The Spell of a Seaport Town
The Pfisters enjoy a hauntingly good time in Salem, Mass.
I just got back with my wife and youngest son from a bucket-list adventure that has been on our list since my son was in Junior High…
(We made this trip five years ago on the first weekend of October, but to truly check it off our bucket list, it had to be experienced on Halloween weekend!)
I like Halloween and have enjoyed dressing up throughout the years as the boys grew up. My wife and youngest son adore Halloween and typically begin decorating Labor Day weekend. Growing up, my son was always working on some new creative costume. As he got older and would be glued to the television during spook week or fright week on various travel channels, one town kept popping up as the place to experience the pure essence of Halloween… Salem Massachusetts. It is also the filming site of my son’s favorite Halloween movie, ‘Hocus Pocus.’
Dr. Pfister’s son, Trent, leads the way through downtown Salem.
Granted, Salem had it over any other city due to the mystique and horror of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, which began in the early part of 1692 and continued into the Spring of 1693.
In 2007, Jess Blumberg, a writer for the Smithsonian Magazine, wrote a great historical article that explained the “witchcraft craze” that swept through Europe from the 1300’s to the end of the 1600’s. I’ll summarize it for my readers by saying — driven by religious zealots and rising monarchs — if you weren’t for the King, then you must be against the king (and the same held true if you looked or acted out of the ordinary).
Needless to say, over those 300 years in Europe, tens of thousands of “unusual” people were executed.
In 1689, Blumberg goes on to say, English monarchs William and Mary started a war with France in the American colonies. Known as King William’s War to the colonists, the conflict raged on in upstate New York, Nova Scotia, and Quebec… causing many to flee. Many of these refugees ended up in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the county of Essex and, specifically, Salem Village. These refugees placed a strain on Salem’s resources and on those already living there.
If you have ever been to Salem, you will notice this seaport town is built on a very rocky soil with numerous outcroppings of stone — a very poor substructure for farming and feeding the masses. Needless to say, family rivalries and infighting started up and accusations of “witchcraft” began to fly. In the end, by Spring of 1693, twenty individuals (made up of fifteen females and five males) were found guilty by “village” trials and neighborly finger-pointing. They were immediately put to death.
How did these trials finally end, you may ask? Well, in the summer of 1693, after hearing that his wife was accused of witchcraft, the governor of the colony ordered an end to the trials! Interestingly, just like today, government moves when the issues hit closer to home. And it wasn’t until 1957, more than 250 years later, that Massachusetts finally apologized for the events of 1692.
What does all this lead-in have to do with Halloween, you may ask?
Look up “most ghost sightings in a U.S. city” and, after New Orleans and the battlefield of Gettysburg, Salem Mass. is right up there in the top five or ten of most sightings per year.
The reason for all the sightings, they say, is due to the premature, life-ending experiences of many innocent individuals who were put to death at the trials (or other various beheadings). Over subsequent years, this has caused these spirits to return to find their missing body parts and to try and ease their restless souls as they walk the sidewalks, cemeteries, and alleys of Salem. Combine this with an unusually large population of modern-day, self-proclaimed “nice” witches, a profound number of cemeteries for such a small town, and homes and buildings that are 200-300 years old (looking like they came off a Hollywood “horror’ set), and you have all the ingredients for an amazing Halloween weekend!
Dr. Pfister visits the Paul Revere house in Boston.
How does one start this Salem adventure?
Whether by car or plane, one goes to Boston Massachusetts, nine hours and fifty-two minutes by car (or one hour and twenty minutes by plane) and then it’s simply turn left and head north 21.5 miles and you’re in downtown Salem. Since Halloween and witches may not be everyone’s cup of brew, give a half day (or ideally a full day) touring Boston — truly a storied city, steeped in the history of our country’s early beginnings.
Walking up and down cobblestone streets, wear comfortable shoes. One can tour the Old North Church and, two streets over, tour the actual home of Paul Revere! I’m not a big history buff, but it’s really cool seeing first-hand what we had learned in school. Tucked in between these two historical landmarks is Boston’s Italian district. The aroma of this area is a mixture of fresh bread, marinara sauce, and tiramisu.
An image of John Hancock next to safe with copy of Constitution
With Boston being a seaport city as well, you must visit the Wharf District and Faneuil Hall…
It is truly a walking culinary adventure, with some 30 vendors, per side, lining an old storage warehouse on the dock. There, you’ll find them selling everything from clam chowder to walking tacos. If you want a “must do” restaurant, I’ve been going to the Charthouse since 1985, as my cousins live in Boston and I often went there while visiting them. The Charthouse sits on an original dock in Boston’s harbor. Built originally as the Gardiner Building in 1763, and used as John Hancock’s counting house, it has the distinct honor of protecting our country’s Constitution in its iron safe wall. The Charthouse converted this building in 1973 and opened as a premier seafood restaurant complete with the Constitution wall safe. I just love this city — everywhere you go is another story or adventure and it is part of all of our history.
Now, let’s head North for some spectral adventures!
I’ll start with the rarest, most difficult experience to get tickets for in Salem, happening only four nights over two weekends — The Salem Night Fair. The setting is right out of Hollywood on a heavily forested peninsula (the site of opening scenes from Hocus Pocus). Taking place after dark, the fair is limited to 30 or so Tarot card readers, Gypsies, and vendors selling everything from bat photos to oils and balms to soothe the skin and soul and shrink your wallet!
Salem Night Fair
A creature of the night at the Salem Night Fair
You could also take in the sight of burning cauldrons, the aroma of incense, dense fog, and costuming to make Spielberg applaud. The one that I felt took the prize — and significantly scared my wife — was an eight or nine foot high figure, draped in black robes and wearing a black goat skull and cape as a headdress. Standing in subdued black and red smoke, with long black skinny fingers and shiny black nail polish, this figure would lean down and squeeze people who came too close! Second place had to go to the seven or eight foot guy draped in black robes (seemed to be the clothing of choice for the weekend everywhere in Salem) who was shrouded in various colors of smoke and very well-done strobing lights, leading a séance and drawing crosses on foreheads of all who dared come close. The night ends at Midnight, naturally. (Get in line early in July for these tickets.)
The opening ceremonies of Friday night were spellbinding, pun intended…
Hocus Pocus was shown on the Commons of downtown Salem. All-the-while various buildings and, yes, churches were repurposed for reenactments of witch trials and converted to horror houses extraordinaire. Once the movie was over, we were off to our first cemetery tour to find (and hopefully photograph) a real live apparition from the past.
When we were in Salem five years ago, we did early evening cemetery tours, right after dinner around seven o’clock, not getting any ethereal projections on film. This trip, we did ten and eleven o’clock tours. I must admit, there is a different aura about late-night tours. (I’ve done midnight tours in New Orleans and Key West and your best chance with a spiritual encounter has to be closer to the witching hour of midnight!) We walked back to our room with excitement building for the next day.
The shortest lighthouse in Salem Bay
Your days can be filled with going in and out of the many little seaport shops, along with touring old sailing ships and lighthouses.
An interesting side tour is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, which is a must-see for English and History buffs. It has a very restful garden that runs right down to the ocean and has a lot of photo op potential. Another stunning exhibit is the Salem Witch Museum, housed in an old refurbished gothic church. It is truly a Hollywood-quality presentation of the Trials and life as a witch in Salem, animated with cinematic enhancement for a truly awesome experience.
Also intriguing was a church that was converted into a carved pumpkin museum, with over 1100 pumpkins. It was truly amazing to see what some people can do properly with a knife!
This trip, we also took in several magic shows that were very good. I love David Copperfield and several of the shows were quite close to this level of quality. The shows were very intimate, with 70 some in the audience.
What about lunch, Dr. Pfister?
The food vendors are out in full culinary fashion with the Boston Hot Dog Company, complete with NYC-style buttered and then toasted-on-two-side buns… and hot dogs wrapped with baked beans and kraut. One can also find anything from Reubens to Tex-Mex. But don’t stay downtown — move out and try some of Salem’s finest seafood offerings, such as the best clam chowder North of Boston and a lobster roll drizzled with butter and cilantro that’s to die for (well… maybe not yet… other things to do first!).
If you’d like a change of scenery, head down to Boston and then go West on I-95 for 1 hour and 23 minutes to Worcester, Massachusetts, home of America’s largest Halloween and costume shop.
It is quite large and they have whatever your heart and budget can handle. Another road trip is to Lizzie Borden’s house — a quick hour and 20-minute drive. She is very famous on the travel channel for infamous behavior (which I won’t go into due to my mixed audience). We went this year and it is an interesting, who-dunnit-Halloween-style-place. The house is also a bed and breakfast where you can stay in the actual room. Lizzie’s specter has been seen and photographed on several occasions.
If seaport adventure and art shopping are more your interest, head straight North from Salem 30 minutes to Gloucester. Yes, ‘The Perfect Storm’ (with George Clooney) and ‘Wicked Tuna’ were both filmed here. Last but not least is a quick eleven-minute drive South to Marblehead, the next seaport South of Salem and home to one of the most picturesque cemeteries, punctuated with large outcroppings of rock. This was the site of the cemetery scene in Hocus Pocus. The tombstones here date back to the 1600s and I have several times sat with my back against a tombstone until 1 or so in the morning with my son, waiting for spiritual company. I’m still waiting, and yes, I still believe in ghosts!
So there you have it, a quick three-to-four-day trip to really get a feeling of Halloween!
I’m always amazed at the Jeckyll and Hyde atmosphere of the witches and Halloween spirit of downtown Salem and the sleepy, authentic seaport just one half mile to the coast. Put Salem on your list, no matter what time of year you visit. It’s very slow-paced and a truly enjoyable New England get away.
But beware, if you choose October 31st, the restless souls may bring you more than room service!
Until then, stay classy readers (both living and dead),
Dr. Pfister