Salem Maritime National Historic Site — Attraction in Salem

I should start by saying that I find ships boring.

Not like, pirate ships or ghost ships or ships with a cool backstory and name.

And not in an I Hate Boats way.

Just kind of boring in general. Why, yes, that is a boat. Look at its stick things with the flappy flags and sails. My, I am impressed. Next?

So I figured this stop on our journey was going to involve a quick google search for nearby ice cream (which there is VERY nearby) while my family looked at, oh, I dont know, old docks and probably rope or petrified wood or something.

But this place was pretty cool. It was very casual- a gift store and some informational signs along a pier, and a neat old building where old timey people had to go pay taxes for all the fancy stuff they just shipped in.

Now this building is the best part, even though it sounded dull. The staff inside were very knowledgeable and seemed to enjoy recounting chapters in Salem's past such as The First Ever Elephant Shipped To Salem (also referred to as OMG When We Said Bring Us Something Exotic We Meant A Parrot Maybe) and Let's Hide The Eagle From The Dutch Or At Least Paint It Black So They Don't Want It So Much Anymore, among other classic historical tales.

The old timey rooms are still set up with Cute Old Timey Things, and the guides were great at explaining different jobs needed around the place and ways to exhort sea captains and evade taxes. They also had a wonderful and horrible list of all the Stuff Shipped In, including lots and lots of wildlife that should NOT be stored in a basement together.

Surprisingly...

We visited on a Friday around noon in mid-June 2025.

We found parking by the Salem Armory Visitor Center near Witch City Mall. We could not use the parking garages because our minivan with cargo carrier was too tall. We circled the lots maybe 5 times before we saw someone leaving.

We walked over to the visitor center first where we got maps and NPS Passport Cancellation Stamps. We also bough t some merch and checked out the few exhibits and took some pictures. Then we headed down to where the majority of the points of interest were near the water. Our first stop was going to be the Waite & Peirce Park Store. They have additional NPS Passport Cancellation stamps and also has a many items not available at the store in the visitor center. So make sure you visit both.

Then across the street was the Custom House. This was the only other thing that was open to us on a Friday in Mid-June 2025. We went in and explored the 2 floors worth of rooms. There were a number of rangers here to answer questions as well. There was were many rangers in fact I was curious why some of the other locations weren't open for us to explore. We walked around outside for a bit and decided it was time for a late lunch.

Overall it was a nice experience. All the rangers we spoke too at each of the sites were great and since many of the places were closed, we would visit again to try and hit more of the sites. Same goes for Salem in general. We only had enough time in our road trip for half a day here and that was just not enough to see everything...

So disappointing to encounter a very rude NPS woman at the visitor desk in Salem. We've taken our kids to many sites run by the NPS and this is the first time that's ever happened. I walked up to the desk and asked if there was a movie (as many of the sites have). She said she just started it but since my family was exploring the exhibits, I asked if she would be showing it again and how long it was. All she did was repeat that she just started it, in a very curt tone. It could have been a fun experience but once she set that tone, we walked out. We went over to the Salem Witch Museum which was OK. Met another person who was definitely annoyed at having to do her job as she basically recited a script in a monotone voice. Sadly, what could be a lovely town with truly notable history is nothing more than a tourist trap that we wasted 2 hours of our vacation on. Couldn't get out of there...