Chic, shtick among Salem's pleasures

September 28, 2003|Deborah Asbrand, Globe Correspondent

SALEM -- In the past, you could always credit Salem for being earnest, if tacky. When it came to tourism, the city happily highlighted its Puritanical faults as well as its maritime talents. That unusual combo was part of its charm, the motivation behind the sometimes awkward promotional poses it struck to commingle six months of witch hysteria in 1692 with the lavishness of life 100 years later, when Salem was living large as a wealthy port city.

Imagine the smiles all around when city promoters hit on the perfect hybrid motto: "The bewitching seaport."

Now Salem has a third element to juggle: sophistication. It started with the opening of a handful of high-end retailers selling chic home goods rather than, say, little plastic skulls that double as pencil sharpeners. It marched on with the debut this summer of Strega, a trendy eatery.

But the loudest appeal yet to the upscale tourist has come from one of the city's oldest tourist destinations, the Peabody Essex Museum. The 204-year-old museum took the wraps off a $125 million expansion this summer and has undertaken an equally aggressive marketing campaign to promote its newly stylish self.

The message from the museum is that it's heading for the big leagues, and it's taking its host city with it. "New York? D.C.?" asks the museum's promotional billboard that towers over travelers along Route 93 and bears an image of the new wing's startling, reach-to-the-sky lobby. No, comes the billboard's definitive answer. "Salem."

The museum is also shaping a fresh identity. Taking a page from prestigious museums commonly known by their initials -- think the MFA (Museum of Fine Arts) and even more grandly, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) -- the museum's new shorthand for itself is "PEM."

Can a city that has prided itself on witches, tchotchkes, and maritime history coexist with sophisticates who might not see anything funny about donning a pointed witch's hat?

Salem's quandary struck us as familiar. After all, who among us hasn't at some point secretly aspired to be chicer than we are?

Perched along the Essex Street Pedestrian Mall, the new entrance to the Peabody Essex Museum fits in so well with the fabric of that walkway that its appearance can almost come as a surprise.

Almost. You'll definitely know when you've arrived.

Stand in front of the glass doors, and you can't help but want to tug them open. That's because the museum's long, tall, light-filled lobby draws you in.

That irresistibility is just the reaction PEM hoped to elicit and the reason for its hiring of architect Moshe Safdie to design the new 110,000-square-foot wing. Safdie is Somerville-based but internationally renowned for, among other things, the National Gallery of Canada.