Story: North of Boston Salem's World Class Museum Crowns a Destination Rich in Attractions

Salem, Massachusetts, a community that once rivaled Boston in size and wealth, offers the day traveler an immense range of potential recreational activities within a compact area. Known officially as the Witch City, in honor of a brief and deadly period of public and official hysteria in 1692 that led to the imprisonment and execution of a number of people supposed to be practicing witchcraft, Salem, is also famed also for its merchant princes and entrepreneurs. Over the years, Salem has been carefully renewed, restored, and preserved and now features numerous historic attractions, restaurants, pedestrian malls, and shopping areas more than ample to fill out a day's rambles.

In particular, the lavish expansion and restoration of the fabled Peabody Essex Museum, one of New England's largest and the oldest continuously operated museums, has given the city a “world class” flavor. The three-year, $125 million renewal, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, includes 250,000 square feet of new and renovated galleries and public spaces. Centerpiece of the new museum is a complete Chinese merchant’s house and furnishings from the late Qing dynasty, painstakingly moved from China to Salem to join the Museum’s renowned collection of 24 historic properties. The museum's vast treasures include collections of maritime art and history; American decorative art, folk art, portraits, costumes, and furniture; Native American art; Oceanic art; African art; and art from China, Japan, Korea, and India. These exceptional collections that draw scholars from around the world are set amid one of the nation’s most extensive arrays of early American architecture.

Although the museum itself could easily absorb the entire day, Salem also offers a smorgasbord of other treats -- including many that are child-friendly. Depending upon personal taste and the season, a day in Salem might also include a picnic at the Salem Willows -- a public park on a peninsula bordered by the harbors of Beverly and Salem. The park offers boat rentals, pizza and other food, camping on nearby Winter Island, small-scale amusement park activities suitable for young children -- as well as a video arcade for kids through adults. Of course, there's also the House of Seven Gables, made famous in the Nathaniel Hawthorne story and a slew of other colonial and witchcraft-related attractions.

Among those attractions are the Salem Witch Museum, the Witch Dungeon Museum, The Salem Wax Museum, and the New England Pirate Museum. The Old Custom House (where Hawthorne once worked) also still stands just a few feet from Pickering Wharf -- home to a wide range of gift shops and restaurants. There's even the Salem Children's Museum for the youngest youngsters.

General information about Salem is available at http://www.salem.org. Information about the Peabody Essex Museum is available at www.pem.org or by calling 866-745-1876.