Published Wednesday, October 30, 2002
Herald Copy Editor
SALEM, Mass. -- Halloween is Salem's Christmas, as one trolley guide drolly observed this week, a fact shored up by the city's tourism office.
"Pretty much," confirmed Sarah Lenghans, manager of the office since May and a two-year resident of the city. "For the vendors it's definitely the busiest."
The city about 16 miles north of Boston is of course known for the infamous witch trials of 1692, which were held in what was then known as Salem Village, west of the town. But what most people don't realize is that the finger-pointing and hysteria which caused 19 people to be hanged, a feisty 80-year-old Giles Corey to be slowly crushed with rocks and others to die in prison lasted only nine months. It was a mere blink in a town history that spans 379 years.
And though guides rank tourism Salem's third major industry after courts and healthcare, those seeking all things witchy have more attractions than you can shake a wand at. There's the Salem Witch Museum, The Salem Witch Village, the Witch Dungeon Museum and The Witch House.
And there's the New England Pirate Museum, the Salem Wax Museum, Boris Karloff's Witch Mansion, Salem's Museum of Myths & Monsters, Dracula's Castle, Salem's Psychic Center and a number of stores along picturesque streets that sell brooms, crystal balls, books, robes, and fortune-telling and occult items.
Not to mention several ghost tour outfits.
The carnival atmosphere began about 22 years ago, Ms. Lenghans said, when the Salem Witch Museum began Haunted Happenings. "That definitely helped it. It's caught on more and more," she said.
This year, Haunted Happenings runs from Oct. 11 to Halloween. But visitors typically come through the end of fall, when things slow down until mid-April, Ms. Lenghans said.
One recommended October program is The Peabody Essex Museum's Eerie Events, billed as a "spine-tingling theater of the macabre" of professional storytelling set in candlelit historic houses and gardens along with films, concerts, magic shows and a bonfire.
Considered one of New England's largest, most respected museums, the Peabody is undergoing an expansion and renovation set to be completed in the spring of 2003, which will allow all of the collections to be presented for the first time in 200 years and will include the only complete Chinese house on view in the U.S.
Salem's spooky festivities used to start in early October, according to the trolley guide, but residents (there are about 38,000) protested, and these days you'll see orange signs barring non-resident parking in certain areas.
October traffic "can be a little frustrating," Ms. Lenghans said, "but it's good for the town. In that way, I'm grateful. ... They think Salem, they think Halloween. But we have some great historic and maritime stuff. There's plenty to do."
That includes the nation's oldest candy store, Ye Olde Pepper Companie of 1806, birthplace of gibralters, which were sent on Salem ships to the Far East, India and Africa. The small shop, which offers shoppers a view of candy being made, is across Derby Street from the House of Seven Gables complex of buildings where author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804. Down Derby Street is the stately, golden eagle-adorned Custom House, where Hawthorne worked for three years (read "The Scarlet Letter" beginning for its influence).
Also nearby is the tall ship The Friendship, a replica of a 1797 East Indian merchant ship; Pickering Wharf and the Salem Maritime National Historic Site on the waterfront. The National Park Service offers orientation and a free film of Salem's maritime history.
Salem became one of the most prosperous ports in the U.S. until the War of 1812 and westward expansion. In fact, sources say one foreign port saw so many ships from Salem that its leaders thought the city was a country.
More than one-third of Salem, which has an elevation of 10 feet, was filled with land from New Hampshire to expand business areas.
To rest your feet, consider eating where the locals do: Red's Sandwich Shop, voted best breakfast for 16 years running, at 15 Central St. Other accolades are on the wall, as are plenty of daily specials. The red building was once the London Coffee House of 1698, the meeting place of the patriots before the American Revolution.
Perhaps the best introduction to the city is via trolley for a one-hour fun, fact-filled tour and a ticket that allows passengers to get on and off at stops until the 5 p.m. closing time. And you'll get a look at Waikiki Beach and a 1952 newspaper photo that reportedly shows UFOs flying over the local Coast Guard station.
A bridge connects Salem with Beverly, settled in 1626 and home of George Washington's Naval Base; the John Balch House of 1636, listed as America's oldest house; and the John Cabot House of 1781, built for John Cabot, the co-founder of America's first cotton mill.
The city's bustling downtown includes blocks of boutiques, an art gallery, sushi bar, Irish pub and the vaudeville-style Cabot St. Cinema Theater. The theater shows semi-current movies, foreign films and on Sundays an old-fashioned magic show by Le Grand and his own Spectacular Magic Company, recognized in 1999 by Guinness as the longest running stage magic production.
Behind City Hall is the city's Ancient Burial Ground, where tombstones dating to the 1700s are common and include inscriptions such as, "Near this place lie the remains of Mrs. Mary Stafford, late consort to Issac Stafford, physician, deceased 6th Dece 1781 AE 25, unblemished innocence, ingenious truth, religion pure and rational and mild. Engaging manners, charity and all the affections that embellish and exalt the human heart."
Unfortunately, guides say, tombstone rubbing is illegal in Massachusetts, though the supplies are available in local shops.