Salem is two cities: the witch trial site of 1692 (in which 19 people were executed and 150 imprisoned in a community panic that has defined American historiography of religious extremism) and the maritime powerhouse of the early republic (from 1790 to 1807, the port generated more customs revenue per capita than any city in the United States). The Peabody Essex Museum, which holds the cultural consequence of that maritime wealth, is one of the most significant art museums in New England.
Getting There
MBTA Newburyport/Rockport Line from North Station to Salem: approximately 30 minutes. Trains run at least twice per hour on weekdays. Salem station is 10 minutes walk from the historic downtown and Derby Street waterfront.
The Peabody Essex Museum
Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) on Essex Street (entry approximately $25): founded in 1799 as the East India Marine Society, to which members contributed objects brought back from trading voyages. The result is one of the largest collections of Asian export art in the world - Chinese export porcelain, Japanese lacquerware, Indian textiles, Pacific Island ethnography - assembled by Salem merchants who were among the first Americans to trade directly with Asia.
The PEM building (Moshe Safdie extension, 2003) is on a scale that conceals the collection's depth. The permanent collection highlights:
- Yin Yu Tang (the entire interior of a Chinese house from the Huizhou region, built c.1800, transported and reassembled inside the museum in 2003): a 16-room house of 4,000 square feet with its central courtyard, ancestral hall, and bedroom quarters. One of the most significant museum objects in the United States.
- The maritime galleries: ship models, navigation instruments, portraits of Salem sea captains, and the complete cabin furniture from the Frederick (1840), a Salem-built ship
- Asian Export Art galleries: Kangxi blue and white, Famille Rose export, the Japanese Imari service made for Salem sea captain George Crowninshield
The museum grounds include a historic mansion district adjacent to the museum building.
The Witch Trial History
The Witch Trials Memorial on Liberty Street (free): a simple granite memorial to the 19 executed, the 5 who died in prison, and the 175 who were imprisoned during the 1692 panic. Opened in 1992 on the 300th anniversary.
The Witch Trials of 1692 were a community crisis in a Puritan settlement under exceptional stress - poor harvests, conflict with Indigenous neighbours, political instability (Massachusetts had just lost its royal charter). The trials were conducted by the colonial legal system on spectral evidence (witness testimony about dreams and visions); 14 women and 5 men were hanged, one man was pressed to death. The last surviving accused was released in May 1693. The crisis is the most well-documented collective panic in American colonial history.
The Salem Heritage Trail (a red line painted on the pavement) connects the memorial, the Charter Street Cemetery (the oldest in Salem, with slate tombstones dating from 1637), the Witch Trials victims' graves (none in the cemetery - the executed were buried in unmarked graves near the execution site at Proctor's Ledge), and the Proctor's Ledge Memorial (the actual execution site, marked since 2017 on the site that DNA and historical records confirmed in 2016).
The Maritime Quarter
Derby Wharf (National Historic Site, free) and the Custom House (entry approximately $10 for the Salem Heritage Trail pass): the preserved Federal-era warehouses and wharf structure where Nathaniel Hawthorne worked as a customs inspector from 1846 to 1849. The Custom House is where he found the scarlet letter embroidery in the attic that inspired The Scarlet Letter.
The Salem Maritime National Historic Site (free) covers the waterfront history from the slave trade to the Pacific merchant voyages of the 1790s-1820s.
Pickering Wharf (the modern marina development) has restaurants on the water for post-marathon dinner.
Where to Stay
The Hawthorne Hotel on Washington Square (the only full-service hotel in downtown Salem, opened 1925): the standard choice for the marathon weekend, on the common opposite the Witch Trials Memorial. The Salem Inn on Summer Street (three connected 19th-century mansions): the boutique option. Stepping Stone Inn on Washington Square: B&B.
Where to Eat
Turner's Seafood on Derby Street: the best chowder in Salem. Ledger Restaurant & Bar on Washington Street: the fine dining option. The Ugly Mug on Pickering Wharf: casual, by the water, good for post-museum lunch.
Practical Notes
- Salem is 16 miles north of Boston.
- April in Salem: 8-14°C. The witch trial tourism industry operates year-round but is significantly quieter in April than October.
- The PEM closes on Tuesdays; plan the schedule accordingly (Monday race, Tuesday travel, Wednesday PEM is the best sequencing).
- Return to Boston: MBTA Newburyport/Rockport Line from Salem to North Station, 30 minutes.
- Extension: Gloucester (30 minutes north on the Rockport Line) has the Cape Ann Museum, the Beauport (Sleeper-McCann House, National Historic Landmark), and the Rocky Neck Art Colony.