Salem After Dark With Spirit Boxes and EMF Readers, Old Town Hall to Charter Street
A 90-minute night walk where the group runs spirit boxes and EMF readers at Salem jail and cemetery sites, from the street.
This 90-minute walk is a ghost hunt more than a history lecture. The guide meets the group outside Salem's Old Town Hall, explains the gear, then works through four stops in the listing's order: a lot beside the old Salem jail, Howard Street Cemetery, the gravestones in front of St. Peter's Church, and finally the edge of Charter Street Cemetery. The operator lists a spirit box, an EMF reader, temperature sensors and laser grids, and suggests a fully charged phone for photos and video. Everything happens outdoors: the tour enters no buildings and no cemeteries, so each burying ground is worked from the sidewalk or the fence line. The operator also says it cannot guarantee sightings or paranormal activity of any kind.
Tickets are sold per person. As of October 22, 2026, the booking page offers one start time, 8:30 PM, on Fridays and Saturdays from April 2 to August 28, 2027. All sales are final, with no refund for cancellations, and the operator does not cancel for weather.
A Ghost Hunting Tour Specters and Apparitions in Salem90 minutes · Ghost hunting equipment provided · Fridays and Saturdays at 8:30 PMwww.viator.comMeet on the Front Street Side, by the Granite Steps
The meeting point is 32 Derby Square, outside the Old Town Hall, near the three staircases that face Front Street. The operator adds one warning: go to Derby Square, not Derby Street, which is a different place. The building's National Register nomination describes the same layout, with three entrances on the south facade reached by flights of granite steps and a center entrance at street level on the north end. If the door in front of you is at street level, you are at the north end; walk around to the side with the steps. The city dates the hall to 1816 and now uses it as a cultural and rental space. The guide checks each person in individually before the equipment comes out.
The Jail Stop Is the 1813 Jail, Not the 1692 One
The listing pins its second stop to the Old Salem Jail lot at St. Peter and Bridge streets and describes it as the jail of the witch trials. The Salem Public Library's local history wiki dates that brick jail to 1813 and notes it became condominiums in 2009. The 1692 jail stood farther along the same street, at the corner of St. Peter and Federal; the New England Telephone Company razed it in the 1950s for an office building at 10 Federal Street, and a marker there reads Built 1684, Abandoned 1813, Razed 1956. The University of Virginia's witch trials archive counts at least five people who died in jail during the trials, and the Salem Witch Museum records that Ann Foster died in the Salem jail on December 3, 1692. Howard Street Cemetery, the next stop, was established in 1801 beside the later jail. Ghost lore links it to Giles Corey, though the museum says only that he was taken from the jail to an open field and crushed to death.
The Gear, the ID and the Cemetery Fence
The operator holds one driver's license or state ID per group while the equipment is out and hands it back when the gear is returned, and the listing charges a fee for any piece that is not. Salem's guide ordinance bars licensed guides from leading tours inside public cemeteries after dusk, which is why the group hunts from outside at Howard Street and Charter Street. The same ordinance bans voice amplifiers on Howard Street, so stand close to the guide at that stop. The listing marks the route wheelchair accessible and warns about brick sidewalks, uneven surfaces and narrow stretches. The operator says Salem's public sidewalks are not easily accessible for standard wheelchairs, and it lends two specialized wheelchairs free of charge, first come, first served, to guests who reserve ahead. Well-behaved dogs are welcome on the operator's tours. There are no public restrooms on the route.
What Recent Guests Say
Recent reviews mostly credit the guide by name, with Lisa and Topher coming up most in 2025 and 2026, and several families say their children enjoyed handling the equipment. A parent who brought children aged 14, 12 and 9 in June 2026 called it age appropriate and not filled with blood and gore. Some guests report hearing words come through the spirit boxes. The complaints are about the stops and the pacing: a guest in September 2026 described the sites as a parking lot, the outside of an apartment building and a walk past a cemetery the group could not enter, and left after about an hour. In August 2025 a guest wrote that the guide said happy hunting at each stop and left the group to it, and in October 2025 another spent the first 25 minutes on equipment instructions.
📍 Meet at 32 Derby Square on the Front Street side of Old Town Hall for the 8:30 PM start; the operator says tours leave on time and cannot wait for latecomers. The walk ends at the edge of Charter Street Cemetery, a few minutes on foot from the start. Children need a ticketed adult with them, and the listing does not recommend the walk for travelers with poor cardiovascular health.