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Which Witch

The true site of the Salem witch mania (it wasn't Salem)

JadeBrewer_SalemVillage2Photo: Jade Brewer

T

he biggest secret about Danvers is that it’s actually Salem. Danvers was originally known as Salem Village Parsonage, and it is here that many of the witchcraft incidents so closely associated with Salem actually took place. The foundation of the house where Elizabeth Parris and her cousin, Abigail Williams, concocted the tales that caused the witchcraft hysteria in the first place beginning in 1692 is at 67 Centre Street. The Osburn house at 273 Maple Street was the home of the first victim, Sarah Good, who was hanged. And Rebecca Nurse, who denounced the young girls and in response was also hanged; her sons are said to have secretly retrieved her body from its unmarked grave and buried it in the yard. Let Salem have its supposed claim to fame; a memorial to the 25 men, women and children killed as witches was erected quietly in Danvers in 1992 near the site of the Old Salem Village Meeting House, where the witchcraft trials themselves were held.

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At more than 300 years, the Endicott pear tree on Endicott Street in Danvers is the oldest living fruit tree in America, brought from England and planted around 1632.