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Salem By Nancy and Richard Woodworth There are witches almost everywhere in this old “Witch City:” ancient witches, live witches, wax witches, wannabe witches. The witch icon is emblazoned on the city’s police cruisers, soars across the masthead of the daily newspaper, adorns T-shirts and coffee mugs, and is incorporated in the logos of far more businesses than one can shake a broom at. The city makes a month-long festival out of Halloween and attracts (real) witches and their devotees to see what all the fuss is about. But witches and their hokey, ghoulish offshoots (wax museums, dungeons, spook houses and cemetery tours) have been a turn-off to at least as many potential visitors as they have attracted since witchery went big-time in the late 1970s with the opening of the Salem Witch Museum and the arrival of practicing witches in town. The Witch City is starting to play down the history that has linked it to the supernatural ever since nineteen accused witches were tried and hanged on Gallows Hill in 1692. It has refocused, broadened and, yes, uplifted its appeal to engage a different kind of visitor. The shift coincides with the $125 million expansion of the Peabody Essex Museum, the nation’s oldest museum, from a sleeper of a regional destination into a world-class art and culture museum that’s among the largest in New England. Trendy new restaurants opened, and a waterfront hotel debuted in 2004. The Peabody Essex, an amalgamation of two museums dating to 1799, is a treasure chest of exotica delivered from the farthest points of the globe by Salem sea captains and ships during the heady days of the East India and China trade. The museum opens seamlessly off the Essex Street Mall, the main street that was closed to traffic and turned into one of the first downtown pedestrian malls in New England. One end of Essex Street extends toward Chestnut Street, the heart of the McIntire Historic District and an enclave of stately Federal-style homes producing one of the most beautiful residential streets in America. The other end of Essex Street leads to Hawthorne Boulevard, named for Nathaniel Hawthorne, the great 19th century novelist. A short block to the north lies the leafy Washington Square, a park transformed in 1801 from the “town swamp” (as the Salem Common was then called), flanked by the Hawthorne Hotel and a Gothic church, now the Salem Witch Museum. A long block to the south is the waterfront. Here the Salem Maritime National Historic Site preserves Salem’s seafaring heritage from the early 1800s when its merchant fleet profited mightily from the opening of trade routes to the Far East. Nearby, Pickering Wharf captures tourists with a changing array of shops and restaurants. Beyond is the nation’s largest collection of 17th-century buildings open to the public, including the landmark House of Seven Gables portrayed in the Hawthorne novel of that name. All these attractions are within long walking distance of each other. It’s a good thing, because streets are congested and narrow in Salem’s historic center, and directions are hard to find – and follow. That helps make Salem an appealing getaway for those who like their treats close at hand. Material excerpted from The Ultimate New England Getaway Guide, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2005. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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