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Top Attractions in Salem

Salem Willows

Salem Willows is an oceanfront neighborhood and amusement park in Salem, Massachusetts. It is named for the European white willow trees planted there in 1801 to form a shaded walk for patients convalescing at a nearby smallpox hospital. The area became a public park in 1858, and in the twentieth century became a summer destination for residents of Bostons North Shore, many of whom escaped the heat of the city on newly popular streetcars. Many establishments on Restaurant Row, the parks north side, served fresh seafood, while a carousel with carved flying horses was another special attraction at an amusement park that survives to this day. Although the last of the original restaurants closed in the 1960s, there are still numerous take-out stands to choose from. It has several arcades, one containing a few rides. There are two small beaches located on the Willows which is a common place for tourist to go and see the surrounding cities and towns. The beaches are also a common place to watch the 4th of July fireworks since you can see three sets of fireworks; Salem, Beverly, and Marblehead. The willows also has a famous popcorn stand, Hobbs which known around the North Shore as one of the best places to get popcorn and/or ice cream and/or chicken wings

Salem Maritime National Historic Site

The Salem Maritime National Historic Site is a National Historic Site consisting of 12 historic structures, 1 replica tall-ship and about 9 acres of land along the waterfront of Salem Harbor in Salem, Massachusetts. Salem Maritime is first National Historic Site established in the United States and interprets the triangular trade during the colonial period; privateers during the American Revolution; and global maritime trade with the Far East, after independence. The National Park Service manages both the National Historic Site and a Regional Visitor Center in downtown Salem. The National Park Service, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. The Act was signed into law on August 25, 1916, by President Woodrow Wilson, and is located in Title 16 of the United States Code. In 2014, The National Park Service who runs the Salem Maritime National Historic Site released figures and statistics for 2012 stating that there were 756,038 visitors in Salem who spent an estimated $40,000,000.

Crowninshield-Bentley House

The Crowninshield-Bentley House is a Colonial house in the Georgian style, located at 126 Essex Street, Salem, Massachusetts in the Essex Institute Historic District. It is now owned by the Peabody Essex Museum and open for public tours from June to October. The house was originally built for sea captain John Crowninshield at a site on 106 Essex Street. It is a symmetrical five-bay structure, clapboarded, two stories tall, with three small dormers through the roof, and a central entry door. Some believe it may have started as a "half house" on the east side, and been expanded in 1761 and again in 1794. The building was moved to its present location in 1959-1960, at which time it was restored. Four generations of Crowninshields lived in the house until 1832. Its main historical interest centers upon Reverend William Bentley, a boarder from 1791 to 1819. It has been suggested that this house may be the model for "the old Crowninshield house" mentioned in the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Thing on the Doorstep" .

Ropes Mansion

The Ropes Mansion, also called Ropes Memorial, is a Georgian Colonial mansion located at 318 Essex Street, located in the Chestnut Street District in Salem, Massachusetts. It is now operated by the Peabody Essex Museum and open to the public. The house was built for Samuel Barnard, a merchant. In 1768, Judge Nathaniel Ropes, Jr., purchased the house from Barnards nephew. The Ropes family then inhabited the house until 1907, when the house was given to the Trustees of the Ropes Memorial for public benefit. Although altered through the years and then restored, the house looks much like its original form, with a symmetrical facade of two stories, three small pedimented gables through the roof, roof balustrade, and modillioned cornice. In 1807, however, its interior was extensively renovated. In the mid-1830s five rooms and the central hall were remodelled, and todays doorway installed (with details inspired by Asher Benjamins pattern book. In 1894 the house was moved away from the street and further modified internally. A large, fine garden was added behind the house in 1912.

Stephen Phillips House

The Stephen Phillips House is a historic house and museum located in the Chestnut Street District, in Salem, Massachusetts, USA and was designed by Samuel McIntyre. Phillips House began with Elias Hasket Derby, one of Americas first self-made millionaires from the sea trade. When he died in 1799, his daughter, Elizabeth and her husband, Captain Nathaniel West, inherited his farm in Danvers, Massachusetts. They built a country house on the property, sparing little expense. A grand estate was in the making. In 1806, shortly after the house was completed, divorce forced Nathaniel off the property. After Elizabeth died in 1814, the house was left to her three daughters. When one of the daughters died in 1819, Nathaniel inherited one-third of the estate. He proceeded to move four rooms to Salem, the museums present location. At that time, he added a hallway, a third floor and a back ell section. In 1911, Stephen W. Phillips bought the house, moving in with five generations of family furnishings. He lived in the house until his death in 1955. The house remains as it was at that time, containing an eclectic collection representing the Phillipss extensive travels. The Phillips House is now owned and operated as a historic house museum by Historic New England and is open for public tours. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

The Witch House

The Witch House, was the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin and is the only structure still standing in Salem, Massachusetts with direct ties to the Salem witch trials of 1692. The house was bought by Judge Corwin in 1675, when he was 24 years old, and he lived there for more than forty years. Corwin is buried in the nearby Broad Street Cemetery. The house remained in the Corwin family until the mid-19th century. The Witch House is located at 310 Essex Street, at the cross streets of North Summer in the Chestnut Street District of Salem. As a local magistrate and civic leader, Corwin was called upon to investigate the claims of diabolical activity when a surge of witchcraft accusations arose in Salem and neighboring communities. He took the place of Judge Nathaniel Saltonstall, who resigned after the execution of Bridget Bishop. Corwin served on the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which ultimately sent nineteen to the gallows. All nineteen refused to admit to witchcraft and maintained their innocence. The house is an excellent example of 17th-century architecture. To this day historians have not come to a conclusion as to when it was built. Jonathan Corwins descendants claim the house was built in 1642. Some Victorian scholars alleged that the house was built between 1620–1630, and that Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island resided in the house in the 1630s. However most historians now believe the house was built in the 1660s or 1670s. It bears a strong resemblance to the Whitehall building in Sutton, England, a historic home museum built around 1500. Despite rumors to the contrary, no interrogations or trials were ever conducted in the Witch House. There are no documents in which an accused is demanded to be brought to Judge Corwins home, nor is it likely the judge would have used his own home as a place to conduct legal proceedings of this nature. Interrogations were done at either the Old Meetinghouse or Ingersalls Tavern. The house was moved about 35 feet to its current location in the 1940s when the adjacent street was widened. At this time the house was restored to look as it would have in the 17th Century and the gambrel roof was altered. The house is now a museum operated by the City of Salem, and is open seasonally.

Yin Yu Tang House

Yin Yu Tang House is a late 18th-century Chinese house from Anhui province that had been removed from its original village and re-erected in Salem, Massachusetts. The Yin Yu Tang was built in the late eighteenth century for during the Qing Dynasty, a prosperous merchant surnamed Huang built a stately sixteen-bedroom house in China’s southeastern Huizhou region, calling his home Yin Yu Tang House. This Chinese merchant who commissioned the construction of a house in the province of his birth, Anhui, China. The five-bay, two-story residence was typical of its region, built of timber frame construction, with a tile roof and exterior masonry walls of sandstone and brick. The house survived economic and political upheavals, but by the mid-1980s the house stood empty. Local and national authorities, with the endorsement of the original owner’s descendants, gave permission for the house to be relocated to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Quaker Meeting House

The first Quaker Meeting House in Salem, Massachusetts was built during the autumn of 1688 by Quaker Thomas Maule. Much of the building was constructed using old timber repurposed from other buildings. On October 13, 1690, Maule conveyed the Meeting House and land for £45 to Josiah and Daniel Southwick (sons of persecuted and banished Quakers Lawrence Southwick and Cassandra Burnell Southwick), Samuel Gaskill (husband of the Southwick's daughter Provided), Caleb Buffum, Christopher Foster, and Sarah Stone. Meetings were held in this building for nearly 30 years. Despite the small number of attendees, by 1714 additions were made after the Meeting House was considered inadequate in size. On October 3, 1716, the four surviving deed-holding Friends agreed to sell the Meeting House and land back to Maule for £25. Over the years, until sometime around 1860 when it was moved to the grounds of the Essex Institute, the building was used as a small home by several families, a barn, cow barn, hen house, and finally a wood shed. Several children were born in the building between 1775-1787. The current building, now part of the Peabody Essex Museum and erected in 1865 to resemble a Post-Medieval or First Period structure, is a reconstruction of the Quaker Meeting House and may contain some of the original timber framing. It is a very early example of an architectural re-creation.

Salem Public Library

Salem is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. Located on Massachusetts' North Shore, Salem is a New England bedrock of history and is considered one of the most significant seaports in Puritan American history. The city's reported population was 41,340 at the 2010 census. Salem and Lawrence were the county seats of Essex County prior to the abolishment of county government in 1999. The city is home to the House of Seven Gables, Salem State University, the Salem Willows Park, Forrest River Park, Federal Street District and the Peabody Essex Museum Salem is a residential and tourist area which includes the neighborhoods of Salem Neck, The Point, South Salem and North Salem, Witchcraft Heights, Pickering Wharf, and the McIntire Historic District (named after Salem's famous architect and carver, Samuel McIntire). Featured notably in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, much of the city's cultural identity is reflective of its role as the location of the Salem witch trials of 1692: Police cars are adorned with witch logos, a local public school is known as the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School, the Salem High School athletic teams are named the Witches; and Gallows Hill, a site of numerous public hangings, is currently used as a playing field for various sports. Tourists know Salem as a mix of important historical sites and a vibrant downtown that has more than 60 restaurants, cafes and coffee shops. In 2012, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts chose Salem as the recipient of their inaugural "Best Shopping District" award. President Barack Obama on January 10, 2013, signed executive order HR1339 designating Salem as the birthplace of the U.S. National Guard. Tourists from all over the world make up the over one million people visit Salem annually, and bring in over $100 million annually in tourism spending.

Crombie Street District

The Crombie Street District in Salem, Massachusetts encompasses a small residential enclave in a now urbanized part of central Salem. It consists of seven houses and one church, located at 7-15 and 16-18 Crombie St., and 13 Barton Street. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Crombie Street was laid out in 1805 by Benjamin Crombie, who owned a tavern on nearby Essex Street. He sold off all of that property by 1819, at which time only two of the surviving houses had been built. The house at #9 was built by Crombie c. 1809, and was occupied and eventually purchased by Joel Bowker, a leading Salem merchant and developer (one of Bowker's properties survives on Essex Street near the Peabody Essex Museum). The house is an elegant brick Federalist that was altered in the 1860s with the addition of Italianate styling. The house at #15 is a 2.5 story wood frame building that has retained its Federal styling. The William Pike house, at 18 Crombie Street, is a c. 1770 house that was moved to Crombie Street in 1830. It is a 2.5 story Georgian house with a gambrel roof. William Pike was an abolitionist and an associate of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who played an important role in the Underground Railroad.

Salem Common Historic District

Salem Common Historic District is a historic district bounded roughly by St. Peter's, Bridge, and Derby Sts. and Collins Cove in Salem, Massachusetts. The Common was founded in the 17th century. Before 1800 there was no enclosing fence and livestock were free to roam across it. The present wrought iron fence around the Common was built in 1850 and has undergone restoration. The white archway that stands near the north entrance was originally a design of Samuel McIntire, but it had to be removed because of its condition. The current archway is a replica established in 1976. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and further expanded in 2002. The district boundaries include the Essex Institute Historic District, a cluster of buildings along Essex and Brown Streets owned by the Peabody Essex Museum.

Fort Lee

Fort Lee is a historic American Revolutionary War fort in Salem, Massachusetts. The site, located at a high point next to Fort Avenue on Salem Neck, is a relatively rare fortification from that period whose remains are relatively unaltered. Although there is some documentary evidence that the Neck was fortified as early as the 17th century, the earthworks built in 1776 are the first clear evidence of the sites military use. The site, of which only overgrown earthworks survive, was repaired at the time of the War of 1812 and the American Civil War, but was not substantially modified in those times, or overbuilt with more modern fortifications. The property was federalized in 1867, and transferred to the City of Salem in 1922. The site was briefly rehabilitated at the time of the United States bicentennial in 1976, with trails and interpretive signs, but these were later removed, and the site has again become overgrown. The fort site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

Salem Diner

The Salem Diner is a historic diner at 701⁄2 Loring Avenue in Salem, Massachusetts. It is one of two Sterling Streamliner diners left in Massachusetts, and still stands at its original location. Designated car #4106, it was also one of the last made by the Sterling Company before it closed its doors in 1942. The diner body features a wood frame and porcelain enamel exterior. It has a metal hipped barrel roof, and its eastern end features a characteristic shovel nose. The roofline is decorated by a fin shape that serves as a backdrop for the diner's neon signage. It is mounted on a foundation that is predominantly concrete blocks, with some glass blocks interspersed. Its main entrance is centered on the long side, and is now sheltered by a modern glass vestibule added c. 1960. The Salem Diner was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Federal Street District

The Federal Street District is a residential and civic historic district in Salem, Massachusetts. It is an expansion of an earlier listing of the Essex County Court Buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. In addition to the former county court buildings included in the earlier listing, the district expansion in 1983 encompasses the entire block of Federal Street between Washington and North Streets. It includes buildings from 32 to 65 Federal Street, as well as the Tabernacle Church at 50 Washington Street. The original court was built in 1785. The Old Granite Courthouse, also known as the County Commissioner's Building, was built in 1841 in the Greek Revival architectural style. Adjacent to that is the Superior Court, pictured below. Built in 1862, the Superior Court is an Italianate structure that was later remodeled into the Richardsonian Romanesque style of architecture. A large new court has been constructed down the street. Most of the residential properties on this block of Federal Street were built between 1810 and 1900. The notable exception is #47, which is a Georgian gambrel-roofed house built in the second half of the 18th century. Most of the houses are either Italianate or Second Empire in their styling; there is one Colonial Revival house, #62, built 1900. The Tabernacle Church, which abuts Federal Street but faces Washington Street, is a Georgian Revival structure built in 1923.

Joseph Fenno House

The Joseph Fenno House-Woman's Friend Society is a historic building at 12-14 Hawthorne Boulevard in Salem, Massachusetts. The building was probably designed by Samuel Field McIntire, son of noted Salem building Samuel McIntire, and built 1811-12 for Joseph Fenno, a feltmaker turned merchant. The house was designed as a double house, although the reasons why Fenno wanted such a house are not known. He sold the property to his son in 1814 after moving to Columbia, Maine, and the two units were sold out of the family in 1822 and 1832. Each half of the house then went through a succession of owners. The most notable of these was John Bertram, a wealthy merchant, railroad investor and philanthropist, who purchased the northern unit in 1879, and immediately arranged for its eventual donation to the Woman's Friend Society on behalf of his daughter, Jennie Emmerton. The society acquired full ownership of that unit in 1884, and purchased the southern unit in 1894. The property remains in the society's possession, and is used by it in the provision of its services. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 17, 2008.

Hamilton Hall

Hamilton Hall is a National Historic Landmark at 9 Chestnut Street in Salem, Massachusetts in the Chestnut Street District in Salem, Massachusetts. Designed by noted Salem builder Samuel McIntire and built in 1805-07, it is an excellent instance of a public Federalist style building. It was built as a social space for the leading families of Salem, and was named for Founding Father and Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton. It continues to function as a social hall today: it is used for events, private functions, wedding and is also home to a series of lectures that originated in 1944 by The Ladies Committee. Hamilton Hall is a three story brick structure at the corner of Chestnut and Cambridge Streets, with its gable end front facing Cambridge Street. The brick is laid in a Flemish bond pattern. The entrance facade is five bays wide, with a center entry consisting of double doors sheltered by a Greek Revival porch added c. 1845. This rectangular portico has a flat roof, supported at each corner by two Doric columns. The first floor of the long side consists of six bays, of which five are windows and one is a door. The upper level consists of five large Palladian windows set in a slightly recessed arch. Above each of these is a panel with decorations carved by McIntire. The outer four have a swag design, while the central one features an eagle and shield. Construction of the hall was funded by a group of Salem's Federalist merchant families, and cost $22,000. There were original retail spaces at the entrance on the ground floor, housing vendors who sold goods for use in the events held in the upstairs function space. The second level ballroom features an unusual curved balcony and a sprung floor suitable for dancing. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and Rectory

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church and Rectory is a historic church at 64-66 Forrester Street in Salem, Massachusetts. The church was built in 1908 for a congregation of immigrants from eastern Europe that had been established in 1901. The wood frame building was designed by local architect William Devereaux Dennis. Its main facade is finished with flushboard siding, while the other elevations are sheathed in clapboards. The center of main facade is dominated by a tower that is initially square, but is topped by an octagonal belfry section and an onion dome with a cross-shaped spire. The facade is flanked by small square towers topped by onion domes. Behind the church stands a Colonial Revival rectory building that was built several years after the church. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.
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