Explore Salem

The Witch House is the 17th-century home of Jonathan Corwin, a judge of the court that tried people accused of witchcraft in Salem in 1692. Corwin bought the unfinished house in 1675 and lived there for over 40 years. Saved from demolition in 1946 and moved back from the street, it is run by the City of Salem as a house museum on Puritan family life and the trials.

The Peabody Essex Museum in central Salem grew out of the East India Marine Society, founded in 1799 by Salem sea captains to show objects brought home from their voyages. It joins the collections of the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute, with maritime, American, Asian, Oceanic and African art, and owns 22 historic buildings.

The Salem Witch Museum tells the history of the Salem witch trials of 1692, in which 19 people were hanged. Opened in 1972, it occupies the former East Church, a Gothic Revival building of 1844–1846 facing Salem Common. A narrated presentation with thirteen life-size stage sets follows the trials, and a second exhibit traces how the image of the witch changed.

Salem Maritime National Historical Park preserves 12 historic structures, wharves and a replica tall ship on Salem Harbor. Established in 1938 as the first US National Historic Site, it covers Salem's trade with Asia and the Caribbean, privateering in the Revolution and the slave trade. Its buildings include the 1819 Custom House, where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked.

The House of the Seven Gables is a timber-framed mansion on Salem Harbor built in 1668 for the merchant and ship-owner John Turner. It inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel of the same name and was restored in 1910 by Caroline Emmerton as a museum and settlement house. Guided tours visit the mansion; the grounds include Hawthorne's birthplace and a seaside garden.