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KLMNO The Impulsive Traveler Cries of witchery didn’t begin in Salem BY ALEXANDRA PECCI All that remains of the old Salem
Village Parsonage is a small stone foun- dation, and I’m standing in it. A three- foot-deep pit lined with large stones, it’s invisible from the road, at the end of an inconspicuous path between twohouses in a suburban neighborhood. A few miles away, throngs of tourists crowd the sidewalks in Salem, Mass., but here I’mall alone, standing in the spot where the Salem witch hysteria started in 1692. Salem may be known as the witch
capital of the United States, and trials and executions indeed happened there, but the frenzy that set off the infamous witch hunt actually began in what is now Danvers. It was in Salem Village, as Danvers was then known, that Betty Parris,AnnPutnamandother “afflicted” girls first cried witchcraft against their neighbors. I’d been to Danvers countless times,
always on the way to somewhere else: work, the nearby malls, a restaurant. Many locals don’t even realize the num- ber of witch-trial-related sites that still exist, largely unheralded and unvisited, in their town. So I set off to shine a light on the darkness. First stop is the parsonage, where the
Rev. Samuel Parris lived with his wife, Elizabeth; his daughter, Betty; his niece, Abigail; and their slave, Tituba. It takes my stepmother, Robin, and me a second to notice the stone path that runs be- tween the houses at 65 and 67 Centre St., and the small historic marker that’s almost overgrown by bushes. It feels like trespassing as we walk between the housesandtheir back yards, but soonwe see the small sunken foundation sur- rounded by a post-and-rail fence. I step into it and struggle to imagine
what went on here during the cold, dark winter of 1692: Betty and Abigail acting wildly,screamingandwrithing in appar- ent pain, throwing things. The village doctor concluding that the devilmust be responsible for their illness. Tituba, be- ing accused of witchcraft. The panic, the fear, the shrieks, crammed into this tiny space. The entire foundation can’t be more than 20 feet across. All that re- mains is dirt and rock and a peaceful little clearing. The site was excavated in 1970 by a
team led by Richard Trask, who de- scribes himself as “just a townie” when I meet him a fewdays later at the Peabody Institute Library of Danvers, where he works as the town archivist. A descen- dant ofMary Esty and JohnProctor,who were hanged as witches, Trask says he fell into his job because he was interest- ed in the history of Danvers. It was an interest that most townspeople didn’t share.
“Danvers never wanted to be ac- knowledged as the place where it had begun,” he tells me. “There was always a shame, even in the ’50s and early ’60s,” when he was growing up. Now, Trask manages the Danvers Ar-
chival Center, which contains the most extensive witch-trial-related imprints anywhere as well as a few excavated relics from the period.Genealogical and
IF YOUGO
Want to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to Danvers, Mass.? Here’s what you need to know for the weekend of Oct. 22-24:
GETTING THERE JetBlue and Southwest offer nonstop flights from BWI Marshall to Boston’s Logan Airport, with fares starting at $145 round trip. Danvers is about 19 miles north of Boston.
WHERE TO STAY Crowne Plaza Boston North Shore 50 Ferncroft Rd. 978-777-2500
www.cpbostonns.com Off Route 1, with a 65,000-square-foot indoor water park. Rooms start at $161.10.
Comfort Inn North Shore 50 Dayton St. 978-777-1700
www.comfortinn.com Also off Route 1; rooms start at $139.95.
NORTH WIND PICTURE ARCHIVES/ALAMY
In Danvers,Mass., you can tour the house of RebeccaNurse, a once respected woman who was hanged as a witch in 1692. Danvers
N.H. 95 495 Boston 90 Providence 95 R.I.
Martha’s Vineyard
Nantucket LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST
academic researchers haunt the ar- chives most often, although a fewwitch- enthused tourists do wind up there once they discover thatDanvers is “the place,” Trask says. Trask’s genial, Boston-accented voice
also narrates a slide show about the witch trials at the RebeccaNurseHome- stead, where we arrive late in the after- noon for a tour. According to our guide, tours take place “whenever people show up.” Rebecca Nurse was an elderly and respected member of the Salem Village community before Ann Putnam accused her of being a witch. The guide walks us through the circa-
1678 house, which is furnished as it might have been whenNurse lived here, and demonstrates some of the never- ending chores that everyone, children included, were expected to perform. As we walk through the house, my
13-month-old daughter, Chloe, squirms in Robin’s arms, punctuating the quiet tour with yells of pent-up energy. In that moment, it’s easy for me to imagine why
MASSACHUSETTS 495
195 3
Atlantic Ocean
0 MILES
Cape Cod Bay
6 25
a bunch of puritanically repressed young girls might have acted as though they were possessed. “I guess being ‘afflicted’ got them out
of chores,” I remark. “Exactly,” says the guide. Ann Putnam claimed that Nurse’s disembodied figure appeared to her, and that kind of “spectral evidence”wasused throughout the trials to convict people such as Nurse, who was excommunicat- ed, hanged and denied a proper burial. Her family secretly recovered her body from GallowsHill, and legend says she’s buriedsomewhereonthe grounds of her homestead. According to our guide, there’s an unmarked grave in the Nurse family burial ground behind the house. Although the exact location ofNurse’s
remains is unknown, her family erected a monument to her here in 1885. The beautiful obelisk stands tall and crisp at the center of the burial ground, decorat- ed by American flags, plantings and silk flowers. It declares Nurse a “Christian martyr.” Another monument remem- bers the 40 people who signed a petition in support of Nurse after she was ac- cused. Our last stop is the cemetery where
Thomas Putnam and his wife, also Ann, are buried with the younger Ann. The Putnam Cemetery is tucked at the top of a steep, wooded concrete path next to theMassachusetts State Police barracks on Route 62. There’s no historical mark- er, nothing even to indicate that there’s a graveyard hidden up the hill. I’d discov- ered only a couple of sentences about its existence on the Salem Witch Museum Web site. I stand at the gate and rake my eyes
across thecemetery grounds, looking for the large mound in the earth that’s the only remaining evidence of the Put- nams’ unmarked grave. When I see it,
WHERE TO EAT PutnamPantry 255 Newbury St. 978-774-2383
www.putnampantry.com Old-fashioned candy shop and ice cream parlor housed in the birthplace of Revolutionary War hero Gen. Israel Putnam, first cousin to witch accuser Ann Putnam. Sells chocolate, fudge, candy and ice cream.
my stomach does a little flip. How different this place is from the burial ground where Nurse is exalted. Or from the somber and stirring Salem Village Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial, where a faceless Puritan is etched in granite above the victims’ names and methods of execution. Among them is the un- named infant who died in prison before her mother was hanged. Huge chains and shackles lie across the top of the monument, and the victims’ words are engraved in the stone, declaring their innocence from across the centuries. “Well! Burn me or hang me,” said
George Jacobs Sr., who was hanged on Aug. 19, 1692. “I will stand in the truth of Christ.” Everything about the Putnam Ceme-
tery, by contrast, feels empty and lonely. A fence prevents me from going into it, but for some reason, I find it hard to leave, knowing that I may be the last person for a while to stand here and remember this sad, accursed family. I stare at the grass for a time, but finally there’s nothing more to do. I take one last look and walk away.
travel@washpost.com
Pecci is a freelance writer in Plaistow, N.H.
Danversport Grille & Bistro 161 Elliott St. 978-774-8620
www.danversport.com In the Danversport Yacht Club, with pretty views of the Porter River and Danversport Marina. Dinner entrees start at $14.50.
9 ElmAmerican Bistro 9 Elm St. 978-774-9436
www.9elm.com The inventive menu and casual atmosphere make this a local favorite. Dinner entrees start at $18.
WHAT TO DO Rebecca Nurse Homestead 149 Pine St. 978-774-8799
www.rebeccanurse.org September-October hours, Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by appointment. $6.50, ages 6-16 $4.50.
Danvers Archival Library Peabody Institute Library of Danvers 15 Sylvan St. 978-774-0554
www.danverslibrary.org Read up on the history of Salem Village and Danvers.
MoreTravel this week
FRIDAY Escapes gets a taste of a new Virginia wine trail, in Weekend.
NEXT SUNDAY The Impulsive Traveler checks out a prairie-under- glass near Dallas.
There are many witchcraft-related sites in Danvers. The Salem Village Parsonage is behind the house at 67 Centre St. The Salem Village Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial is at 176 Hobart St., and the Putnam Cemetery is at 485 Maple St. For others, visit the Web site below.
INFORMATION
www.salemwitchmuseum.com/tour/danvers. shtml
— A.P.
All flight and lodging info valid as of press time Thursday.
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