Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County. Home to Salem State College, Salem Willows Park and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem is a residential and tourist area which includes the neighborhoods of Salem Neck, South Salem and North Salem, and Witchcraft Heights.

Many people associate the city with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, which the city embraces both as a source of tourism and culture — police cars are adorned with witch logos, a local public school is known as the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School, the Salem High School football team is named The Witches, and Gallows Hill, a site of numerous public hangings, is currently used as a playing field for various sports.

Salem also embraces its Maritime History, which is dominant on the city seal with a motto that says, "To the Farthest port of the rich east." Salem also boasts the first National Historic Site designated by congress, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which protects Salem's Historic Water front. There are tours, led by National Park Rangers, of The Historic Customs House (1819), The Derby house (18th Century), Narbonne house (17th Century), Friendship, a replica 18th century East Indiamen Ship, Hawks house (18th Century), Macintire Federalist period house (not open for tour,  West India goods store(19th Century) Polish Club (20th Century), Park Orientation center (19th Century Warehouse) Tours leave from this location and a 17 minute film is played here every 30 minutes which introduces Salem's Historic Maritime Past.  The Park also boasts a Park Visitor Center, Open 9-5 with a film that shows once an hour covering Salem, and Essex County, history.

Tourists know Salem as a mix of important historical sites, New Age and Wiccan boutiques, and kitschy Halloween-themed and/or witch-themed attractions. A statue of Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha Stephens in Bewitched) was erected there in 2005.

Arthur Miller's 1952 play The Crucible dealt with the witch trials of the 1690s. The play, and the 1996 film version with Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis, were popular and commercial successes.

History
Native Americans called the area 'Naumkeag', meaning 'eel land'. Salem was founded at the mouth of the Naumkeag River in 1626 by a company of fishermen from Cape Ann led by Roger Conant, and incorporated in 1629. The name 'Salem' is related to the Hebrew word 'shalom' and Arabic word 'salam', both meaning 'peace'. Conant was later supplanted by John Endecott, the governor assigned by the Massachusetts Bay Company. Salem originally included much of the North Shore, including Marblehead, set off in 1649. Most of the accused in the Salem Witch Trials lived in nearby 'Salem Village', now Danvers. Salem Village also included Peabody and parts of present-day Beverly. Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham and Manchester-by-the-Sea, too, were once parts of Salem. One of the most widely known aspects of Salem is its witchcraft history, starting with Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and their friends playing with a venus glass and egg.

On February 26, 1775, patriots raised the drawbridge at the North River, preventing British Colonel Alexander Leslie and his 300 troops from seizing stores and ammunition hidden in North Salem. During the Revolution, the town became a center for privateering. By 1790, Salem was the sixth largest city in the country, and a world famous seaport—particularly in the China trade. Codfish was exported to the West Indies and Europe. Sugar and molasses were imported from the West Indies, tea from China, and pepper from Sumatra. Salem ships also visited Africa, Russia, Japan and Australia. During the War of 1812, privateering resumed.

Prosperity would leave the city with a wealth of fine architecture, including Federal style mansions designed by Samuel McIntire, for whom the city's largest historic district is named. Incorporated a city in 1836, Salem adopted a city seal in 1839 with the motto "Divitis Indiae usque ad ultimum sinum"—"To the farthest port of the rich East." Nathaniel Hawthorne was overseer of the port from 1846 until 1849. He worked in the Customs House near Pickering Wharf, his setting for the beginning of The Scarlet Letter. In 1858, an amusement park was established at Salem Willows, a peninsula jutting into the harbor.

But shipping would decline through the 19th century. Salem and its silting harbor were increasingly eclipsed by Boston and New York. Consequently, the city turned to manufacturing. Industries included tanneries, shoe factories and the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company. Large parts of the mill town were destroyed in the Great Salem Fire of 1914, which began in the Korn Leather Factory. More than 400 homes burned, leaving 3,500 families homeless. But much of Salem's architectural legacy survived, helping it develop as a center for tourism.

Geography
Salem is located at °N, °W (42.516845, -70.898503).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 46.8 km² (18.1 mi²). 21.0 km² (8.1 mi²) of it is land and 25.8 km² (9.9 mi²) of it (55.09%) is water. Salem Harbor faces north onto the Danvers River, a tidal inlet of Massachusetts Bay.

Tourism
Since the decline of the city's industrial base, tourism has become an increasingly important part of Salem's economy. Tourism based on the 1692 witch trials dates back to at least the first half of the 20th Century, when dry goods merchant Daniel Low sold souvenir spoons with witch images. Such tourism expanded significantly in the 1970s, when the television comedy Bewitched filmed several episodes there. The Halloween movie Hocus Pocus was also filmed in Salem. Witch-related tourism expanded significantly in the 1990s, and the city added an official "Haunted Happenings" celebration during the October tourist season.

In recent years, tourism has been an occasional source of debate in the city, with some residents arguing the city should downplay witch tourism and market itself as a more upscale cultural center. Several steps have been taken in this direction, including the designation of a portion of the city's waterfront as a National Historic Site (the country's first), the completion in 2000 of the replica tall ship "Friendship," and the 2003 expansion of the Peabody Essex Museum, designed by architect Moshe Safdie. In 2005, the city's semi-official tourist agency, Destination Salem, unveiled a new marketing campaign for the city, which de-emphasized witch tourism.

In 2005, the conflict came to a head over plans by the cable television network TV Land to erect a bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played the comic witch 'Samantha' in the 1960s series Bewitched. A few special episodes of the series were actually filmed in Salem, and TV Land said that the statue commemorated the 35th anniversary of those episodes.

Many felt the statue was good fun and appropriate to a city that promotes itself as "The Witch City," and contains a street named 'Witch Way'. Others objected to the use of public property for what was transparently commercial promotion. Some felt that the statue trivialized history by encouraging visitors to recall a sitcom rather than the tragic Salem witch trials. Local resident John Carr, a former member of the city's Historical Commission, was quoted in the local newspaper (and later in Time magazine) as saying 'it's like TV Land going to Auschwitz and proposing to erect a statue of Colonel Klink'. The statue was eventually approved and has generated little controversy since its unveiling. The statue was later vandalized with red spray painted "X"s over the face and chest, and flags placed in the statue's hands.

Points of interest

 * Nathaniel Bowditch House (c. 1805)
 * Crowninshield-Bentley House (c. 1727-1730)
 * John Tucker Daland House (1851)
 * Gedney House (c. 1665)
 * Nathaniel Hawthorne Birthplace (c. 1730-1745)
 * The House of the Seven Gables (1668)
 * The Witch House The only house remaining in Salem with any direct ties to the Salem Witch Trials. c.1642-1675
 * Misery Islands
 * Peabody Essex Museum (1799) – A major museum of Asian art and culture, as well as a leading museum of early American maritime trade and whaling. Its collections of Indian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese art, and in particular Chinese export porcelain, are among the finest in the country.
 * Stephen Phillips Memorial Trust House (1800 & 1821)
 * Pickering House, Broad Street (c. 1651)
 * Ropes Mansion (late 1720s)
 * Salem Maritime National Historic Site - The only remaining intact waterfront from the U.S. age of sail.
 * Pioneer Village Salem Massachusetts, Forest River Park (c. 1930)
 * Salem Willows Park (1858)

Notable residents

 * Nehemiah Adams, clergyman & author
 * Frank W. Benson, artist
 * Nathaniel Bowditch, mathematician & navigator
 * Robert Ellis Cahill, sheriff, historian & author
 * Roger Conant, founder of Salem
 * Crowninshield family, Boston Brahmins who later helped found Salem
 * Elias Hasket Derby, merchant
 * John Endecott, governor
 * Nathaniel Hawthorne, writer
 * Samuel McIntire, architect & woodcarver
 * Richard Mulcahy, executive producer
 * George Swinton Parker, founder of Parker Brothers
 * Samuel Parris, minister
 * Timothy Pickering, secretary of state
 * Sarah Parker Remond, abolitionist
 * Samuel Sewall, magistrate
 * John F. Tierney, U.S. Congressman
 * Roger Williams, theologian
 * Laurie Cabot, Wiccan high priestess
 * The rock band Godsmack formed in Salem
 * Hardcore/metal band Converge are based in Salem.
 * Singer/Songwriter Mary Lou Lord grew up in Salem
 * Steve Thomas - Former host of PBS's "This Old House".