For our big planned vacation this year Andrew and I drove to Salem, MA. You can read about day 1 here. Day 2 was more touristy for us, so bear with me there is lots of pictures. We went to Proctor's Ledge (the site of the actual hanging tree), The Witch House, and the Peabody Essex Museum.
We woke up early and walked over to Proctor's Ledge. Along the way we took in all the beautiful colonial style houses. Many of them have plaques on the house that list the original builder/ owner and the year they were built. Most are from the late 1700s though to the 1800s.
McIntire District Salem Walkways.
Brick sidewalk.
Salem designed a memorial on the new found evidence of the gallows hill location this past summer. It's in a residential area behind a Walgreens store away from the main drag, near their parking lot. That in itself is sad, but it's a very nice tribute with the names engraved of the accused witches that were hanged on stone plaques in a semicircle at the bottom of a landscaped small hill. I feel like no matter what the town does, nothing can give the innocent people justice, BUT it's good that Salem is always remembering and learning from it's tragic past. Again I'll say it, Salem isn't just a tourist attraction, it's history you can see.
Innocent people were hung here for the crime of witchcraft.
Next we stopped at The Witch House. This house was owned by Jonathan Corwin, his was one of the wealthiest families in Salem during the late 1600s. He was a local magistrate that was called upon to investigate the diabolical activity happening in town, aka witchcraft, he also served in a court that sent the innocent people to their deaths, hence why it's called The Witch House. It's architectural style is called First Period or the earliest style home found in New England. This museum has a self guided tour where you can see period correct furnishings. It has a central fireplace that heats all the rooms, but it's not warm feeling. It's dark and dreary just like the witch craze period it was built.
Now for the fun part of the day ~ going to the The Peabody Essex Museum to view their exhibit It's Alive: Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammet Collection. Who's Kirk Hammett you may ask? Well he's the lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Metallica and has been since 1983. (Metallica was my jam up to and including the black album, if you try to tell me any of their later albums are better than the first three I WILL fight you.) The exhibit was much bigger than I expected and well planned out. For example, when you walk into the exhibition space the door has a recorded loud creak that sounds off! This exhibition included lots of old movie posters, some monster props, costumes, monster toys and electric guitars. Sorry there's so many pictures I couldn't help myself. I did buy the signed and numbered book of his monster collection too.
Courtyard outside the exhibition.
Some of the posters were gigantic, like this one. It took up a wall!
Painting of Bela Lugosi.
Wax figure of Boris Karloff in the original costume from the movie The Black Cat.
Signed and numbered book.
Ocean Liners: Glamour, Speed and Style was another exhibition up for viewing which totally makes sense since Salem is a port town. I'm not that into ships, but the interior designs displayed throughout the years was fascinating along with the fancy travel clothing and accessories.
Large replica ships.
Fabulous interior design.
Travel outfits.
Travel jewelry box!
Finally I always have to visit my favorite room at PEM, the giant room that houses the figureheads from ships. This museum has a large maritime collection that is world renowned dating back to 1799. Maybe I love these ship carvings because of the space they are in...huge and vast like the ocean. In my opinion, they are breathtaking.
This day ended a little early and we continued to walk around Salem and take it all in one last time...for now. We'll be leaving early tomorrow for our next stop The Edward Gorey House! Look for a blog on him shortly. :)
0 comments: