Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 40 OCTOBER 2022 NORTHSHOREMAG.COM From the accused men and women of the Salem Witch Trials to the green- skinned Wicked Witch of the West to Sabrina the Teenage Witch, witch representation has changed drastically in the past few hundred years. The Salem Witch Museum in Salem explains how we got here. Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the Salem Witch Museum sits in a huge, foreboding stone building at the corner of Washington Square and Brown Street, across from the Salem Common. Formerly the Second Unitarian Church, the building dates to the 1840s. After a brief stint as an antique car museum in the 1950s, the witch museum L I V E + P L AY L I V E + P L AY accused, the accusers, and those who died. While 30 victims died during the trials, 19 of whom were hanged on Proctor's Ledge, between 150 and 200 people were accused of witchcraft during the yearlong hysteria—including the governor's wife. The museum regularly sees descendants of players in the trials, whether they've always known their family has ties to the trials, or they've researched their family history since the rise of genealogy companies like Ancestry.com. "We started catering to descendants because we want to be a resource for them," says Christ- Doane, noting that the museum carries booklets with detailed information about many of the opened in 1972. Since then, the focus has been on detailing the significance of the Salem witch trials to the visitors who flock to Witch City year after year. "We give people an end-to-end overview of what happened in 1692," says Rachel Christ- Doane, director of education at the Salem Witch Museum. "The idea is that learners of any age can understand the history of the trials. It makes the story, which is complicated and tragic, palatable in 20 minutes." When visitors first enter the museum, they'll see in the lobby lists of everyone involved in the witch trials, which occurred from February 1692 through May 1693—the The SalemWitch Museum at night is a forboding sight.