Salem Witch Museum
From Salem Links and Lore
- Salem Witch Museum is located at 19 1/2 Washington Square, Salem and began as a museum in May of 1972.
- The Museum transports you back into time to the summer of 1692, during
the witchcraft hysteria. The museum uses stage sets to illuminate the Salem Witch trials of 1692 and other horrific events.
- The museum is dedicated to bringing the larger issue of persecution and 'scapegoating'
of all innocents to light through its exhibits.
- The Salem Witch Museum was started in 1972 by Holly and Tom Mulvihill. Local businessman Biff Michaud
assumed the management of the museum in 1980.
- The museum undertook a renovation project in 2010, preserving the exterior of this gothic revival structure made of brownstone and brick.
- The building at 19 1/2 Washington Sq. North at Brown Street, a Gothic Revival structure, was built between 1844-1846 for the East Church (organized 1718), the oldest branch of the First Church of Salem. Serious fires damaged the building in 1902 and in 1969 (It housed the Salem Auto Museum from 1959-69), but since 1972, with its interior entirely rebuilt, it has been home to the Salem Witch Museum.
- "The octagonal towers from the church building were removed in the mid-1920's. The church had a fire in 1902 and again in 1969, when the flames consumed the Automobile Museum." according to Turino.
See Also
- Salem Witch Museum Museum website
- Architecture in Salem by Tolles, p. 13-4
- Salem, Massachusetts Turino and Schier, p. 77 (photo of Second Unitarian Church, the Witch Museum)
