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Salem Vacations, Historical Tours and Salem Travel Packages

While the City of Salem is abundant in history, having been founded in 1626 by Roger Conant, today it is a lively urban community, rich in culture and diversity with a vibrant downtown and attractive waterfront.   
 
One million visitors from around the globe come to Salem each year.  During their stay tourists visit our world famous museums, are fascinated with the City’s historic architecture and learn about the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692.  Salem is also a pedestrian friendly City where residents and visitors can walk around the downtown to all of our eclectic shops, restaurants and attractions. 

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County.[1] Home to Salem State College, the Salem Willows Park and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem is a residential and tourist area which includes the neighborhoods of Salem Neck, The Point, South Salem and North Salem, and Witchcraft Heights.

Featured notably in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, much of the city's culture is reflective of its role as the location of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692: Police cars are adorned with witch logos, a local public school is known as the Witchcraft Heights Elementary School, the Salem High School football team is named The Witches, and Gallows Hill, a site of numerous public hangings, is currently used as a playing field for various sports.

Salem was one of the most significant seaports in early America. It boasts the first National Historic Site designated by Congress, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which protects Salem's historic waterfront.

Tourists know Salem as a mix of important historical sites, New Age and Wiccan boutiques, and kitschy Halloween or witch-themed attractions. The most recent (and controversial) addition of significance is a bronze statue of the Samantha Stephens character (played by actress Elizabeth Montgomery) of the Bewitched television program in Salem's Lappin Park on June 15, 2005.

Salem History
 
The House of the Seven Gables.Salem was founded at the mouth of the Naumkeag River in 1626 (it was originally called Naumkeag and was renamed Salem three years later) by a company of fishermen from Cape Ann led by Roger Conant, and incorporated in 1629. The name "Salem" is related to the Hebrew word "shalom" and Arabic word "salam", both meaning "peace". Conant was later supplanted by John Endecott, the governor assigned by the Massachusetts Bay Company. Salem originally included much of the North Shore, including Marblehead. A delusional Dorothy Talbye was hanged for murdering her daughter, as at the time Massachusetts's common law made no distinction between insanity (or mental illness) and criminal behavior.[2] Most of the accused in the Salem witch trials lived in nearby 'Salem Village', however a few lived on the outskirts, now known as Danvers. Salem Village also included Peabody and parts of present-day Beverly. Middleton, Topsfield, Wenham and Manchester-by-the-Sea, too, were once parts of Salem. One of the most widely known aspects of Salem is its history of witchcraft allegations, which started with Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and their friends playing with a Venus glass and egg.

On February 26, 1775, patriots raised the drawbridge at the North River, preventing British Colonel Alexander Leslie and his 300 troops from seizing stores and ammunition hidden in North Salem. A few months later, in May 1775, a group of prominent merchants with ties to Salem, including Francis Cabot, William Pynchon, Thomas Barnard, E.A. Holyoke and William Pickman, felt the need to publish a statement retracting what some interpreted as Loyalist leanings and to profess their dedication to the Colonial cause.[3]

During the Revolution, the town became a center for privateering. By 1790, Salem was the sixth largest city in the country, and a world famous seaport—particularly in the China trade. Codfish was exported to the West Indies and Europe. Sugar and molasses were imported from the West Indies, tea from China, and pepper from Sumatra. Salem ships also visited Africa, Russia, Japan and Australia. During the War of 1812, privateering resumed.

Prosperity would leave the city with a wealth of fine architecture, including Federal style mansions designed by one of America's first architects Samuel McIntire, for whom the city's largest historic district is named. These collection of homes and mansions from Colonial America are now the greatest concentrations of notable pre-1900 domestic structures in the United States.

Incorporated a city on March 23, 1836 [3], Salem adopted a city seal in 1839 with the motto "Divitis Indiae usque ad ultimum sinum", Latin for "To the farthest port of the rich East." Nathaniel Hawthorne was overseer of the port from 1846 until 1849. He worked in the Customs House near Pickering Wharf, his setting for the beginning of The Scarlet Letter. In 1858, an amusement park was established at Salem Willows, a peninsula jutting into the harbor. It should be noted that up until the War of 1812, the port of Salem Massachusetts was the center of trade in America.

But shipping would decline through the 19th century. Salem and its silting harbor were increasingly eclipsed by Boston and New York. Consequently, the city turned to manufacturing. Industries included tanneries, shoe factories and the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company. More than 400 homes burned in the Great Salem Fire of 1914, leaving 3,500 families homeless from a blaze that began in the Korn Leather Factory. The fire ripped into one part of the city but historical places including Chestnut Street and City Hall were spared by the fire, leaving much of Salem's architectural legacy [4] intact, which helped it develop as a center for tourism.

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