The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) is celebrating October in Salem with magical offerings all month long. Join the museum for historic house tours, scary stories, art making, film screenings, and warm mac and cheese! Learn more at pem.org/halloween.
Visitors can get into the spirit by dropping by our main Museum Shop for a photo op with 5-foot-tall Mysti the Jellycat Ghost. Then, go see the third installment in PEM’s ongoing series of pop-up shops at 135 Essex St., Salem: the Brick Box, featuring all things LEGO, including the Hocus Pocus Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage set. Visitors can enjoy a special box signing with the LEGO designer of the set on Monday, Oct. 6, plus other surprise events throughout October. The Brick Box runs through December and all sales and proceeds support the Peabody Essex Museum. More details available at pem.org/brickbox.
Created through a partnership with LEGO and LEGO master builder Jeff Chapman (known as @SpookyBrixx on Youtube), the Brick Box showcases LEGO kits, accessories, and jewelry. Chapman, a graphic designer by trade, has been commissioned to create a series of highly detailed original builds inspired by PEM’s extensive architecture collection and popular historic house walking tours. PEM has pioneered historic preservation since the 1860s and stewards more than a dozen historic structures. PEM’s seasonal walking tours, featuring these historic structures, offer an expert look at one of America’s most architecturally significant cities, guiding visitors through five centuries of happenings and characters from the Witch City.
Chapman’s first PEM creations – the Samuel Pickman House, Ropes Mansion, First Quaker Meeting House, John Ward House, and Daniel Bray House – include diminutive details like custom-designed trees full of red and gold autumn leaves, eerie lights, trick-or-treating minifigures and even a miniature hidden squirrel. Visitors to the new Brick Box will also see five new LEGO models of PEM’s historic homes, including the Gardner-Pingree House, the Andrew-Safford House, and the Peirce-Nichols House.
BRICK BOX POP-UP SHOP
135 Essex Street
Wednesday–Monday
11 a.m.-6 p.m. through December
Be sure to visit the Brick Box, right next door to the main museum entrance! You’ll discover LEGO brand products like Disney’s Hocus Pocus Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage set. Visitors to the Brick Box will also see five new models of PEM’s historic homes created by artist Jeff Chapman (@SpookyBrixx on Youtube). Plus, shop other treasures related to our historic houses and the Halloween season.
MAC & CHEESE BOX
Axelrod Walkway (next to the Brick Box)
Thursday–Monday
11 a.m.-6 p.m. through December
Come satisfy your cheesy cravings at PEM’s newest dining option: the Mac & Cheese Box! Find classic, creamy mac and cheese with tasty topping options like short rib and bacon. Browse the menu online.
SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
Haunted Histories: Condemned
128 Essex Street
Thursday, Oct. 16–Saturday, Oct. 18
Select times, 6-10 p.m.
The courtyard is haunted… again. You came to Salem to enjoy the Halloween season, but have you enjoyed yourself a little too much? Enter a prison existing in liminal space, holding murderers, cult leaders, and madmen. Tonight you will find yourself “locked” in the courtyard until sunrise, unless you can assist the Warden to find a crucial piece of evidence to tie a murderer to the most dastardly of crimes, which took place steps away from where you stand. Houses featured in this program include the Gardner-Pingree House (1806), John Ward House (1684), Quaker Meeting House (about 1688), and Derby–Beebe Summer House (1799). Tales last around 70 minutes. Learn more here.
Virtual Workshop: The Salem Witch Trials 1692 & Bill Crisafi
Thursday, Oct. 23
7-8:30 p.m.
Join us for a seasonal, virtual art making workshop, featuring the campy, eerie talents of artist Bill Crisafi! First, hear from the curators of The Salem Witch Trials 1692 exhibition and explore some historical protective folk magic symbols adorning 17th-century objects in PEM’s collection. Then, work with Crisafi to create your own protective symbol rooted in historic protective folk magic practices. Learn more.
Nosferatu Screening with Live Orchestra
Saturday, Oct. 25
1-3:15 p.m. and 6-8:15 p.m.
Experience the 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror with a live performance of the score for theater orchestra. From the eerily corpse-like appearance of Max Schreck as Count Orlok to climactic shot of a shadow on a staircase, Nosferatu set the standard for modern horror movies and created the vampire movie as we know it. Fans of horror, music enthusiasts, vintage aficionados… enter if you dare to see and hear Nosferatu as it would have sounded when it was first screened!
WALKING TOURS
Brick by Brick: Salem’s Hidden Architectural Stories
Thursdays–Mondays through Nov. 23
Join us for a walking tour featuring architectural treasures from PEM’s collection! Explore Salem’s notable structures, from a millionaire’s mansion to a working-class sailor’s house, and learn how building materials and stylistic choices all tell a story of a particular culture, time, place, and family. Meet the hidden figures who built and lived in PEM properties like the John Ward House, the Ropes Mansion, and the Daniel Bray House, and learn about Salem landmarks like Derby Square, the Lyceum, and the courthouses on Federal Street.
Sinister Streets: Witch Trials, Murders & Literary Legends
Thursdays–Mondays through Nov. 23
This ghostly walking tour starts by painting the picture of life in 1692 in the Ward House, which stood within sight of the hangings on Gallows Hill, and within earshot of the cries of the accused from the Salem jail. Winding through more dark secrets from the city’s past, it finishes by following the steps of a notorious murderer into the Gardner-Pingree House. The killing of Joseph White gripped Salem and the country in 1830 with its brawling brothers, custom-built murder weapons, conspiring family members and a body that was autopsied three times.
Witch Trials Walk: FREE
Enjoy our self-guided audio walking tour, which takes you inside PEM’s galleries and outside the museum to learn more about the infamous events of 1692. As you view authentic objects and stop at key sites around Salem, PEM curators and experts share a behind-the-scenes perspective of some of the most compelling stories of the trials. The tour starts in the museum and takes approximately 90 minutes. Included with admission and available during regular museum hours.
Hocus Pocus Decorations at Ropes Mansion: FREE
Thursday, Oct. 23–Monday, Nov. 3
Get into the Halloween spirit and take a walk over to the Ropes Mansion (318 Essex Street) to see it decorated in the style of ‘90s cult classic Hocus Pocus. A must-see for any fan this October! Please note: Self-guided tours of the interior of Ropes Mansion end for the season on Oct. 19. We encourage you to visit the mansion’s historic garden, which is open every day from dawn to dusk.
