The Boston Globe - 13.09.2019

B2 Metro The Boston Globe FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

By Steve Annear

GLOBE STAFF

Tourists hoping to get an up-close look at the centuries-old gravestones

inside Salem’s oldest cemetery this Halloween season will have to resort to

viewing pictures of them online instead.

From Sept. 28 through Nov. 3, the historic Charter Street Cemetery,

where gravestones of people with ties to the infamous witch trials can be

found, will be off-limits to visitors and tour groups, including during the

spookiest — and arguably busiest — holiday of the year.

“It is going to be closed completely,” said Kate Fox, executive director of

Destination Salem, the city’s office of tourism and cultural affairs. “We un-

derstand that will be frustrating and disappointing for some visitors, but

we hope they will be able to come back at another time. It’s just for one

month that it won’t be available.”

The closure this season was announced Wednesday on the city’s web-

site.

According to officials, members of the Cemetery Commission voted

Tuesday night to shut down the Charter Street Cemetery before a new

phase of restoration work begins on the grounds.

The city is preparing to “undertake a substantial landscape preservation

and improvement project in the cemetery,” the statement said. The up-

grades follow previous phases of work that included “some headstone and

tomb restoration and preliminary archaeological reviews.”

Next steps will include “upgrades and stabilization of pathways, installa-

tion of lighting, and restoration of fencing,” according to PreservingSa-

lem.com, which details the project plans.

Fox said it’s the first time in her 20 years working for the city that she

can remember the cemetery being closed on Halloween.

In 2017, officials put a cap on how many people were allowed in the

cemetery at one time during the last few days of the Halloween season.

The following year, officials tightened those restrictions, and only 100

people were allowed inside the cemetery during the weekends throughout

October.

The 1.47-acre cemetery, also known as Old Burying Point, is Salem’s old-

est, according to salem.org. It was founded in 1637 and is the resting place

for “several notable Salem residents,” including John Hathorne, a judge

during the witch trials and an ancestor of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Mary

Corey, the second wife of Giles Corey, the man famously pressed to death in

1692 during the witchcraft hysteria.

The burying ground, which is open from dawn to dusk, is located direct-

ly behind the Witch Trials Memorial. It’s often packed with tourists who

wind along its paths to read the markings on the gravestones.

An “FAQ” about the cemetery lists at least 10 walking tour companies

that bring customers to the site, or through it.

Pamela Captain, co-owner of Bewitched After Dark Walking Tours, said

the closure would affect her daytime tours, where many people book tickets

with an express interest in seeing the cemetery.

“I’ve sold tickets based on the fact that I’m going to get into the ceme-

tery, so now people specifically interested in that will be disappointed,” she

said. “Our evening tours now don’t get into the cemetery [because it’s

closed at night], but the ones who book the day tours, it’s a selling point.”

While she couldn’t say how much of an effect on business it could have,

Captain understands that preserving the grounds is important to the future

of the site as an attraction.

“We want to see the stones preserved and we want the cemetery main-

tained,” she said. “So whatever needs to be done in order for that [to] hap-

pen, that’s fine with us.”

Seth Mascolo, owner and tour guide for Salem Heritage Tours, also sees

the need to keep it shuttered for the time being. Although he doesn’t take

customers into the cemetery anymore, he brings them to the spot to ob-

serve from beyond the gates. He said it’s a “good thing” to re-do the

grounds.

“It helps preserve the history,” he said.

While it’s closed, the city plans to publish information and images about

the cemetery and its history online, so people can learn more about the

notable headstones and tombs within its gates.

Fox said she doesn’t think the closure will adversely affect Halloween

tourism this year, despite the graveyard being a big draw for many.

“There are a lot of other things to do in Salem during the course of Octo-

ber,” she said. “This is the first time we have had to close it in October, and

we don’t anticipate it will be this way in the future.”

Steve Annear can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on

Twitter @steveannear.

Salemcemeteryclosingforrepairs

GLOBE STAFF PHOTO/ JIM DAVIS

The Charter Street Burial Ground will be off limits to visitors while it undergoes renovations during the Halloween season.

AROUND THE REGION

BOSTON

Onekilled,oneinjured

inpedestriancrash

One of two pedestrians who were struck by a ve-

hicle Wednesday night at the corner of Melcher

and Summer streets in South Boston has died,

police said Thursday. The victim was a woman

between 20 and 30 years old, according to Offi-

cer Kim Tavares. A man who was struck, who is

also between 20 and 30 years old, remains hospi-

talized and was not as seriously injured, police

said. The driver stayed at the scene and police

continue their investigation. In a statement,

Mayor Martin J. Walsh expressed his condolenc-

es, and said safety improvements are planned for

the area. An updated traffic signal for that loca-

tion will include an “exclusive pedestrian phase,

crossing Summer Street on the west side of the

intersection,” according to city officials. Vehicles

will be barred from turning left from Melcher

Street onto Summer Street, heading in the direc-

tion toward South Station, officials said.

BOSTON

EMKInstitutereceives

Gatesgrantforyouths

The Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United

States Senate has received a $500,000 grant from

the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a proj-

ect called Youth Movements, a new multimedia

initiative, the Dorchester nonprofit said Thurs-

day. “The Institute will collaborate with youth ac-

tivists in order to create an immersive and inter-

active visitor experience that draws upon stories

of youth movements,” the statement said. “Stu-

dents will serve as advisors on the project help-

ing to create offerings that fully engage young

people in civics, government, and representa-

tion.” A national advisory group of leaders who

work with young people will also be formed to

advise the project, which is set to start in the fall

and open next spring, the statement said. Mary

K. Grant, president of the institute, said the proj-

ect will tap into a new political energy demon-

strated by young people across the county. Ken-

nedy, who represented Massachusetts in the Sen-

ate for nearly 47 years, died in 2009 of brain

cancer at age 77.

WELLESLEY

Ex-coachsentenced

forchildpornography

A former track coach at Wellesley High School

and Harvard University has been sentenced to

three years in prison on a child pornography

charge. Federal prosecutors say 71-year-old Wal-

ter Johnson of Framingham was also sentenced

Wednesday to five years of probation. Authorities

say they started investigating child pornography

being traded by a Craigslist user in January

2017. The investigation led to Johnson, a track
      coach at Wellesley High School at the time. Au-
      thorities say during a search of Johnson’s home,
      images and videos of child pornography were
      found on his computer and on a thumb drive
      hidden in his bedroom. Johnson was an assistant
      coach at Harvard until 2006. (AP)

PROVIDENCE

Stateisordered

topayforbikepath

A judge has ruled that Rhode Island will have to

compensate a construction company for building

a public bikeway on private property. H.V. Col-

lins sued the state Department of Transportation

in 2016 soon after the agency began building the

Blackstone River Bikeway. The path’s southern-

most section begins in Providence’s Fox Point

neighborhood and passes behind the company’s

offices. It is unclear how much the state may

have to pay. The agency said it intends to appeal

the ruling. (AP)

WILTON, N.H.

Busdriverresignsafter

leavingstudentbehind

A school bus driver in New Hampshire has re-

signed after an 11-year-old student was seeming-

ly denied access to the bus. Home surveillance

video showed the girl trying to board the bus

Monday morning, only to have the door shut and

the driver take off. Bryanna Guitard, who attends

the Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative Middle

High School, said she knocked on the door. Her

mother, Kelley Guitard, contacted the superin-

tendent and the bus company. She said she was

told the driver didn’t see her daughter and want-

ed to apologize. Before that could happen, Kelley

Guitard posted the video online. The driver later

resigned. (AP)

‘I apparently signed this

letter on August 16, 2012,

about six weeks into my

presidency. Although I do

not recall it, it does bear

my signature.’

RAFAEL REIF
MIT president, acknowledging that a 2012
letter bearing his signature was sent to
disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein thanking
the late sex offender for a donation to a
professor at the school.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

GET SMART

By Alyssa Lukpat
GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
Researchers have discovered that a plan-
et orbiting a star about 50 light years away
from Earth has no atmosphere, raising ques-
tions about whether similar planets, which
some have wondered might be harboring
life, are simply barren rocks.
LHS 3844b orbits the small nearby star
LHS 3844. The terrestrial, or rock-based
planet, which is 30 percent bigger than
Earth, has no atmosphere, according to Lau-
ra Kreidberg, lead author of a study pub-
lished recently in the journal Nature.
Rocky planets are considered most likely
to host life because their surfaces can sup-
port liquid water, Kreidberg said. But if
there’s no atmosphere, the water on the
planet would evaporate and escape.
Not only that, our own “atmosphere pro-
tects us from cosmic radiation that would
mutate our DNA. So it’s really important for
life as we know it to have that protection,”
said Kreidberg, a Clay Fellow at the Har-
vard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The study found that “LHS 3844b is
probably a bare rock.”
LHS 3844 is an M dwarf, or red dwarf,
star. Such stars, which have masses 0.08 to
0.6 times that of our sun, are the most nu-
merous type of star. And they may host a
high percentage of the total number of plan-
ets in the galaxy, scientists say.
But M dwarfs emit high levels of ultravio-
let light, which are harmful to life and can
erode an atmosphere. They’re also “particu-
larly violent in their youth, belching up a
large number of flares, or bursts of radiation
and particles that could strip away budding
planetary atmospheres,” according to NASA.
“Theoretical models predict that these
planets are more vulnerable to atmospheric
loss than their counterparts orbiting sun-
like stars,” the study in Nature said.
The scientists said their findings support-
ed the theory “that hot terrestrial planets or-
biting small stars may not retain substantial
atmospheres.”
Researchers discovered the planet had no
atmosphere by calculating the climate on
both sides. A planet with an atmosphere
would have wind circulating heat between
the day and night sides, Kreidberg said.
“This planet is tidally locked to its parent
star like the moon is tidally locked to earth.
So one hot side is continuously heated by
the star and one side is cold,” Kreidberg
said. “We observed a very big temperature
contrast between two sides, so we inferred
this planet almost certainly has no atmo-
sphere.”
The researchers found that temperatures
on the bright side were around 1,040 Kelvin
(around 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit) and on
the dark side were around 0 Kelvin (around
minus 460 Fahrenheit).
Kreidberg and her coauthors from NASA,
Stanford University, the Massachusetts In-
stitute of Technology, and other universities
hope future studies will find planets orbit-
ing small stars that can host life.
“The results presented here motivate
similar studies for less-irradiated planets or-
biting small stars. Cooler planets are less
susceptible to atmospheric escape and ero-
sion, and may provide a friendlier environ-
ment for the evolution of life,” the study
said.

Alyssa Lukpat can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow her on
Twitter @AlyssaLukpat.

Niceplanet,but

noatmosphere

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