The History-Rich City of Salem Is Still Bewitching

This city wears its history on its sleeve. On some streets, practically every house is decorated with a white, wood plaque with the year of its construction and the name and occupation of its original owner.

In restaurants, menus not only list the food but also its historic significance. And shopkeepers along Derby Street will be glad to deliver a five-minute lecture on some of the town’s noteworthy historical events.

Salem’s enthusiasm for its history is more than justified. The city enjoys one of the richest heritages in the nation, a legacy of Puritan roots, the infamous witch trials of 1692, and years of prosperity as a booming port in the late-18th and early 19th centuries.

The many faces of Salem’s past have been preserved and showcased in an assortment of museums, historic sites and restored houses. The witch trials that excite the imagination of visitors to Salem today were a tragic episode in the history of the town.

Hysteria Gripped Salem

A visit to the Witch Museum opposite Salem Common educates us about the sorry details of the hysteria that gripped Salem in 1692.

The museum is in a twin-turreted, rust-colored, stone building that was originally a church. It is not a museum in the usual sense of the word; its only attraction is a 20-minute audio-visual presentation.

The taped narration is accompanied by a sequence of life-size dioramas set high in the walls that light up at dramatic points in the story. As the stern voice of the narrator plays over the speakers and the lights illuminate the spectacle of the Rev. George Burroughs, former minister of Salem Village, with the hangman’s noose around his neck, it’s impossible not to feel moved and chilled.

A few blocks west of the Witch Museum along Essex Street stands the building dubbed the Witch House, in memory of one of its former owners, Jonathan Corwin, a magistrate who took part in the questionings of the first people accused of witchcraft.

The wood-frame house, built in 1642, is one of the oldest structures in Salem. It’s also the most sinister-looking, cloaked entirely in black.

Guided tours of the house, where examinations of those accused of witchcraft were said to be held, are conducted daily.

More important in shaping the character of the town was the spirit of the men who transformed Salem into an international commercial center.

Sailing Days

During the years that followed the Revolutionary War, enterprising Salem ship captains ventured past the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indies, the Orient and the Pacific, opening new markets for American trade.

Their ships returned filled with exotic goods--tea, coffee, silks and spices from China, pepper from Sumatra, cottons, indigo and ginger from India.

The Peabody Museum on the Essex Street Mall commemorates Salem’s seafaring tradition. It was established in 1824 by the East India Marine Society, an association of captains who wanted “to form a museum of natural and artificial curiosities” that they had collected on their voyages.

The Peabody’s collection has grown, now numbering in the hundreds of thousands. The expanded museum also features exhibits on ethnology, maritime history and the natural history of Salem and its environs.

The word curiosities sums up the museum’s contents. There is a four-tined fork used by the cannibal chief of Fiji for feasting on human flesh. And there’s a detailed depiction of the naval battle of Trafalgar etched on a piece of whalebone by some nameless sailor.

Once you enter a large room beyond the admissions desk, your attention is drawn in half a dozen directions.

To your left the 15-foot lower jaw of a male sperm whale forms the centerpiece for displays on whaling. Near the opposite wall a Gloucester fishing dory rests high and dry, part of the exhibit devoted to the coastal trade, with marine paintings, figureheads and ship models.

On the second floor are cultural artifacts from the Asian continent, Japan and the Pacific islands, and an exhibit, “Yankee Traders and Indian Merchants,” on the history of trade between the United States and India.

Burning of a Widow

Most fascinating in this exhibit is an excerpt from the journal of Capt. Benjamin Crowninshield, which appears on a plaque beneath the captain’s somber and melancholy portrait.

Dated Nov. 28, 1789, the excerpt is his eyewitness account of the Indian practice of suttee --the burning of a widow on the funeral pyre of her deceased husband.

Toward the middle of the 19th Century, Salem lost its prominence as a port, eclipsed by its larger rivals--New York and Boston.

It’s ironic but maybe fitting that what was once the busiest part of town has become the quietest.

Of the more than 50 wharfs that crowded the waterfront during Salem’s heyday only three remain, preserved as part of the nine-acre Maritime National Historic Site.

All have been grassed over and provide a peaceful, parklike setting. Derby Wharf, which stretches 2,000 feet into the harbor and once was covered with 14 warehouses, gives some indication of Salem’s former maritime activity.

From the tip of the wharf you have a panoramic view of the harbor and the hilly peninsula of Marblehead across the bay.

The row of buildings that face the harbor along Derby street make up the rest of the Maritime National Historic Site. The Custom House, with its wide portico framing the entrance and white cupola, is the most handsome building on the lot.

Restored offices inside are disappointing in the sparseness of their contents, but the Bonded Warehouse out back, piled high with elaborately decorated tea chests, provides a vivid picture of the sort of cargo that routinely arrived at Salem.

Old Charm Remains

Though time has altered Salem’s waterfront, the architecture of the town still reflects its glory days.

Merchants, shipowners and captains, who reaped the profit of the lucrative trade with the East, built beautiful, stately homes. Chestnut Street, where many of the wealthiest captains built homes about the turn of the 19th Century, is a National Historic Landmark.

The square three-story mansions along Chestnut, which feature low-hipped roofs and symmetrical arrangements of windows, are fine examples of the style of architecture popular during that period.

The most famous building in Salem, however, sits in the shadow of a twisted old elm off Turner Street by the harbor. Those who know the works of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne will recognize the structure by its most prominent feature, the seven gables that protrude from the sides of the house.

“The House of Seven Gables” fans will not be disappointed by the sight of the real thing. The 200-year-old house retains the brooding air of dissipation that Hawthorne describes in the novel.

Salem has laid out a Heritage Walking Trail with a red line painted on sidewalks, tracing a rough figure-eight through the city.

Or you can pick up a visitor’s guide, available at many places in town, and blaze your own trail through the maze of sights and attractions.

The best way to appreciate the spirit of the past is to stay overnight. Salem abounds with bed-and-breakfast inns of historic interest.

Colonial Furnishings

The Stephen Daniels House, 1 Daniels St., (617) 744-5709, has five rooms. Rate: $70. Some rooms have canopy beds. Colonial furnishings make up the decor of this residence formerly owned by a 17th-Century sea captain.

The Amelia Payson Guest House, 143 years old, 16 Winter St., (617) 744-8304, has four rooms. Rates: $45-$75. This is a relative newcomer by Salem standards. Its design is a beautiful example of Greek Revival architecture, and the atmosphere is cozy.

For grander accommodations, the Hawthorne Inn, 18 Washington Square West, (617) 744-4080, has 89 rooms. Rates: $68-$88. It combines the stylish charms of a guest house with the conveniences of a large hotel.

Fine dining in Salem means fresh seafood, in surroundings that are casual or elegant. At Pickering Wharf by the harbor, pub fare is the rule at the Bull & Finch Pub, while upstairs the Topside Seafood Grill offers a full selection of New England specialties.

Just off the Essex Street Mall along Church Street, the Lyceum restaurant specializes in American and continental cuisine served in a historic setting, the old Salem Lyceum, where the likes of Daniel Webster and other orators held forth.

For between meals or an after-dinner treat, Ye Olde Pepper Companie on Derby Street is the oldest sweet shop of its kind in the country. Try the Black Jack, a candy made from molasses; a pack of 10 sells for $2.25.

The museums in Salem stay open all year but many of the historic houses close their doors to visitors for parts of fall, winter and spring.

If you are planning an off-season visit, phone the Salem Chamber of Commerce, (617) 744-0004, to get a schedule of openings and closings.