Salem
A bewitched day trip from Boston
The town of Salem, known for the witch trials, and close enough to Boston for a spooky day trip is a popular destination for all kinds of thrill seekers. As you walk up and down the main street, Essex Street, you might get invited to re-enactments of the witch trials, psychic readings, vampire balls and séances. You can visit haunted houses and stock up on your sorcery supplies.
If you walk down towards Essex street from the train station, you hardly miss the statue of Samantha flying on her broom. It is Samantha from the TV series “Bewitched” which ran in the late 60s and early 70s. The series only filmed a few episodes in Salem and yet, the town dedicated her a statue that stirred up some controversy with the local Wiccan culture in Salem.
It wasn’t “Bewitched” that caused a cult around witch craft in Salem. It was a much darker event in history.
The Salem witch trials
It was in the summer of 1692 when Salem was caught by the hysteria around witches. 19 people were accused of being witches and lost their lives in Salem. It all started with a medical misdiagnosis where patients were diagnosed a being possessed by the devil, the doings of a witch, by Dr. William Griggs. (Modern theories consider a fungal disease that was unknown in the 17th century).
One of the first to be accused of being a witch and having caused the state of the patients was Tituba, a slave from Barbados who was known for storytelling during a long winter’s night. Those stories most likely originated in Voodoo culture and therefore caused the villagers to believe her to be a witch. Tituba was imprisoned and her case was dismissed in 1693. It is not known what happened to her afterwards. She was not amongst the witches that were hung in Salem.
However, Tituba accused other women in the town of being witches who experienced a much darker fate. By the late summer of 1692, 19 women and also men had been hung and one more had been crushed under a wooden board.
It was only in 1992 that a memorial was erected next to the Charter Street Cemetery.
The hysteria in Salem ended when the children in the town accused the governor’s wife of being a witch.
Witch places to visit in Salem
Today, there is only one house in Salem that still exists and has a direct relation to the witch trials. It is simply called Salem Witch House. It was the home of Jonathan Corwin, one of the judges in the Salem witch trials. It is now a museum. Tickets should be purchased online.
There is another museum, simply called the Salem Witch Museum on the other end of the town centre next to the Salem Common. It is not a traditional museum where you walk through an exhibition, it is more like a presentation that tells the story of the witch trials in Salem. It was part of the guided tour Charlie had booked for Salem and whilst she enjoyed the information provided in the museum, it felt like the very definition of a tourist trap. The room felt crowded and even in the parts where information was provided on the walls, there was not enough time to actually look at it because the next group was about to enter the room.
Other places to visit in Salem
Another popular place to visit in Salem is the Ropes Mansion, mainly because it was one of the locations in the movie Hocus Pocus. It has historic ties though as a British loyalist passed away in this house just as the mob was waiting in front. The house is said to be haunted. There is a beautiful garden behind the house which is open to the public and can be visited for free. It is worth a stroll!
Another haunted place is the Rockafellas Restaurant opposite the Samantha statue on Essex street. The Lady in Blue occasionally appears in the mirror and the restaurant even named a cocktail after her. Maybe if you drink enough of it, you’ll see her appear too. The restaurant is also one of the few entrance points to the tunnels under the city that were used by smugglers and connected the centre to the wharf.
Today it is called “Salem Maritime National Historic Site” and it used to be the main wharf in Salem and one of the busiest ports in New England in times gone by.
Further along Essex Street is the Old Salem Town Hall, a beautiful building and a place for all kinds of arts.
If the filming locations of Hocus Pocus are of interest, you should also pass by the Phillips School next to the Salem Common which was the school in the movie.
Visiting Salem
Salem is close enough to Boston to visit in a day and a return ticket for the train costs USD 16. By train, it takes about 30 minutes from Boston North Station. The ferry to Salem takes 50 minutes and prices start at USD 29. Salem is particularly busy in October when some special events take place, the so-called “haunted happenings”. The town expects more than a million visitors throughout the month and if you plan to stay overnight at that time of the year, you should book at least a year in advance.
Charlie visited Salem at the end of September. The leaves had already started to change colours and the whole town was already decorated in Halloween style. That might be your loophole to get the spook factor and avoid the busy October.
