessory to the 
house, and its return to favor will be hailed 
with delight by all who have the elevation 
of the public taste at heart. In the good old 
times more or less 
domestic privacy was 
considered desirable. 
Not only was the 
front lawn discreetly 
enclosed in railings 
or pickets, hut the 
back garden, which, 
in old New England 
towns, often became 
the very sanctum 
sanctorum of the 
feminine department 
of each household, 
was surrounded by 
walls hardly less for¬ 
midable than those 
of a Spanish nun¬ 
nery. I remember 
two or three still ex¬ 
isting in an old Mas¬ 
sachusetts seaport 
which are protected 
by board fences 
seven feet high with 
notched and spiked 
tops and covered 
with countless layers of whitewash which, 
peeling slightly here and there, gives a brilliant 
rough white background for the riotous hol¬ 
lyhocks and peonies that grow against it. 
Twenty years ago, more or less, by the 
decree of capricious 
Fashion, the Colo¬ 
nial fences of New 
England came well 
nigh to being ex¬ 
terminated. 1 he 
“open” treatment 
for grounds sur¬ 
rounding detached 
houses came in with 
a whirlwind of popu¬ 
lar favor. It was 
alleged that a city 
having open spaces 
of lawn between the 
houses, unbroken 
even by hedges, ex¬ 
pressed a sense of 
equality and frater¬ 
nity and a desire for 
all to share the 
pleasure one might 
feel in his own well- 
kept grounds or es¬ 
tablishment, which 
was supposed to 
be latent in the 
A SALEM GARDEN ENTRANCE 
225 
