Esther Mack and Mack Industrial School
17 Pickman Street
At the time of her death in 1884, Esther C. Mack made a bequest
in her will for the establishment of a school to provide employment
training for women. Her wish was carried out in 1897 when the Mack
Industrial School was organized by her friend Alfred Stone and a
committee of prominent Salem women. By 1908, enrollment had grown
to more than five hundred students. Young women between the ages
of fourteen and eighteen wishing to become seamstresses or dressmakers’
assistants enrolled in a twelve-month, five-day a week course that
also included a three-month apprenticeship in the field. The school
also offered classes in millinery, embroidery, gardening, domestic
skills, English, arithmetic, hygiene, and physical training. As
the Boston Globe reported in 1906, “girls of Salem were to
be taught useful and ornamental arts as well as occupations by which
they could support themselves honestly and profitably.”112
This brick residence was purchased and utilized for the school until
the late 1920s.
Notes
112. Boston Globe, June 17, 1906.
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