SALEM — “Ghost Adventures,” the popular Travel Channel show, has won permission to conduct what may be the first-ever paranormal investigation of this city’s historic Witch House.
The home of Judge Jonathan Corwin, who presided over the Salem witch trials, is believed to be the last surviving structure with direct ties to the events of 1692. Next week a TV crew will pull into town to survey the house with electromagnetic meters and night vision cameras.
Jeff Belanger, a writer and location scout, said historic sites are fertile for ghost stories, though he wouldn’t talk about what’s happening inside the Witch House.
“I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” he said. “You start asking around, and people do talk.”
Elizabeth Peterson, director of the 17th century home, said a couple of people have claimed to witness “very, very small things.”
“But it’s mostly visitors who come through taking photos of the master bedroom,” she said.
The show’s producers are keeping their exact plans under wraps, but the owner of the nearby Lyceum restaurant confirmed he also has been contacted.
Local legend says the Church Street restaurant is haunted by Witch Trials victim Bridget Bishop, who is purported to have had an apple orchard at the site and now “lives” upstairs.
“I don’t like using the term ‘ghost,’” Lyceum owner George Harrington said. “I’d say maybe we have a presence.”
The “presence,” he said, has supposedly shown up in wedding photos and scared the daylights out of construction workers.
“These two young men were working at 2:30 a.m. putting in a sprinkler system,” he said, “and they said all of a sudden somebody started throwing these cardboard boxes down the stairs. …
“These were, like, two 23-year-old guys. They said, ‘We got scared. We ran out.’”
“Ghost Adventures” is the Travel Channel’s most popular show, according to a spokesman. Its 40 episodes have featured several historic sites including the Civil War battleground at Gettysburg, Pa., and the Magnolia Plantation, a former slave quarters in Louisiana.
Information for this story was provided by The Salem News.
