I'm a Salem resident and I am on a mission to tour all the local attractions AND museums.

About this one:

I have visited the House of the Seven Gables multiple times over the years and I had the pleasure to take the tour once again recently.

The house was built in the 1600s for Captain John Turner and passed to his heirs. The estate was sold to Captain Samuel Ingersoll in the 1700s. He was married to Susanna Hathorne, cousin of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who used the house as inspiration for his "The house of the Seven Gables" novel. He never lived here but he visited multiple times his second cousin (called Susanna as her mother) and her adopted son Horace.

When the property was acquired by the philanthropist Caroline Emmerton at the beginning of the 1900s, it was turned into a museum and a place for education to help the community, and today it's still both.

You can take a 45 minute tour of the house, which nowadays offers a glimpse of the different centuries that the house has been around. You can visit rooms restored as they were in the 1600s (when it was built), 1700s, 1800s (when Hawthorne was around) and even 1900s. Interestingly, the place was modified to look like the partially-fictional house in Hawthorne's novel, in a unique case of literature shaping reality instead of the other way around. A very memorable section of the tour is the secret passage from the living room to the attic, used by one of the characters to constantly appear out of thin air. You can go through it or skip it if you suffer from claustrophobia. Also a little cent-shop was added on the first floor since it was part of Hawthorne's story.

The museum includes a beautiful garden by the water and other properties, in particular Hawthorne's birth place. It's furnished and self guided.

Let me tell you clearly: I LOVE the House of the seven gables!

If you can visit during the spring or fall, that's when the gardens look their best.

PROs

It's quintessentially Salem. It encapsulates everything that you long to find when visiting the town: some Witch Trials references (mainly because of Hawthorne and his novel), Salem's maritime and mercantile history, a beautiful waterfront, an interesting architecture, and a sense of enchantment, timeless beauty and uplifting inspiration. I also appreciated, during the tour, a mention of the house connections with native history and the history of slavery.

CONs

Absolutely nothing to say here!

Make sure to book your spot online in advance since this is a very popular location.