First of all, it boasts a rich maritime history and is full of beautiful historic buildings. Here are a few examples to give you an idea.
Weathervanes are everywhere in New England!
The story goes that the Spencer family of Salem was left destitute after a ship wreck. Their neighbors donated supplies and sugar because Mary Spencer was a confectioner. Her creation, Gibralters, a hard pillow-mint like candy, was a hit and helped saved the family. Gibralters became known far and wide and even author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote about them in his novel, The House of Seven Gables. As you can see here, they are still sold wrapped in white paper just as they were originally. Apparently they were a favorite of sea-faring men because they stayed fresh indefinitely. Be sure to follow the links because the history is described in more detail on the website.
After keeping the business in family hands for several generations, the Spencer family decided to return to England and sold their business to the George W Pepper Companie in the 1830's. It has remained in continuous operation with them since. Another original confection sold by the George W Pepper Companie, whose recipe hasn't changed since the 1800's, are Black Jacks. They are blackstrap molasses stick candies and if you like molasses (which I do), you'll love them! They even still hand-cut each stick. This candy is said to have been created by John Pepper, confectioner and friend of the Spencer family.
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Masachusetts and several of his works center around the town. As mentioned above, The House of Seven Gables, is one of those novels and you can visit the actual mansion just across the street from the candy shop.
From there you can walk to the Salem Maritime National Historic site.
Also within walking distance is the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. It's located next to the cemetery where many of Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors are buried.
Surrounding the wall to the graveyard you can find stone benches with the names of all who were convicted and executed in the trials. It's fascinating and sobering to read each one.
And on the ground quotes from the trials are chiseled.
Tours are given but you can also walk through the graveyard on your own. Call me weird, but I love looking at old headstones. There's so much to learn and imagine from their inscriptions. This graveyard has an air of mystery and intrigue and it reminded me of the opening title sequence of "Mystery!" on PBS, a show I used to watch as a kid.
This headstone belonged to Captain Richard More, a Mayflower Pilgrim.
A member of Nathaniel Hawthorne's family.
The fact that the twisted trees in the middle of the graveyard are still missing their leaves adds to the ambiance...
Salem also has a Witch Museum but we didn't have time to go in.
Later in the week we tried visiting some historic places here in York, Maine, but it seems that we're here in the "in-between season" when businesses aren't quite open to the public for the summer yet. I'm working on trying to join some school tours, so we'll see how that goes. In the meantime we visited the graveyard in the center of town. See what I mean about this week having a graveyard theme?
York is a very old town as far as American towns go, so we were able to see some very old headstones. There are also several plaques that tell you a bit about events that occurred here, which is just what we were after. This one describes the Raid on York in 1692, also known as the Candlemass Massacre. That is the same year the Salem Witch Trials took place and the house across the street from us was built.
The headstones of that period are beautifully carved with angels and pictures of all sorts. I found it interesting that the headstones from the 1700's are in better condition than the ones from the 1800's. Different stone, maybe?
You can't see the picture at the top of this one very well, but it's similar to the Ghastlies fabric line by Alexander Henry. You can do a search for that name and see a lot of fun images of what the line looks like. I wonder if they got their inspiration from headstones?
This gentleman was a Revolutionary War Patriot.
According to the tour guide in Salem, fences were erected in the 1800's around certain family plots to distinguish them as more prominent than other families. I think this was probably more for the living than the dead....
York also has a newer cemetery not far away and I saw many beautiful headstones and monuments... and a few familiar surnames.
The church next to the graveyard chimes it's bells several times a day and we can hear them from the house we're staying in. I can only say that it adds to the small town, historic feeling of this place. I love it!
We also saw our first lighthouse this week! We drove out to The Nubble Lighthouse on Cape Neddick, which is less than 10 minutes away. The kids and I are reading "The Secret Keepers" by Trenton Lee Stewart and the lighthouse described in that book sounds very similar to this one. After seeing it the kids were inspired to come up with all kinds of imaginative theories about it. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully we'll be seeing many more lighthouses while we're here.
You know there's a fisherman/woman nearby when you see this!
There are some side trips on the horizon, so be sure to stay tuned and keep those recommendations coming! We appreciate each and every one. Thank you!
- Jen
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