HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Confirmed in 2016 as the true execution site of all 19 people hanged during the 1692 Salem witch trials — a fact lost for more than three centuries
7 Pope Street, Salem, MA 01970
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free and open to the public year-round.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved path along a residential street; the memorial wall is at grade level
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 2017 · 1692 Salem Witch Trials Execution Site · 19 Victims Hanged June–September 1692 · Site Confirmed 2016 by Gallows Hill Project / Salem State University · Granite Memorial Dedicated July 19, 2017
Between June and September 1692, nineteen men and women were hanged in Salem Village as part of one of colonial America's most consequential judicial failures. For generations after, the precise location of the executions was disputed. Gallows Hill — a prominent rise near the center of what is now Salem — was the traditional identification, but no documentary evidence pinpointed an exact spot.
In 2016, a multidisciplinary research team called the Gallows Hill Project, led by scholars from Salem State University, combined contemporary accounts, colonial-era maps, and topographical analysis to narrow the location to Proctor's Ledge: a rocky shelf at the western edge of Gallows Hill Park, on the boundary of a residential neighborhood. The team's findings were published and accepted by the city of Salem and the scholarly community.
The confirmed victims hanged at the site were Bridget Bishop, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wildes, George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs Sr., John Proctor, John Willard, Mary Eastey, Alice Parker, Ann Pudeator, Margaret Scott, Wilmot Redd, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, and Martha Corey.
On July 19, 2017 — the 325th anniversary of the executions of Rebecca Nurse and four others — the City of Salem dedicated a granite circular memorial wall engraved with all nineteen names and their dates of execution. The memorial sits beside a walking path in the residential neighborhood where the ledge is located, open to the public at no charge.
Sources
Proctor's Ledge does not have the same layer of ghost-tour mythology as Salem's older downtown sites — it was identified and memorialized only in 2016 and 2017 — but it occupies a singular place in the city's dark history landscape.
Salem ghost tour operators who include Proctor's Ledge report that visitors frequently describe a heavy solemnity at the site that goes beyond what they expected from a stone wall in a quiet neighborhood. Some have noted drops in temperature near the granite face that they cannot account for. No formal paranormal investigations have been conducted here, and the City of Salem has maintained the memorial as a place of respectful remembrance rather than tourist spectacle.
The factual weight of the site is difficult to overstate: this was the last thing nineteen people saw before they were killed on judicial authority, and the location of that fact was hidden for more than three centuries. Several of the 1692 victims, including Rebecca Nurse and Mary Eastey, had their reputations formally cleared by the Massachusetts legislature — but not until 1711, and in some cases much later. The last victim, Elizabeth Johnson Jr., was not officially exonerated until 2022, by an act of the state legislature.
Notable Entities
A circular granite wall engraved with the names and execution dates of all 19 people hanged at this location during the 1692 Salem witch trials. Visitors can read each victim's inscription. The site is small and quiet; most visits last 15–30 minutes.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Kansas City, MO
On June 17, 1933, gunmen ambushed a federal law-enforcement party in the south parking lot of Kansas City Union Station, killing four officers — including FBI Special Agent Raymond Caffrey — and the prisoner they were transporting, escaped bank robber Frank Nash. The FBI attributed the attack primarily to Vernon Miller and, controversially, to Pretty Boy Floyd and Adam Richetti. The killings outraged Congress and directly prompted legislation granting FBI agents the permanent authority to carry firearms and make arrests.
Salem, OR
The blocks near Trade and Church Streets along Mill Creek, beside today's Pringle Park, served as Salem's public execution ground in the mid-19th century. At least four men were hanged here, beginning with William Kendall in 1851 and including George Beale and George Baker in 1865 for the murder of Daniel Delaney. The site is now occupied by a parking structure.
Pikeville, KY
On February 18, 1890, Ellison 'Cotton Top' Mounts was hanged on Kentucky Avenue in Pikeville before an estimated five to six thousand spectators—the only Hatfield family member executed in connection with the Hatfield-McCoy Feud, despite Kentucky law prohibiting public executions at the time.