Salem

I made it to Salem On August 2nd by 9am, but nothing opens till 10 and I mean nothing.  I started at the Old Burying Point Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Salem starting in 1637.  I then headed over to The House of the Seven Gables.  This house inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to right write the novel The House of the Seven Gables, the house was owned by his cousin Susanna Ingersoll and he regularly visited the mansion.  On the properly they also have the house Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in, the home was bought for a dollar by the founders.

The House of the Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthornes birthplace

 Count Orlok's Nightmare Gallery was awesome!  It had over fifty life-sized recreations of the horror genre's most memorable characters.  Each character has information either about the movie or the actor.  My favorites were Freddy Krueger (duh), Pinhead, Carrie, and the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Hustons character in Witches).  

Nightmare Galley

I then went to the Witch Trials Memorial,  This memorial is dedicated to the 20 people who died due to the Witch Hysteria.  19 women were hung and one man was stoned.  Two dogs were also hung because people believed they were witches.  There are 20 protruding bricks with their names and birth to death dates.  I also went to the Witch History Museum, which tells you the story of how this all happened.  

Witch Trials Memorial

The reason the witch trial and witch hysteria ended was someone accused the Governor's wife of being a witch, so the Governor was like hey, guys I think that's enough, no more witch stuff (I'm paraphrasing).  And it was over.

Bewitched Statue

There are 22 ladies of Salem located around Salem.  Most of them are located on Essex St.  All of them are painted differently by different artists.

The Lady of Salem

So far Salem has been my favorite city I've visited.  I would love to go back because I didn't get to see everything.  If you get the chance GO, it has great history and it's a really nice and relaxed city.