Salem Voodoo, Vampires, and Ghosts Guided Walking Tour

Salem Voodoo, Vampires, and Ghosts Guided Walking Tour is a 90-minute evening walk run by Spellbound Tours, booking from $28 per person at our July 30, 2026 check. The listing describes its guides as historians and paranormal investigators and pitches the route against the gimmick end of the Salem ghost-tour trade. The itinerary we captured names twelve stops, from the Federal Street corner where the 1692 jail stood down to the Charter Street burying ground and the wharf, the longest itemized route in our Salem set. The listing also records wheelchair access, stroller access and a welcome for pets, which several Salem walks do not offer. It suits visitors who want a long evening route on foot rather than a quick loop.

What you will see

The route's oldest ground is the corner of what used to be Prison Lane. The county jail was built there in 1684, where Federal and St. Peter Streets meet now, a building the Salem State University Archives record as "thirteen feet stud, and twenty feet square." Prisoners paid for their own keep, roughly two shillings sixpence a week, plus fees for their chains, and Giles Corey was taken from here to be pressed to death (Salem Witch Museum). New England Telephone demolished it in 1956, and salvaged first-period timbers went to the Witch Dungeon Museum, the Salem Witch Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum. An office block at 10 Federal Street now holds the site and a bronze plaque. Three corrections other Salem walks miss: the granite building on St. Peter Street is the 1811 to 1813 jail, not the witch jail; Corey's curse has no documentary source, and the sheriffs-died-of-heart-trouble thread is Robert Ellis Cahill's own research; and Sheriff George Corwin was not Judge Jonathan Corwin.

St. Peter's Episcopal Church at 24 St Peter Street stands on land deeded in 1733 by Philip English, who was accused of witchcraft in 1692 but never tried, died in 1736 and was buried in the churchyard with no stone (Salem Witch Museum). The present stone church went up in 1833 and 1834, and graves were disturbed in the rebuilding (History of Massachusetts). It is a working parish today, St. Peter's-San Pedro. Around the corner, Turner's Seafood at Lyceum Hall carries the route's best-documented event, and it has nothing to do with witches: on February 12, 1877 Alexander Graham Bell gave the first public demonstration of long-distance telephony from that stage, and a Boston Globe reporter phoned in the story that night, the first news dispatch filed by telephone (Salem State Archives). Watson was in Boston, sixteen miles off, so it was not the first long-distance call. The tavern tale told here, with the shovel-board and the red bodice, belongs to Sarah Bishop rather than Bridget Bishop, a conflation David L. Greene corrected in 1981.

Old Town Hall on Derby Square was built in 1815 and 1816 as a market house below and a meeting hall above, on ground given after Elias Hasket Derby Jr. pulled down his father's 1799 mansion (NRHP 72000149; History of Massachusetts). Nothing from 1692 happened inside it: it is Salem's oldest surviving municipal building rather than its oldest building, only the exterior appears in Hocus Pocus, and the downtown smuggling tunnels are a modern commercial legend. Since the mid-1990s History Alive has staged Cry Innocent: The People vs. Bridget Bishop upstairs, using 1692 court dialogue with the audience seated as the jury. Houdini Way was plain Front Street until July 2021, renamed because Houdini escaped a cell in the police station at 15 Front Street on April 16, 1906 and then played six shows at the Salem Theatre (Wild About Harry). He was not arrested, had no tie to the trials, and nobody claims a haunting there. Salem named a street for the man who spent his last years dismantling the seance business.

The Burying Point on Charter Street is the heaviest stop and the most misreported. It was in use before 1637, its oldest surviving stone is dated 1673, and it joined the National Register on March 10, 1975 (City of Salem). No victim of 1692 lies here. Judge John Hathorne, who ran the examinations, and Bartholomew Gedney of the Court of Oyer and Terminer do, so this is where the men who sent them are buried. The Witch Trials Memorial adjoins the ground rather than sitting inside it, and Corey was not pressed here. It reopened on Memorial Day 2021 after restoration: no rubbings, no standing on stones. The Peabody Essex Museum began as the East India Marine Society, founded by twenty-two shipmasters on August 31, 1799, and its East India Marine Hall was dedicated on October 14, 1825 (NHL nomination 66000783); it postdates 1692 by more than 130 years and does not market itself as haunted. Another stop sits on Derby Street, where Derby Wharf reached 2,045 feet by 1806. Three further points are bare addresses on New Liberty Street, Federal Street and Central Street, where our research names no building, so we will not guess. And nothing in that research documents voodoo or vampires anywhere on this route. That framing is the operator's.

Who it suits

Ninety minutes on foot in the evening, from $28, with up to 40 people in the group and an English-speaking guide included. The access notes are the strongest practical reason to pick it: the listing records wheelchair and stroller access, which several Salem walks in our set lack, plus a welcome for pets.

• Book it if you need wheeled access, want the dog along, or want a longer route than Salem's 45-minute and one-hour options.
• Skip it if you want a small group. The cap is 40, and our Salem set includes walks capped at 25 and at 15.
• Skip it if you want daylight or a seated indoor format. This is a long evening walk over brick sidewalks.
• No minimum age is recorded, so ask the operator if a firm age rule matters.

How it compares

Three Salem listings in our set are rated 4.9, and this one is priced below both of the others. History and Hauntings of Salem Guided Walking Tour is the review giant at 4.9 across 15,335, but runs 2 hours 15 minutes and lists from $36. Bewitched Walking Tour of Salem is the closest match on rating and access at 4.9 across 1,943, two hours, from $35, with a guide the listing says is licensed by the City of Salem. Salem's Best Ghost Tour is second on review volume at 4.6 across 4,352 and lists from $24, but records no wheelchair access.

The checkable edges here are the longest itemized route in our Salem set, wheeled access, pets, and a lower price than the two other 4.9-rated walks. They are not price overall, since our July 30, 2026 sweep of eighteen Salem listings ran from $5 to $36, and not group size, since a cap of 40 sits mid-pack. For the wider field, see Salem ghost tours compared and our field guide to the best ghost tours in Salem.

Questions people ask

How long is it and what does it cost?

About 1 hour 30 minutes, from $28 per person at our July 30, 2026 check, with free cancellation flagged at that check. Confirm the current rate on the booking page.

Who runs it?

Spellbound Tours, an independent Salem operator, which the listing says fields historians and paranormal investigators. We are Arizona guides who research haunted history elsewhere, and we do not run this tour.

Is it wheelchair accessible, and can we bring a stroller?

The listing records both, which is not true of every Salem walk in our set. The sidewalks are brick and uneven, so ask the operator about the route surface.

Are pets allowed, and is there an age limit?

Pets are welcome, per the listing. No minimum age is recorded: the listing carries one age band running 1 to 100, and an earlier pass noted only that children are accompanied.

How many people are in the group?

Up to 40 travelers, per the listing. Salem has smaller options, including walks capped at 25 and at 15.

Is there real voodoo and vampire history in Salem?

Not in anything we could document. The record at these addresses is the 1692 jail site, Philip English and St. Peter's, Bell's 1877 telephone demonstration, Houdini's 1906 escape and the Burying Point. Treat the theme as the operator's framing.