A train ride or a drive "up the {north} shore" from Boston into residential, historical Salem leads to dozens, maybe hundreds, of three-story classic federal style houses painted in assorted hues. Salem has a rich maritime history! I've heard tell how way back in the day, clipper ship trade in opium and tea was so central to the city's identity that people across the big Atlantic Pond thought Salem was the New World / the New World was Salem. Salem is full of ecclesiastical history—beginning with and moving beyond colonial Puritans, more than one church traces roots to the first church gathered in the colonies in the year 1629. Early in the 19th century, the first ever foreign missionaries were commissioned and sent out from Salem. "Salem" derives from the Hebrew shalom, peace that's well-being, integrity, and wholeness, that's more than absence of conflict.
By the way, the witches were only a myth, because they happened in today's town of Danvers that used to be part of Salem, just as several other renamed north shore towns once "belonged" to Salem.
