By: Ana Alexander
Adventure, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Halloween in Salem

I’ll start my post about Salem by saying that I can’t wait to go back to Salem.

I absolutely adored this town, for so many reasons, and while it was an incredible experience to visit on Halloween, I would love to experience the town outside of the holiday, as well.

When I first planned my trip and knew that I was going to be in New York the day before Halloween, there was no way I wasn’t going to find my way to Salem for Halloween. I have wanted to visit Salem for years, and this was the perfect opportunity. Plus, I’d already decided that my Halloween costume was going to be the Scarlet Witch from the MCU, and what better place to be her than Salem?

Our original plan was to wake up the day before Halloween, enjoy the morning in New York, and leisurely make our way to Salem the evening before Halloween. However, that wasn’t in the cards – the date of the Project Iceman premiere I attended changed the day after we booked our hotels, so we ended up staying in New York all day, and starting our four hour drive to Salem at 11 p.m.

I actually didn’t mind.

My friend and I split the drive, so we only had to drive two hours each, and we spent most of the time listening to loud, pump-up music to keep us alert.

Time seemed to fly by, but by the time we reached Salem and checked into our hotel, we were both ready to crash. We ended up sleeping in just a bit to make sure we were well-rested enough to enjoy the day, which actually turned out just fine. We ended up getting to downtown Salem at noon, and left just before dinner time, which gave us enough time to eat dinner, decompress, and then return for the evening festivities. It was actually much quieter during the afternoon than I had expected, with the crowds really starting to grow around 3 p.m. I think most people wanted to come as close to the evening as possible, so they could either park once or take an Uber in once before partying in the evening.

Before we left, I excitedly put on my Scarlet Witch costume. Please see my hotel bathroom mirror selfie below.

My new pride and joy is my Darkhold. I MADE IT.

I had to put that in all caps because I’m still absolutely stoked about it. When I was planning my costume, I wanted to have a Darkhold, but I don’t like carrying random objects around. I also knew I needed a purse of some kind, but wasn’t sure what kind of purse wouldn’t take away from my costume. So I decided to make a Darkhold purse.

It was so, so much fun, and made me realize why people like doing cosplay so much. I can definitely see myself doing more of this in the future, and I’m so happy with how my Darkhold turned out. I also recruited my Dad to help me, who is a huge Marvel fan and the reason why I’m a Marvel fan, so it was a fun family bonding experience.

When we were all ready to go, we drove to Salem and found a nice parking garage to stow our rental for the day. Our hotel was about fifteen minutes away from downtown Salem, and most of the roads in town were closed down for the day, so we had to find a parking garage and walked a short distance to the downtown area.

Our first stop was the Ropes Mansion, which is a gorgeous, well-preserved home that is perhaps most famous for being featured in Hocus Pocus.

While it was really fun to see the home decorated in the spirit of Halloween, I’ll say that this was our first indication of how busy the city would be that day. There was already a group of people waiting in line to take photos at the front of the house, and I snapped this picture quickly in-between individual photoshoots.

The mansion wasn’t open for tours, so we headed to the back to check out the garden.

It was absolutely gorgeous – I’d love to come back and tour the house when it’s open.

In 1913, Salem botanist John Robinson planted this copper beech tree from Jamaica in the yard, and it still stands there over 100 years later, which is pretty cool.

Right next door to the Ropes Mansion is Salem’s first church, founded in 1629.

This church was involved in the Salem Witch Trials – one of the young women accusing women of being witches was the daughter of the parish’s minister, and two of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials were members of this church before they were excommunicated and murdered.

One interesting story about this church is that one of its members, junior minister Rev. Nicholas Noyes, was significantly vocal during the Salem Witch Trials, and he never expressed remorse about his involvement. He’s said to have died from a curse, as one of the victims of the witch trials told him at her execution that “God will give you blood to drink,” and he later died by asphyxiating on his own blood from a throat disorder.

If it’s not magic, it’s definitely karma.

Just down the street from both the Ropes Mansion and the church is The Witch House, which is a bit of a misleading name, as it was actually the home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, who was one of the judges involved with the Salem Witch Trials.

Normally, you can tour the house, however it was closed during Halloween. This was a common theme during the trip – we were able to visit many sites, but full tours weren’t always available because of the holiday.

Just across the street from The Witch House was the Halloween Market, which I was super excited about.

There were a lot of beautiful old storefronts along this street, which was fun to walk along. I kept imagining what it would look like without the large crowds during the rest of the year.

Our first stop was Wicked Books, which I was very excited about.

They had a variety of books – including spellbooks!

If you’re going to get a spell book, Salem might be a good spot for it.

We also stopped at a store called Ascend, which I really enjoyed. It had good vibes, lots of pretty crystals, and gorgeous suncatchers. I really wanted a suncatcher, but I was nervous about suitcase space and breaking them during my travels.

This street was where things started to get fun – there were so many more people around, and every now and then someone would call out, “Hey, Wanda!” or would tell me they liked my Darkhold, and my personal favorite – two girls around our age saw me in my costume, gasped, and one shouted, “Oh my gosh, Wanda, you’re so beautiful!” before turning on a full spin and absolutely running away from me. I wasn’t sure if the Multiverse of Madness had traumatized her to the point of where she felt the need to full speed off, but it was pretty funny.

The crowd was thicker here, but it got to be way busier during the evening.

Our next stop was the Psychic Fair and Witches Market – I’ll say that unless you want a reading, it wasn’t the most exciting place on our trip.

Part of me wanted to stop for a reading, but we had so many things to see, and I knew my friend wouldn’t be down for it, so we kept moving.

From here, we decided to just wander around Salem to see how many items on our to-visit list we could check off, simply by exploring and experiencing the city naturally. It turns out, quite a few! We came across The Burying Point Cemetery.

This is one of the oldest cemeteries in the U.S. and is where many of the Salem Witch Trial judges were buried.

Next to the cemetery is the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, which was dedicated in 1992 by Elie Wiesel – the sign outside of the memorial had a powerful quote from him: “Only if we remember will we be worthy of redemption.”

Around the square were stone ledges with the names of each of the victims of the Salem Witch trial and the date of their murder engraved. People had left behind small gifts and trinkets, like pennies, flowers, tarot cards, and candy.

The square was packed, and it was a pretty solemn experience walking in line through the space.

Next, we walked past the Old Town Hall, which was a beautiful red brick building. It happens to be another site in Hocus Pocus – the place where the adults throw their Halloween Ball. There actually is a Halloween party here, in real life, too!

There were performers doing tricks and singing songs in front of this building during the few times we walked past.

Next, we discovered HausWitch, which was one of the stores I wanted to visit. It was so cute and lovely, and had wonderful energy.

They had this sign posted outside, which was 100% true. This place smelled amazing.

I bought a candle called “Sirens,” which smells like coconut, gardenia and jasmine – fresh and wonderful. I really wanted to also purchase this candle – at first because the description of it smelling how Hestia, the goddess of home and hearth, “roasts marshmallows” is super adorable, but also because it smelled PHENOMENAL. Oh my gosh. Truly the only reason I didn’t purchase it was because I had limited space in my suitcase, and had to pick just one candle.

When I burn my Sirens candle away (It’s about 3/4 of the way gone as we speak), I’ll be adding this candle to my online shopping cart and shipping this baby to me.

Next, not the most thrilling stop, but I have to show you how cute and charming the Post Office in Salem is.

We made our way toward the water, where we saw the Customs House.

Another gorgeous, well-preserved building. Originally built in 1819, this was were ship captains paid duties on imported goods.

Just across from the Customs House was the Pickering Wharf Marina.

We’d walked quite a bit at this point, so we took a moment to pause and sit here for a moment, before checking out the giant ship in across the marina.

This is a replica ship of the Friendship, a 1797 East Indiaman Ship. Turns out they also had a thing for puns in the 1790’s.

Salem is most known for its history, but I have to say it really is a beautiful place.

Our last stop for the day was the House of the Seven Gables, made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel. Hawthorne was related to the owners, and stayed there for some, eventually becoming inspired to write about it.

This was one of the only places we came across in Salem that was open to tour – however, we opted for a ticket to tour the grounds vs. the full tour, as we were running low on time.

The gardens were extremely beautiful, and the mansion overlooked the gorgeous waterfront.

There was also a good spot to snap a picture of my costume.

Still very proud of my costume.

We were closing in on dinnertime, so we decided to drive out of Salem, which was growing quite busy, in hopes of finding a slower restaurant. We picked a place called “Not Your Average Joe’s” purely because of the name, but they ended up having a delicious wood-fired shrimp pizza.

Sarah didn’t feel like going out, but there was no way I was missing out celebrating Halloween in Salem, so I called myself an Uber and headed into town alone. My Uber driver was a huge Marvel fan and was stoked about my costume – he began telling me about all of the other Avengers he’d driven that night, which was funny to hear about.

When I arrived, I wandered around, taking everything in. It felt like on every street, there was a mini stage with a band performing, and people dancing in the streets.

I passed the Hawthorne Hotel, which is supposed to be the host of the best Halloween party in town. They sell rooms and tickets to the party out far in advance, and it definitely seemed like it was busy.

Outside the hotel, a young woman saw me and gasped, which made me laugh – and her laugh in return. She told me she was a huge Marvel fan, and asked me if she could take a picture with me. I said sure, and that’s when the floodgates opened. People started coming up to me, one after another, asking to take a photo with me. I started to feel like the Spiderman in Times Square, and wondered if I should have been charging. I also wondered how many of them captured completely dopey pictures of me that I would never see.

This theme would continue for the rest of the evening, which kind of surprised me at first, because the only time I’ve ever asked to take a photo with a complete stranger in a costume was when I very drunkenly stumbled upon a man dressed as the Night Man from Always Sunny in Philadelphia during my college days, and to this day, I still have never seen anyone else in that costume, so I stand by my decision. However, one of the people who stopped me to ask for a photo was a little girl who asked me if her mom could take a picture of the two of us, and it was pretty freaking adorable. It also reminded me a lot of myself as a kid, as I loved superheroes from age four when my Dad started playing X-Men cartoons for us, but I always loved Storm and Jean Grey/The Phoenix the most, because they were some of the only female characters on the show. We live in an era where there are more female superheroes, but I remember how exciting it was as a kid to see a superhero that looks like you.

Another fun fact: as I was walking, one of the people who stopped me told me they loved my costume, and when I said thanks, they smiled and said, “Dracarys!” Wrong fandom, but right energy!

I walked past the Salem Witch Museum, which looked kickass at night.

Across the street was another Halloween party in the square, which had pretty orange lights strung above the park.

There were a lot of Sanderson sisters here.

I walked past the Old Town Hall again, which was totally bumpin.

Finally, I found my destination for the rest of the evening: The Huluween Party. Sponsored by Hulu.

I had no idea it was going to be there, but once I found it, there was no way I was leaving. There were tons of people in awesome costumes, dancing and having a good time, and the event ended with fireworks.

After the fireworks, I was pretty tired, so I decided to call an Uber and head back for the evening. I had a ton of fun exploring the city at night, and it was a great place to celebrate Halloween. There was truly something for everyone on each street – it was really impressive. I would highly recommend aiming to celebrate Halloween in Salem, but book your hotel far in advance!

The next morning, it was time to start our roadtrip to Boston, but we had one last stop in Salem: Proctor’s Ledge.

Proctor’s Ledge is the supposed location of the hangings of the victims of the Salem Witch Trials. I read mixed commentary online about whether or not folks were truly sure this is the spot, but historians drew on testimonials of Salem residents who said they could see the executions from their homes, and deduced this must be the place.

While I’m normally good at reading the energy of places, I have to say that I didn’t feel much out of the ordinary here. However, there was something different about this spot vs. the memorial downtown. This space felt much for intentional, and more directed toward the victims. It felt like there was a true architectural intent here. The names of the victims were in a half moon, at the center of which grew an oak tree – the same type of tree that would have been used in the hangings.

Below the tree were the words, “We remember.”

It was powerful.

And that was Salem. There was so much to see and do, and I would love to spend more time here during quieter seasons so I could take more of the tours and visit the museums.

But for now, it was off to Plymouth to see their two famous rocks – that’s right, two.

Stay tuned.

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