The Salem Inn

A collection of historic buildings converted into a boutique hotel, including the West House (1834), Curwen House (1854), and Peabody House (1874). Each building has its own character and, reportedly, its own ghosts.

The Salem Inn occupies three historic houses on Summer Street: the West House, built in 1834 by Captain Nathaniel West, one of Salem's most prominent sea merchants and the first Salem captain to circumnavigate the globe; the Curwen House, constructed in 1854 in the Italianate Revival style; and the Peabody House, built in 1874 and named for the influential Peabody family whose fortune was built on Salem's maritime trade. Captain West himself lived a dramatic life -- he eloped with Elizabeth "Betsey" Derby in 1783, the daughter of Elias Hasket Derby, one of America's first millionaires whose fortune in modern terms has been estimated at approximately twenty-one billion dollars. The marriage ended in a scandalous 1806 divorce after Elizabeth presented evidence of West's infidelity, including proof he had been financially supporting a child born out of wedlock. When the Pabich family acquired the West House in 1983 and began restoring the properties, paranormal reports emerged even before the inn officially opened.

The most active spirit is the entity staff have named Katherine, a female presence who roams the inn accompanied by inexplicable cold breezes. One front desk employee described hearing someone call her name, then feeling "a freezing cold breeze rush by" that she could "only describe as someone rushing by me and up the stairs." When she mentioned the encounter to a colleague, she was told simply, "That's just Katherine." The ghost's identity remains uncertain, though her persistent attachment to the inn suggests she may have been a former resident of one of the three historic houses.

Room 17 in the West House has achieved legendary status as the most haunted room in the inn. According to a psychic who stayed there, the room is home to a female spirit -- sometimes called Elizabeth -- who was allegedly killed by her husband. The ghost reportedly targets male guests in particular, producing loud banging in the closet, stomping around the room, and repeatedly opening and closing the door throughout the night. Staff have discovered that leaving a tumbler of whiskey on the bedside table may pacify her: "She just may leave you to a restful night of sleep," one employee noted. Some speculate the spirit may be connected to Captain Nathaniel West's former wife, though the violent nature of the haunting -- a woman killed by her husband -- does not align with the historical Betsey Derby, who outlived West. The true identity of Room 17's ghost remains one of the inn's enduring mysteries.

A third spirit manifests as a playful child whose giggling laughter and light footsteps are heard traversing the staircases, particularly above the front desk area. Staff members report finding small pebbles mysteriously dropped onto the front desk from the staircase above, as though a child were playing a game. The footsteps follow employees through the hallways and vanish the moment someone turns to investigate.

Perhaps the inn's most unusual haunting involves a spectral black cat that prowls the parlor. The Salem Inn keeps no house cats, yet guests and staff regularly report seeing a dark feline shape darting between rooms and vanishing into thin air. In 2012, a guest named Cathy staying in Room 11 described feeling "a slight pressure on the bed, almost as if a small animal had jumped onto the bed," followed by distinct pawing sensations. Guests with cat allergies have reported experiencing symptoms in the parlor where the phantom cat most frequently appears, despite the complete absence of any living animals on the premises.

The inn's guestbook documents decades of encounters: disembodied conversations overheard in empty hallways, unexplained thuds from Room 17, and furniture found displaced from where it was left the night before. The inn has embraced its reputation as one of Salem's most haunted accommodations, and its three historic houses -- spanning forty years of nineteenth-century Salem architecture -- continue to host both living guests and, according to numerous accounts, at least four spirits who have never checked out.