First Church in Salem

First Church in Salem offers tours that explore the connections between the church, its parishioners and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. The congregation was already more than six decades old when the trials took place, so the tours approach that history through a church that existed at the time and through the people tied to those events. Tickets and details are available through the church’s website, making it a stop for history-minded visitors to Salem.

The congregation itself dates to August 1629, when it was gathered by the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. That makes it one of the oldest Protestant churches founded in North America and the first to be governed by congregational polity, in which members rather than an outside hierarchy run church affairs. Today it remains a self-governing congregation that elects its officers and welcomes people of any color, race, creed or sexual orientation.

What to Know

• Witch trials tours run on weekends from August through the first weekend of November.
• Sunday services include a concurrent Sunday School and are followed by a coffee hour called Fellowship.
• Limited street parking is available, with public metered lots nearby.
• The Henny Penny Nursery School is connected to the church.