HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Site of Salem's 19th-century public gallows near Mill Creek and Pringle Park, where at least four men were hanged between 1851 and 1865.
440 Church St SE, Salem, OR 97301
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public area near Pringle Park and the Trade/Church Street blocks; viewable on foot at any time.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown Salem sidewalks, a parking structure, and the adjacent Pringle Park along Mill Creek.
Equipment
Photos OK
19th-century public execution site · Murder of Daniel Delaney · Early Oregon capital punishment · Salem civic history
In Salem's early decades, capital sentences were carried out in the open at the edge of town, on the blocks near the corner of Trade and Church Streets along the banks of Mill Creek, beside what is now Pringle Park. Public hangings drew crowds, and local histories document at least four men executed there.
The first was William Kendall, sentenced to hang on April 18, 1851. A gallows was erected at the Trade and Church Street corner. According to the historical record drawn together by Salem Reporter and other local accounts, Kendall maintained his innocence to the end.
The best-attended execution came on May 17, 1865, when George Beale and George Baker were hanged for the murder of Daniel Delaney, a well-known early settler. Judge Reuben Boise had sentenced the two men, and contemporary estimates put the crowd at well over a thousand spectators — by some accounts several thousand — making it the largest and effectively the last of Salem's downtown public hangings.
Over the following decades the city grew over the old gallows ground. The site today is a downtown parking structure adjacent to Pringle Park, with no surviving physical trace of its use as an execution place. Its history survives in local newspaper and historical-society accounts rather than on-site interpretation.
Sources
The hauntings here are reputational rather than heavily documented, growing out of the site's grim function rather than any single famous case file. Local-history writers note that with at least four men hanged on these blocks, the ground carries the kind of reputation that invites after-dark stories.
The most specific thread concerns William Kendall, the first man hanged at the Trade and Church corner in 1851, who proclaimed his innocence to the last. Writing for a 'Haunted Salem' piece, Sue Bell suggested that any strange activity reported after dark in the parking structure on the old hanging ground might be read as Kendall still trying to draw attention and protest his innocence. The framing is explicitly speculative — a way of connecting an unresolved declaration of innocence to a place where executions happened.
Beyond Kendall, accounts are general: a sense of unease, the feeling of being watched, the discomfort of standing on a spot where men died before crowds. No verified, repeatable paranormal claims are tied to the parking structure, and the site has no on-site memorial. The lore functions mostly as a way of keeping the documented history — the names, the dates, the crowds — from disappearing under the concrete that replaced the gallows.
Notable Entities
Visit the blocks near Trade and Church Streets and the adjoining Pringle Park along Mill Creek, where Salem's 19th-century public gallows once stood. The ground is now a parking structure and park; the site is interpreted in local-history coverage rather than on-site markers.
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, MA
For over 300 years the precise location of the 1692 executions was uncertain. In 2016, the Gallows Hill Project — a team of scholars from Salem State University — confirmed through historical and geographic analysis that Proctor's Ledge, a rocky outcropping at the edge of Gallows Hill Park, was the actual hanging site. A granite memorial was dedicated July 19, 2017, the 325th anniversary of the first executions.
Lake Charles, LA
The Calcasieu Parish Courthouse in Lake Charles served as the site of Louisiana's last judicial electrocution of a woman. On November 28, 1942, Annie Beatrice McQuiston Henry — known as Toni Jo Henry — was put to death in the courthouse basement.