Salem Things to Do

The only surviving structure in town directly related to the Witch trials is the home of judge Jonathan Corwin one of the judges in the trials. Although misnamed this is one of the more authentic attractions.

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This candy store is heralded as America's Oldest Candy Company. The candy store has a variety of old fashioned candies such as the Salem Gibralter. It's hard to walk by without stoping in...the smell of candy and chocolates lures you in.

Posting General Information for now-full review later

Open Tuesday-Sunday and holiday Mondays, 10 am-5 pm.
Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Adults $15, Seniors $13, Students $11
Youth (16 and under) and Salem, Mass. residents admitted free.
Members admitted free to all sites

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The National Parks Service has control of a large are along the harbor, and tours includes The Friendship sailing ship, the Derby and Narbonne Houses, and the Custom House. All of these are well worth the time and the tours are very informative. Fees are $5 for each tour and seniors pay $3. One covers the Freedom and Custom HOuse, while the other is for Derby and Narbonne houses. The Ranger said that on occasions during the summer, they take people out on additional one hour tours on the tall ship.
Salem was a shipbuilding town from mid 1600's and that continued to early 1800's. They became known for junckets around the world to purchase goods, a lot of them exotic and luxury items. In early 1700's, and lasting to 1830's range, overseas trading made a few merchants the most wealthy in America. Elias Derby was one of those, but also William Gray who owned 181 vessels, and Simon Forester were three more prominent

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The Derby HOuse was the most elegant in Salem and Elias Derby was a millionare, maybe the first in the US, and made a lot of money from the Revolutionary War taking a share of British goods they pirated. He showed off the wealth by having a brick home and furnishings from around the world. He took over dad's merchant shipping business in 1783 at age 44, and had 7 children. The fleet was once 13 vessels; fleet of went around the world. His son took over in 1799 when dad died, but he ran the business in the ground and the family became destitute, with many negative debts. Through the years the home was sold and ended up with donation to Parks Service in 1937. A lot of thew wharfs had been filled in with dirt by then. In the heh day, they had one merchant ship a day go out to buy goods. The captains kept 10-20% of the goods, and could also buy for his own account. Park Service got a lot of original pieces donated by the Derby family heirs
Narbonne house was from around 1640, as a first meat butcher shop on the retail row. Later is was a dry goods store, and a dress/sewing shop (sisters lived here 65 yrs-and passed down to relatives) Numerous additions were made and some taken back down over the years. Last heir occupants lived here until 1973, then the Park Service got the donation

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Thee type ships were in use mid 1700's through early 1800's. Then steam ships and Clipper ships took the activity. The original Friendship was build in 1796, and sailed 15 voyages until it was captured by the British in 1812, and later sold in England. This is a replica build in 1996 for millions-said the Ranger. It goes out on the water 6-7 times a years and makes tall ship tours. FActs are it is 342 tons, 171 feet in length and has 5 miles of rigging ropes. They would have 24 people on board and stay out for 1-6 months. They went around the world. In the Revolutionary War there were 158 privateer ships raiding British ships, and they kept 10-20% of goods on board. Merchants got wealthy, and took over 445 British ships. The harbor at one time had 50 wharfs and only 3 are now left. The rest are filled in.

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This Custom House was first started construction in 1819. It took 50 years to complete, and by that time is was really not needed. The purpose originally was to compete as a major port having a merchant ship a day some into port. The main, and maybe sole source of Federal Government revenue was taxing import goods. In 1820, it was $17 million collected and represented 85% of revenue to support the country. Salem and shipping was dying, and by 1830's it was a a rapid decline. By 1850's, Salem was of lesser importance. Scales were taken out to the ships and goods were weighed and taxed. A typical tall ship could carry 3,000 tons and it would generate $18,000 taxes. Nathaniel Hawthorne had the prominent role of scale manager, until he fell out with the elite in the community over issues. He later belittled the Custom HOuse in his book. The eagle in the house is from 1826 and was brown until 1873, when gilded gold. Later it was taken down and a replica was put up to preserve the original

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This museum really isn't something I would have done alone. ES wanted to go here because he missed it during his last trip to Boston. The tour is full of information however the scenes are basic and pretty boring. Our tour guide was very funny which made stopping here worth while. This museum would be a great stop for people with children who are under age 12. The older kids would probably be bored. Admission is $8.00 per adult, $6.00 for children and $5.00 for seniors; however there are combination tickets available for the Pirate Museum, the Witch Dungeon Museum and the Witch History Museum. The museum is open May through October...10am to 5pm, weekends in November and some nights during Haunted Happenings.