Lyceum Hall

Built on the site of an apple orchard owned by Bridget Bishop, the first person executed in the Salem witch trials. This is where Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone to the public for the first time in 1877. Now operates as Turner's Seafood restaurant.

Lyceum Hall stands at 43 Church Street in Salem, Massachusetts, established in 1831 by the Salem Lyceum Society to provide "mutual education and rational entertainment" to the city. The Observer went so far as to call Salem's Lyceum "the theatre of New England." Many famous writers and public officials spoke here: Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered lectures at least thirty times, Frederick Douglass spoke on "Assassination and Its Lessons" following Lincoln's death, John Quincy Adams presented "Faith and Government," and Henry David Thoreau graced the stage. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne never spoke here, he served as the Lyceum's corresponding secretary from 1848 to 1849.

On February 12, 1877, one of history's most remarkable events occurred within these walls. Alexander Graham Bell conducted the first public demonstration of the telephone, placing a long-distance call to his assistant Thomas A. Watson at the Boston Globe—a distance of eighteen miles. A bronze plaque on the front of the building commemorates this historic moment.

But the Salem Lyceum cannot escape the shadow of the witch trials. The building was constructed over an apple orchard once owned by Bridget Bishop, a woman whose name became infamous during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Blamed for black magic, Bridget Bishop was Salem's first "convicted witch," hanged at Proctor's Ledge on July 10, 1692. The evidence against her was unsubstantiated spectral testimony and slander. Thrice-married and defiant of a woman's expected role in seventeenth-century society, she made an easy target.

No one experienced hauntings during the Lyceum Hall days. It was only when the building became a restaurant that people began reporting sightings and paranormal activity—perhaps because a restaurant has more connection to Bridget's apple orchard than a public speaking facility ever did.

Numerous sightings of a female apparition have been reported by patrons and employees alike. The ghost wears a long white gown that drifts behind her as she walks. People have seen her staring back at them in reflections throughout the building—in light fixtures, in windows, in any surface that might catch an image. Doors close and open on their own. Lights flicker on and off without explanation. Boxes have been thrown down the stairs by unseen hands.

The building has been featured on paranormal shows including Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. It is currently occupied by Turner's Seafood, which has gained a reputation as one of the finest restaurants in Salem. The hauntings don't seem to deter locals and tourists from dining here—and Bridget Bishop, it seems, has never truly left the ground where her orchard once stood.