Joshua Ward House
Merchant 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. Ragged stones from Corwin's house still anchor the building, and visitors over the decades have reported cold, unseen hands closing around their throats, a sensation lore ties to the sheriff once nicknamed "the Strangler." Other accounts describe candles found bent into strange shapes or pooling wax where none were lit, and a black-clad woman whose distorted face famously appeared in a Polaroid taken at a 1980s realty party. Long called the most haunted house in Salem, the property now operates as a boutique hotel.
📍 148 Washington Street, Salem, MA, Salem, MA · Get directions