Between February 1692 and May 1693, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts and 20 were executed. These ten sites — most within walking distance in Salem and nearby Danvers — let you trace the panic from the first afflictions in the Parris parsonage to the hangings at Proctor's Ledge.
No. 01 · Salem, Massachusetts
Salem Witch Trials Memorial
Twenty granite benches for the twenty executed, designed by Maggie Smith and James Cutler in 1992.
Each cantilevered bench is inscribed with a victim's name and date of execution — quiet, exact, and devastating.
Tip · Enter from Charter Street next to the Old Burying Point; free and always open.
No. 02 · Salem, Massachusetts
Proctor's Ledge
The confirmed 1692 hanging site, identified by historians only in 2016.
A small, sober memorial set into a residential hillside off Pope Street — the actual ground where 19 were hanged.
Tip · Park on Pope Street and walk in; no signage on the main road.
No. 03 · Salem, Massachusetts
Salem Witch House (Jonathan Corwin House)
The only surviving structure with direct ties to the trials.
Judge Corwin examined accused witches inside these rooms — the dark gabled exterior is the most photographed building in Salem.
Tip · Book a timed ticket in October; queues stretch around the block during Haunted Happenings.
No. 04 · Salem, Massachusetts
Salem Witch Museum
Dramatised stage sets and a 1970s-era audio tour that locals still defend.
It is dated, but the chronological walkthrough remains the clearest 30-minute primer on what actually happened in 1692.
Tip · Skip the souvenir gift-shop queue by buying tickets online the morning of your visit.
No. 05 · Danvers, Massachusetts
Rebecca Nurse Homestead
The 1678 farmhouse of the 71-year-old grandmother hanged on 19 July 1692.
Original beams, a reproduction meeting house, and the family burial ground where Rebecca's body was secretly reburied.
Tip · Open Friday–Sunday in season; 15-minute drive from downtown Salem.
No. 06 · Danvers, Massachusetts
Salem Village Parsonage Site
Excavated foundation of Reverend Samuel Parris's home, where the first afflictions began.
Walk the actual footprint of the room where Betty Parris and Abigail Williams first 'cried out' in January 1692.
Tip · Free and unstaffed on Centre Street; combine with the Nurse Homestead in one afternoon.
No. 07 · Salem, Massachusetts
Old Burying Point Cemetery
1637 graveyard holding Judge John Hathorne, the trials' most aggressive examiner.
Hathorne's headstone sits feet from the memorial to his victims — Nathaniel Hawthorne added the 'w' to his surname to distance the family.
Tip · Visit at dusk in October when the candlelit memorial is at its most affecting.
No. 08 · Salem, Massachusetts
Peabody Essex Museum
Holds the largest collection of original 1692 court documents in the world.
Rotating displays of arrest warrants, depositions, and the actual pins used as 'evidence' against the accused.
Tip · Ask at the information desk which trial documents are currently on view — most are kept in climate-controlled storage.
No. 09 · Salem, Massachusetts
House of the Seven Gables
The 1668 mansion immortalised by Nathaniel Hawthorne, great-great-grandson of Judge Hathorne.
Hawthorne's guilt over his ancestor's role in the trials shaped American literature — the secret staircase tour is genuinely fun.
Tip · Combine with The Scarlet Letter sites; the Hawthorne birthplace is on the same grounds.
No. 10 · Salem, Massachusetts
Witch Dungeon Museum
Live reenactment of Sarah Good's examination, followed by a tour of a recreated jail.
Cheesy on the surface, but the courtroom script is drawn verbatim from the 1692 transcripts and lands harder than expected.
Tip · Shows every half hour; 35 minutes total — good first stop before the heavier museum sites.
Salem in October is theatre; Salem in February is history. Visit off-season if you want the memorial and Proctor's Ledge to yourself.