Directions to stop #18

310 Essex Street

Now, we’ll walk to another house that looks a lot like the Ward House and is referred to now as The Witch House, located at 310 Essex Street. It’s less than half a mile away.

Directions to stop #19

318 Essex Street

The next stop is the Ropes Mansion a few doors down at 318 Essex Street.

Directions to stop #20

Lappin Park at Corner of Essex and Washington Streets

Walk just a few blocks on Essex Street, back toward the museum, and make one more stop in Lappin Park at the corner of Washington and Essex Streets. We’ll meet at the Samantha statue.

Thank you for taking the Salem Witch Trials Walk at PEM. This tour was generously supported by the George S. Parker Fund.

Transcript

For more audio tours at PEM, try one of our award-winning PEM Walks, which takes you around Salem to our historic houses. For more behind-the-scenes stories about PEM, listen to our award-winning podcast, the PEMcast.

Join host Dinah Cardin on this tour of PEM’s materials from the Salem witch trials. With walking time, the entire tour should take about 90 minutes, but go at your own pace.

Begin on the ground level of the light-filled atrium, at the tour sign outside the Putnam Gallery of Native American and American Art. Here, you’ll listen to some background about Salem in 1692. Listen with headphones, earbuds or by holding up your phone with the volume on low.

Directions to stop #2

Now, go inside the Putnam Gallery, where we have paired Native American and American art in an exhibition called On This Ground: Being and Belonging in America. Walk through the gallery until you see a sign on the wall that says Salem Witch Trials.  We will meet you at the large dramatic oil painting of a courtroom scene.

Directions to stop #3

Now, turn around to find a wooden chair.

Directions to stop #4

Now find the carved cabinet.

Directions to stop #5

Now it's time to head to PEM’s ongoing exhibition, The Salem Witch Trials 1692. Go up the main staircase or use the elevator (accessible) and make your first left into the gallery. We’ll meet at a window installed at the beginning of the exhibition.

Directions to stop #6

Now move to a section on Tituba to find documents on the wall.

Directions to stop #7

Now, move to a section about the Towne Sisters. Find a petition by Mary Esty.

Directions to stop #8

Now move to the John and Elizabeth Proctor section and look for the brass sundial.

Directions to stop #9

Find a section about George Jacobs Sr. with a mural of the original painting we saw in another gallery. Across from the mural, find the walking stick.

Directions to stop #10

Head to the Restoring Justice section to find a panel dedicated to Elizabeth Johnson Jr.

Directions to stop #11

Exit the Salem Witch Trials 1692 exhibition through the glass doors. In the next gallery you’ll go up the historic staircase to reach the mezzanine. Or take the elevator to Level 3. We’ll meet you there.

Directions to stop #12

Look up at a movie poster from a beloved movie that was filmed partly in Salem.

Directions to stop #13

We move to the letter L, which is to the left of where we are now.

Directions to stop #14

Keep moving left to the letter H for historic preservation.

Directions to stop #15

24 Liberty Street

Once you've finished touring Salem Stories, it's time to leave the museum and head outside to some key sites around the Witch City. We begin right behind the museum at the Salem Witch Trials Memorial on Liberty Street.

Exit the front of the museum, turn right and right again to go down the Axelrod Pedestrian Walkway. Make a right at the end and the memorial is on your left.

Directions to stop #16

51 Charter Street

Right next door to the memorial for the Salem Witch Trials is one of the oldest cemeteries in the United States. Go now and enter the Charter Street Cemetery at the corner of the memorial. Stay on the gravel path. Keep going at the first little intersection and then stop at the second one, where there's a light stone. We’ll meet you there.

Directions to stop #17

9 Brown Street

Our next stop is the 17th century historic property called the Ward House. We will walk back to the front of the museum on Essex Street and behind the National Park Service Visitor Center to find several historic structures, including the darkly painted Ward House.