The Haunted Pickman House
The story of America reflects the story of Salem, Massachusetts, as a microcosm. Europeans first settled the area in 1626, using the area’s natural port to establish a fishing village. Salem offered an opportunity to survive and prosper amid the New World’s harsh winters. But Salem couldn’t escape its past and the troubled circumstances of its founding.
When the Puritans came to Salem, they wanted to escape the persecution of the Church of England. To the Puritans, religion wasn’t just something to practice; it was a struggle for the soul. Puritans believed that life was an eternal battle between good and evil, with the Devil constantly trying to tempt the faithful into sin.
As the decades went by, Salem’s tensions erupted into some of the most notorious episodes of mass hysteria and violence in American history. The Pickman House bore witness to it all. Standing adjacent to Salem’s Charter Street Cemetery, where many of those involved in the Salem Witch Trials were buried, the Pickman House played a pivotal role in the trials. Years later, it was the site of its own shocking tragedy.
Why is the Pickman House Haunted?
Locals and visitors have both claimed to see the ghost of a young girl inhabiting the Pickman House. According to legend, this seven-year-old was an 18th-century inhabitant of Salem who met a terrible and unimaginable end at the hands of her father. Others claim that the Pickman House is haunted not by a girl but by the demonic entity that drove her father to madness—and conjures up images of Salem’s sordid history.
Read on to learn about the history of the Pickman House, its role in the Salem Witch Trials, the family tragedy that occurred, and its reputation as one of Salem’s most haunted areas. To learn even more about Salem’s haunted history, book a ghost tour with Salem Ghosts.
At the Center of the Witch Trials
It has yet to be discovered when exactly the Pickman House was built. Samuel Pickman, a sailor, acquired the land in 1657. His father, Nathaniel, a carpenter, may have built the house in 1665. The dwelling shows up in a 1687 inventory of Pickman’s estate.
Samuel Pickman wouldn’t live long enough to witness the events that would make Salem famous. But his wife, Lydia Pickman, would. The Salem witch trials began in 1692 when a group of Salem girls began experiencing “fits,” which included convulsions and writhing on the ground.
Was it a response to abuse at the hands of an elder? Were the girls suffering from ergot poisoning? Were they making it up? Or was it actual possession? These questions remain unanswered, but we do know what happened next: in March 1692, the girls accused an enslaved woman and two other residents of witchcraft. Authorities locked all three away, believing that the devil had influenced them.
Months later, the girls accused five more women of conspiring with Satan. By now, Mrs. Pickman was a widow. Was she caught up with the mass hysteria that overtook her town? Or was she forced to participate? Regardless, under the supervision of George Corwin, Sheriff of Essex County, Mrs. Pickman physically examined the women, looking for “witch’s marks” to prove their connection to the Devil. These could be anything from scars to birthmarks to moles. Mrs. Pickman examined every inch of the women’s bodies and reported finding “skin excresences,” or bumps. In the coming months, authorities would execute all five women.
During the Salem witch trials, the authorities accused over 200 people of witchcraft. They executed 20 by hanging or by crushing them with rocks. The trials ended in 1693 after considerable objection from Massachusetts Bay Colony’s legal system.
The Haunting of Pickman House
As the decades passed, Salem struggled to move on from the awful legacy of its witch trials. The town remained an essential colonial port and continued to attract new settlers. The Pickman House changed hands, and in the 18th century, a family of three purchased the house.
They were a father, a mother, and a seven-year-old daughter. Soon after they moved in, trouble began. The father became increasingly irritable and violent. He claimed he could see and hear demons—a harrowing reminder of Salem’s past.
One day, he chained his daughter in the attic and deprived her of every necessity, promising to keep her there for the rest of her days. The girl’s mother was frightened of her husband but begged for him to release their child. Finally, irritated by her presence, he dragged his wife outside and tied her to a tree. Then, he went to the kitchen and heated a large wax block in a cast-iron pot. He returned to his wife and poured the boiling wax over her head. Nobody heard her screams of agony. Once she was dead, he went inside and hanged himself.
Today, it’s believed that the ghost of their daughter continues to haunt the Pickman House. Visitors have taken pictures of a ghostly figure resembling a girl in the Pickman House’s second-story window. Others have reported seeing the girl’s full-bodied apparition inside the house. The museum employees across the street have reported hearing disembodied voices at night, often those that sound like children.
Are these the ephemeral remains of a girl who died under unimaginable circumstances centuries ago? Or could they be evidence of the demonic presence itself, which drove the girl’s father to madness so long ago?
Haunted Salem
The Pickman House was lost to history for centuries until the 1960s when Salem resident Elizabeth Reardon attended a local lecture about the witch trials and rediscovered the First Period wood-frame and clapboard structure. It still stood on Charter and Liberty Street, but a Victorian-era mansard roof, added during a remodeling, now covered it. Historic Salem restored the house in 1969, turning it into a museum. In 1983, the Peabody Essex Museum purchased it, and it now serves as a welcome center for the Charter Street Cemetery.
Today, people recognize the Pickman House as one of historic Salem’s most haunted locations. Book a ghost tour with Salem Ghosts to learn more about haunted Salem. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog for more real Massachusetts hauntings.
Sources:
Ghosts of Salem: Haunts of the Witch City, by Sam Baltrusis
Salem Witch Trials: A History from Beginning to End, by Hourly History
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/
https://www.grunge.com/244037/the-most-haunted-places-in-salem-massachusetts/
https://salempl.org/wiki/index.php?title=Samuel_Pickman_House
https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/tag/pickman_lydia.html
https://salem.lib.virginia.edu/n13.html#n13.20
