Seasonal · Salem, Massachusetts
The Paperwork Left Town in 2023
Two nights in Salem between late September and December, built around which 1692 sites are real and which are retellings.
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Table of contents
In January 2023 the Peabody Essex Museum began sending 527 documents to Boston. They were the surviving papers of the 1692 witch trials, held in Salem since 1980, and they now sit in the Judicial Archives at the Massachusetts State Archives. Roughly 90 percent of the court record survives. The trial records of the thirty people convicted are not part of it. Those are gone.
That absence is the useful thing to carry into a weekend here. Salem sells 1692 on every block, and most of what sells tickets is a retelling staged in a building that has no connection to the year. A handful of places do have one. The Witch House was a trial judge's home and is the only building still standing in Salem with a direct tie. Proctor's Ledge is where the hangings happened, established in 2016 by reading one line in a deposition and working out what could be seen from where the woman who said it was standing. Nothing was dug up there. The radar found no remains at all.
The other thing to know is that Salem in October is a logistics problem rather than a sightseeing one. The city expects to pass a million visitors again. Almost every museum a visitor would want has moved to same-day, online-only ticketing, on three different clocks. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, downtown closes to traffic by noon that day, and the MBTA seals the station garage from 6pm to 1am. The guide below is built around those constraints rather than around a list of attractions.
That is October. The rest of the season is a different town, and the city marks the change itself: its seasonal parking regime runs September 15 to November 1, 2026, and then stops. On November 1 the House of the Seven Gables drops its adult ticket from $31 to $26. On November 16 the Witch House goes to four days a week. The Boston ferry stops at the end of October and does not run again until late May. What replaces the crush is a short programmed season: Santa arrives on the Essex Street mall on November 27, and Christmas in Salem opens the houses on December 4.
Start at the memorial, not the museums
Everything ticketed is shut or sold out by the time an evening train gets in, which is why the two places worth the first hour are free and open air. They also happen to be the pairing the whole weekend turns on: a memorial built in 1992 and, a few feet away, the graveyard holding the men who sent those people to Proctor's Ledge.
ASalem Witch Trials Memorial
Dedicated on August 5, 1992, designed by James Cutler and Maggie Smith, with Elie Wiesel giving the address. Arthur Miller had unveiled the winning design the previous November, which is how a widely repeated summary came to credit him with designing it. He did not.
Each bench carries a name, a manner of death and a date. Bridget Bishop's reads "Hanged, June 10, 1692". At the entrance, quotations from the accused are cut into the threshold stones and stop mid-sentence.
The memorial counts twenty. Proctor's Ledge counts nineteen. The difference is Giles Corey, who was pressed rather than hanged, and the gap between those two numbers is the most honest thing either site says.
Flowers are welcome here. In the burying ground on the other side of the wall they are asked against. Two sets of rules, a few feet apart.
BCharter Street Cemetery
Established before 1637. The cemetery's own FAQ is blunt about the thing most visitors assume: none of the executed are here. "While Charter Street Cemetery is not consecrated ground, it was still municipal property and those executed by the state would not be buried there."
Who is here are the men who ran the trials, including the judges John Hathorne and Bartholomew Gedney. The 1992 memorial was built against this graveyard on purpose.
Photographs are allowed. Grave rubbings are not, and replica stones sit in the Welcome Center instead. No drones, and any filming needs written permission from the Salem Film Office. In October the cemetery needs a free reservation made on the day of the visit, which the paid section covers.
The Welcome Center occupies the 17th-century Samuel Pickman House. Lydia Pickman, who lived in it, was one of the women called to examine the accused for witches' marks.
- Hours
- 10am to 5pm daily, last entry 4:45pm. The City of Salem's own page still says 12pm to 4pm.
The Haunted Warren Museum
Ed and Lorraine Warren's collection had not been open to the public in years. It came out of Monroe, Connecticut, and opened at 259 Essex Street on August 27, 2026, holding more than 1,000 objects from the Warrens' cases, the Annabelle doll among them.
There is not one price. The museum publishes a ladder: $49.99 through September 30, marked down from a standard $66.60; $66.60 from October 1 to 28; $99.90 on October 29 and 30; and $130 on October 31, which includes a free gift. The same hour with the same flashlight costs $49.99 in September and $130 on Halloween.
Entry hours climb with the price. Through September the doors open at 1pm Monday to Thursday and 11am at weekends. In October they open at 11am on weekdays and 10am at weekends, and on October 30 and 31 the museum runs 8am to 9:40pm.
Read the rules before booking. Nobody under 12 is admitted. Groups enter 8 at a time, so a party of 10 is split at the door. There is no bag check and large bags are refused. Audio recording is banned outright during the flashlight experience, and the museum states that a device seen after the point where guests are asked to put them away means removal without a warning. Guests are handed a flashlight on the way in and hand it back at the end.
How long the collection stays is unsettled. The museum's own pricing table ends with entry hours for November 1. WROR wrote on September 4, 2026 that it is on exhibition until Christmas.
- Hours
- Through September 30: Monday to Thursday 1pm to 7:40pm, Friday and Saturday 11am to 8:40pm, Sunday 11am to 7:40pm. October 1 to 28: Monday to Thursday 11am to 7:40pm, Friday and Saturday 10am to 8:40pm, Sunday 10am to 7:40pm. October 30 and 31: 8am to 9:40pm. November 1: 8am to 8:40pm
- Price
- $49.99 through September 30, $66.60 October 1 to 28, $99.90 October 29 and 30, $130 on October 31
- Access
- Ages 12 and over only. Groups enter 8 at a time
The real sites, in the order the town will let you have them
Saturday is shaped by ticket releases rather than by geography. Two of these need a same-day booking made at a specific hour, and one needed booking weeks ago. The paid section below sets out the clocks. What follows is what is worth the tickets.
DThe Witch House
Jonathan Corwin bought the house in 1675 and sat as a magistrate through 1692. No trial was held here, and the building's claim is simpler than the name suggests: it is the house one of the men who did the examining lived in.
It is worth being exact about the claim, because the region contradicts the usual shorthand. The Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers is the home of a woman who was hanged, and it is open to the public. The Salem Village parsonage foundation is the ground the accusations started on. The Witch House is the only one in Salem.
No photographs or video are allowed inside. In October tickets are online only and released at 8am for that day, with no late entry, which the paid section sets out.
- Hours
- Daily 10am to 5pm, last entry 4:30pm, April 15 to November 15
EProctor's Ledge Memorial
The Gallows Hill Project turned on one line in the preliminary examination of Rebecca Eames, August 19, 1692. Asked about the five executions that day, Eames said she had been at "the house below the hill". The team placed that on Boston Street, and Chris Gist ran a viewshed analysis against the topography: from there, Proctor's Ledge is visible and the higher points of Gallows Hill are not.
Peter Sablock then ran ground-penetrating radar across the ledge and found nothing. No remains, no relics, no gallows footing, and less than three feet of soil. The team concluded there had never been a permanent gallows and that the condemned were most likely hanged from a tree.
Nothing was discovered here in the sense the word usually carries. Somebody read a deposition and a computer worked out what the woman who gave it could see. The memorial went up in 2017: a curved granite wall with nineteen inscribed stones, a locust sapling, and "We Remember" set into the ground.
It sits in a residential neighborhood with a private house immediately beside it, and there is no parking at the site.
- Parking
- None on site. Park at Gallows Hill Park and walk.
FPeabody Essex Museum
PEM held the Supreme Judicial Court's 527 witch-trial documents from 1980 until the transfer to Boston began on January 12, 2023. Its dedicated 1692 exhibition ran from September 26, 2020 to April 4, 2021 and is over. The Phillips Library, which holds the rest of the museum's manuscript collections, moved to Rowley in 2018 and works by appointment.
What this means in practice: a visitor cannot see an original 1692 document in Salem. The reproductions are free online through PEM's own digitized collection, which is the honest substitute and worth an hour before the trip rather than during it.
The museum is closed Tuesday and Wednesday all year, with no October variation published.
- Hours
- Thursday through Monday, 10am to 5pm. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Admission
- Adults US$25, seniors 65 and over US$23, students US$15, under 16 free, Salem residents free
GSalem Maritime National Historical Park
The part of Salem that has nothing to do with 1692 and is the reason the town existed. Everything here is free.
Two things are worth checking before arriving. The Derby House, the oldest brick house in Salem, is closed for the season from September 21. The Friendship of Salem, the replica East Indiaman that photographs suggest is the star of the wharf, has been under restoration: photographs from February 2023 and June 2024 both show it shrouded under a tarpaulin rail to rail, and it does not appear in the park's current hours table at all. Call the park before counting on boarding it.
A free self-guided audio tour, The Business of Slavery, covers the part of the maritime story the wharf does not display.
- Hours
- Grounds and Derby Wharf open 24 hours. Custom House Wednesday through Sunday, 9:30am to 4:30pm.
HThe House of the Seven Gables
A 1668 mansion, Hawthorne's novel, and the only thing on this itinerary that takes an advance booking. Tickets are non-refundable and cannot be rescheduled, and arriving late means losing the tour rather than joining it.
October dates went on public sale in two batches, September 4 for the first half of the month and September 19 for October 16 to 31. Two of its evening programs were already marked nearly sold out on August 27, 2026.
October carries a US$5 premium over the rest of the year. The grounds pass alone rises from US$13 in September to US$16 in October.
- Admission
- October mansion tour package: adults US$31.00, seniors 65 and over US$26.00, children 5 to 12 US$21.00. Grounds pass US$16.00 in October.
The ground the accusations came from
Salem Village is Danvers now, about 6 miles out, and it holds the things Salem itself cannot show. Two of the three are free, unstaffed, and open until dusk. Danvers dedicated its memorial on May 9, 1992 and Salem dedicated its own on August 5, 1992, three months apart, and standing at both in one weekend is the clearest way to see what each town decided to say.
Salem Village Parsonage Site
Samuel Parris lived here in 1692 with his wife Elizabeth, his daughter Betty, his niece Abigail Williams, and the enslaved Tituba and John Indian. The first accusations came out of this house.
What survives is a foundation in a field behind a residential street, excavated from 1970 and bought by the Town of Danvers in 1988. There is no admission, no staff and no gift shop.
Of everything in this guide, this is the site with the strongest claim to being the actual place, and it is the one nobody sells a ticket to.
Salem Village Witchcraft Victims' Memorial
It stands opposite the site of the Salem Village Meetinghouse, where many of the examinations were held, and carries the words of eight of those who were executed.
The count is where it differs from Salem. The benches on Liberty Street number twenty. This memorial commemorates the people who died as a result of 1692, which includes those who died in jail awaiting trial, among them Sarah Good's infant daughter. Sources across the record give totals of nineteen, twenty, twenty-five, and "24 and one child", and the disagreement is not sloppiness. It is a question about who counts as killed by a trial.
Standing here and on Liberty Street in the same weekend is the clearest way to see that two towns, in the same year, made different decisions about what to say.
Rebecca Nurse Homestead
Rebecca Nurse was hanged on July 19, 1692. Her house still stands on its own land, with a meeting house, the Endecott shop and the family cemetery about 300 yards away along a rocky path.
The fall schedule is the thing to plan around: Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday only, and it closes at 2pm. A weekend trip can reach it. A midweek one mostly cannot.
George Jacobs Sr., hanged on August 19, 1692, was reinterred here in 1992. His is the only known grave of any of the executed.
- Hours
- Fall season to November 11: Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 2pm
- Admission
- Adults US$12, seniors 65 and over US$10, children 6 to 16 US$8, under 6 free
Fall River, honestly described
Fall River is about 75 miles from Salem and the trip has a hole in it worth knowing about before the drive. The half of the Lizzie Borden story built on evidence is closed until Spring 2027. The half run as a ghost tour is open nightly.
Lizzie Borden House, Fall River
The same shape as Salem, in a second town. The Fall River Historical Society holds the largest collection of material from the case, including the alleged weapon and the original crime-scene photographs, and it is closed for an infrastructure project until Spring 2027.
What remains open is the house itself, run by US Ghost Adventures, a company operating tours in more than 100 cities. House tours run daily and last about 90 minutes, with ghost tours nightly and an overnight stay available.
No price for anything at the house is published on its own site. Call 508-675-7333 before planning around a figure found anywhere else.
- Hours
- House tours daily 10:30am to 4:30pm, about 90 minutes
Freetown-Fall River State Forest
The forest sits inside what gets called the Bridgewater Triangle, and the honest present-tense material is more interesting than the legend.
Profile Rock, a granite outcrop long identified with Massasoit, broke apart on June 19, 2019. Freetown police responded that morning and the park was closed for a time over unsafe conditions. Trail guidance still lists a parking area at Profile Rock, so a visitor who drives out expecting the formation will find a lot and a broken outcrop.
In May 2016 wire cables were found stretched across the recreational trails. Assonet Ledge, an old granite quarry face, is the other reason people come.
A 227-acre Pocasset reservation lies within the forest. It is Wampanoag land, not an attraction.
Trail mileage is disputed: the state's own page gives 25 miles and two other sources give 50.
- Hours
- Half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset
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Last updated September 20, 2026. Hours, prices, and event details change, and every practical fact above links to the page it came from.
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Official pages
- Planned and anticipated October road closures 2026Office of Mayor Dominick Pangallo, City of Salem
The only 2026-specific city-authored logistics document that exists. Parade route, weekend closures, Halloween list, garage lockouts.
- October parking and transportationCity of Salem
Where the city states that there is no shuttle in 2026 and that rates are subject to change.
- Haunted Happenings events calendarDestination Salem
Browsable by day and exportable as iCal, which is the clean way to check a date against the real schedule.
- PEM and the Supreme Judicial Court announce the return of the documentsPeabody Essex Museum
The press release recording the transfer of 527 documents held in Salem since 1980.
- How UVA helped Salem discover where its witches were executedUniversity of Virginia
The Gallows Hill Project's own account of the viewshed analysis and the radar survey that found nothing.
- Danvers historic sites accessible to the publicTown of Danvers
The town's own list, which is how to confirm the parsonage site and the 1992 memorial are open and free.
Primary documents
- The Salem Witch Trials digitized collectionPeabody Essex Museum
Free reproductions of the documents that left Salem for Boston in 2023, which is the only way to read them now.