Daniels House

Dating back to 1667, this bed and breakfast is one of the oldest homes still standing in Salem. It was already old during the witch trials.

A gray tabby cat walks the halls of the Daniels House. Guests see it, reach down, and it is gone. A man in Puritan clothing — believed to be Stephen Daniels himself — shows up in the historic rooms without warning. An unidentified woman makes her presence known throughout the building. And something playful moves guests' belongings around: one reviewer noted having "one playful ghost that had fun moving things around."

The Daniels House is the oldest bed and breakfast in the country, constructed in 1667 by Stephen Daniels I and his son Stephen Daniels II, both Salem shipbuilders. The First Period property predates the witch trials by twenty-five years. For the first century and a half, it was occupied by shipbuilders and carpenters, and their craftsmanship shows in the fine paneling and interior details that survive from various generations.

The structure remains largely original to the seventeenth century, with renovations done in 1756 by Samuel Silsbee, related to the Daniels family by marriage. The house was later subdivided into apartments, served as a day nursery and boarding house, and sheltered widows, laborers, railroad workers, and shoe workers in rotating succession. It stood vacant after a Depression-era foreclosure for nearly twenty years. In the 1950s the first floor operated as a historic tea room, and in 1962 it became a bed and breakfast under Thomas and Catherine "Kay" Gill, who ran it until Kay's death in 2018.

What makes the Daniels House unusual is evidence that the original builders expected trouble from the spirit world. The rustic kitchen features ritual protection marks etched into the heavy wooden door — the double V for Blessed Virgin Mary and the Blessed B — carved by early residents to ward off evil. The marks suggest that whoever lived here in the 1600s believed they were building on spiritually charged ground and took precautions.

With seven rooms spread across two properties — the original 1667 Daniels House and the Victorian Silsbee's from 1843 — the bed and breakfast offers antique furnishings, wood floors, exposed beams, and working fireplaces. Guided tours cover Salem's history, with private showings available. In a city built on witch trials and supernatural legend, this is one of the oldest continuously inhabited buildings, where spirits from 350 years of Salem history may still reside.