Salem (/ˈseɪləm/ SAY-ləm) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston.

The peninsula that would become Salem was known as Naumkeag (alternate spellings Naemkeck,[9] Nahumkek,[10] Neumkeage[11]) by the native people who lived there at the time of contact in the early 1600s.

In 1633, a second smallpox epidemic struck, killing two of Nanepashemet's successors, Montowompate and Wonohaquaham, and leaving his remaining heir Wenepoykin scarred.

It was not until 1686, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter was recalled by King James II in the creation of the Dominion of New England that Wenepoykin's heirs pressed their claim to the land of Salem, for which they were paid twenty pounds.

Conant's leadership provided the stability for the settlers to survive the first two years, but John Endecott replaced him by order of the Massachusetts Bay Company.

[27][28] One of the most widely known aspects of Salem is its history of witchcraft allegations, which started with Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and their friends playing "with a Venus glase & an Egg" to learn "what trade their sweet harts should be of.

[30] Salem is also significant in legal history as the site of the Dorothy Talbye Trial, where a mentally ill woman was hanged for murdering her daughter because Massachusetts made no distinction at the time between insanity and criminal behavior.

He led troops to victory in King Philip's War, served as a magistrate on the highest court, and was chosen as the first speaker of the House of Deputies.

Nothing was heard from him until eighteen months later, when he entered Salem harbor with a cargo of pepper in bulk, the first to be so imported into the country, and which sold at the extraordinary profit of seven hundred per cent.

Charles Endicott, master of Salem merchantman Friendship, returned in 1831 to report Sumatran natives had plundered his ship, murdering the first officer and two crewmen.

The Great Salem Fire of 1914 destroyed over 400 homes and left 3,500 families homeless but spared the historic concentration of Federal architecture on Chestnut Street.

The colonists adopted the English militia system, which obligated men between the ages of 16 and 60 to own arms and take part in the community's defense.

In 2005, the conflict came to a head over plans by the cable television network TV Land to erect a bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, who played the comic witch "Samantha" in the 1960s series Bewitched.

In 2003, it completed a massive $100 million renovation and expansion, designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and moved a 200-year-old 16-room Chinese home from Xiuning County in southeastern China to the grounds of the museum.

[5] The Peabody Essex Museum trustees co-chairs Sam Byrne and Sean Healey with board president Robert Shapiro led the campaign.

The site features a three-acre re-creation of a Puritan village and allows visitors the opportunity to participate in activities from the lives of Salem's earliest English settlers.

It is named for the European white willow trees planted there in 1801 to form a shaded walk for patients convalescing at a nearby smallpox hospital.

The area became a public park in 1858, and in the twentieth century became a summer destination for residents of Boston's North Shore, many of whom escaped the heat of the city on newly popular streetcars.

In late 2007 and early 2008, the city's public school system garnered regional and even national attention after officials announced a $4.7 million budget shortfall that threatened the jobs of teachers and other staff members.

[147][148] The on-demand transit network is operated by Via and allows riders to share the same vehicle for approximately the same price as a MBTA Bus ticket.

[153] Because of the cutback in service during the 2011 season, Mayor Kim Driscoll is now seeking a new operator who can run the ferry seven days a week from May to October.

Salem Hospital's medical staff includes nearly 600 affiliated physicians representing primary care, family practice and 50 additional sub-specialties.

After John Bertram died in March 1882, his widow donated their home, a mansion built in the High Style Italianate with brick and brownstone for materials at 370 Essex Street,[161] and this became the Salem Public Library.

Another $200,000 was approved for the design of the new Salem wharf, a large pier planned for the landing, which officials said could be used by small cruise ships, commercial vessels and fishing boats.

[164] In October 2010, Mayor Driscoll announced that the city would formally acquire the Blaney Street parcel from Dominion Energy,[165] paving the way for the Salem Wharf project.

[167] In 2010, in early phase work to be finished for the 2011 season, a contractor was running underground utility cables and erecting an interim terminal building that will be used by the Salem Ferry, replacing the current trailer.

[170] In May 2011, after years of legal battles, protests, and one recent fatal accident, the owner of the Salem Harbor Power Station announced it will close down the facility permanently.

[172] The City of Salem reached out to state and federal officials to ask for their cooperation and assistance in planning for the future and to provide money, in an effort to clean up the 62-acre site.

The final plan was to develop a new state-of-the-art natural gas plant on one-third of the original site, reportedly along the Fort Avenue side near the city's ferry landing.

The main opponent that fought in court was the Conservation Law Foundation,[178] a leading environmental advocacy group intent on blocking the plant from being built.