Haunted Places in Salem, MA

Explore 11 haunted places in Salem, MA — inns, cemeteries, haunted houses and more, each with its ghost story, address, and sources.

• Hawthorne HotelInn · Salem, MAOpened in 1925 and named for Salem's own Nathaniel Hawthorne, this six-story Colonial Revival hotel on Washington Square has long been the city's grand address, said to stand near land once tied to the witch-trial accused Bridget Bishop.
• Howard Street CemeteryCemetery · Salem, MAEstablished in 1801 as the Branch Street Cemetery and renamed in 1828 for sailmaker John Howard, this 2.5-acre burying ground holds roughly 1,100 graves of ship captains, Revolutionary War soldiers, and early members of Salem's African American community.
• Joshua Ward HouseHouse · Salem, MAMerchant Joshua Ward raised this brick Federal mansion around 1784 on the demolished foundation of the 1692 home of George Corwin, the high sheriff who oversaw the imprisonments, property seizures, and executions of the Salem witch trials.
• Old Burying Point (Charter Street Cemetery)Cemetery · Salem, MALaid out by 1637, the Old Burying Point is Salem's oldest graveyard, its leaning slate stones crowded onto less than an acre beside the Charter Street Historic District.
• Old Salem JailLandmark · Salem, MABuilt of Rockport granite between 1811 and 1813 beside the Howard Street Cemetery, the Salem Jail held the county's prisoners for nearly two centuries under famously harsh conditions, with no running water or electricity for much of its life, until a judge ordered it closed in 1991 as the oldest operating jail in the country.
• Proctor's LedgeLandmark · Salem, MAFor more than three centuries the exact spot where Salem hanged its accused witches was lost to legend, presumed to be the summit of Gallows Hill.
• Ropes MansionHouse · Salem, MABuilt around 1727 for the merchant Samuel Barnard, this Georgian mansion at 318 Essex Street passed in 1768 to Judge Nathaniel Ropes and stayed in his family until 1907; today it is a Peabody Essex Museum historic house, familiar to many as Allison's home in the 1993 film Hocus Pocus.
• Samuel Pickman HouseHouse · Salem, MAThe Samuel Pickman House, a weathered first-period saltbox built around 1664 at the corner of Charter and Liberty streets, is one of Salem's oldest standing homes; it now abuts the 1992 Witch Trials Memorial and the Old Burying Point cemetery, and the Peabody Essex Museum, which bought it in 1983, reopened it as the cemetery's welcome center.
• The House of the Seven GablesHouse · Salem, MABuilt in 1668 for sea captain John Turner on Salem's waterfront, the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion passed to mariner Samuel Ingersoll in 1782, and his daughter Susanna later inspired her cousin Nathaniel Hawthorne to immortalize the house in his 1851 novel.
• The Witch House (Jonathan Corwin House)House · Salem, MABuilt around 1675, this dark-gabled house on Essex Street was the home of Jonathan Corwin, a local magistrate who sat on the Court of Oyer and Terminer during the 1692 witch trials and helped send nineteen people to the gallows.
• Turner's Seafood at Lyceum HallRestaurant · Salem, MAThe brick hall at 43 Church Street rose in 1831 when the Salem Lyceum Society built its lecture stage atop ground that period records describe as the former apple orchard of Bridget Bishop, the first person hanged in the 1692 witch trials.