Advocate

Joe Cultrera has spent much of his career documenting the Salem Italian-American neighborhood and the last twenty years working to preserve St Mary Italian Church. He was born and raised in Salem, called it home despite living in New York for three decades, and returned to settle down. He resides in the house built by his maternal grandfather. In fact, Joe was the first in his neighborhood to push for a house plaque recognizing the contributions of his immigrant heritage.

Joe’s preservation efforts incorporate film as a narrative medium to save St Mary. His archival video footage capturing his loved ones serves as a useful tool to tell the story of a building and a neighborhood now in peril of being razed. 

Several of Joe’s films connect to his multigenerational family home, his tight-knit neighborhood, his family Church, and his Salem. His early spoofs involved extended family members acting out characters in the ancestral home, including scenes filmed inside St Mary’s after-hours, thanks to an aunt who taught Sunday school there. Marking his family’s milestones occasionally included footage of a Church ceremony with the various marble pieces or stained-glass windows in the background. Two of his documentaries preserve North Shore stories for posterity: Witch City captured Salem’s public, commercial and religious maneuvering during the tercentenary of the Witch Trials; while Leather Soul: Working for a Life in a Factory Townpreserved the faces and voices of Peabody’s tannery industry and was picked to be part of the National Gallery of Art’s series on the American Documentary.

Joe’s short film, For the Love of God, tells the story of a beloved St Mary and its loyal community—and captures the palpable loss when it was closed in 2003. The short film visually preserves the fresco and architectural details admired by its patrons.

Joe’s feature-length documentary, Hand of God, reveals the power of family addressing sexual abuse by a parish priest; inevitably, footage of St Mary was used in that project, too. And Joe’s numerous shorts, Salem Sketches, showcase hidden treasures of Salem such as playing Bingo at a church hall—filmed at St James because St Mary was closed.

In 2009, Joe co-founded GESNA, the Greater Endicott Street Neighborhood Association and has been a member of its steering committee ever since. GESNA was created to unite and stand up for the former Little Italy neighborhood after the St. Mary campus became Lifebridge properties. 

When Lifebridge said they wanted to turn St Mary into residential housing—the first time in 2010—Joe created a non-profit to try to acquire the Church, and propelled his neighbors to join his cause. Joe devised a proposal to turn St Mary into a community arts center which would preserve the Church while giving it new purpose. Joe’s plan had financial support, but Lifebridge chose a different direction.

Joe worked to salvage the statues of the Virgin Mary, St. Bernadette and other pieces from the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto that stood next to the Church before Lifebridge tore it down. The relics were relocated to a new mini-Grotto that Joe worked to secure at St Mary Cemetery on North Street. (SEE PHOTOS)

In May 2023, after Lifebridge and Harborlight revealed their expansion proposal to demolish St Mary entirely, Joe created and was quickly elected coordinator of “Our Neighborhood, Our History” (ONOH). This 18 member subcommittee of GESNA is made up of Lifebridge abutters and nearby neighbors who want to see our historic church and footprint in Downtown Salem preserved.

To that end, Joe has returned to his camera to interview residents, energize a neighborhood association, and lead the push to save St Mary. He has renewed his proposal to adapt the Church for a community arts center—a space where Lifebridge could give their clients job training and art classes. 

Joe Cultrera is still in the fight.