Waite & Peirce — Local services in Salem

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 bought 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.

There are bathrooms in the building right behind.

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...

PROS: This gift shop was very nicely set up and was very clean too. They had all kinds of Salem related items and they're probably the safest shop around cause upstairs is either a police hang out or security hang out. The lady that we met was very nice and had a solid convo with

CONS: We were informed that some of the workers find needles in the dirt on the outskirts of the shop. Meaning that homeless people use them in the area, making it a bad place to go to at night

OVERALL: Nice shop that you should go to next time you're in the area! Just go during daytime hours...

Tourist trap! While the maps are cool all of the political maps are from the early to mid 20th century the only map not from then is a continent map from the mid 1800s but shocker land haven't changed since then and none of the maps are related to Salem in any way shape or form. The entire shop is overpriced $8 for a map probably printed week ago and $14.50 for a Magnet! A ton of gifts about the witch trials are inappropriate for an...