Laid out in 1655, Broad Street Cemetery is the second oldest cemetery in the city of Salem, and its stones lie just ahead of you. As you listen, imagine the patchwork of stones that accumulated here as the grounds were expanded until 1732, the year the cemetery was first enclosed. For centuries this plot has quietly gathered history and memory; in 2020 the city of Salem began work on a preservation plan to care for those stories and stones.
The site is also a popular location for tourists interested in the Salem Witch Trials, and you can feel that layer of curiosity and reflection in the air. Among the notable interments whose names you may find on the markers are George Corwin and Jonathan Corwin, Benjamin Goodhue and Frederick W. Lander, Dudley Leavitt, Benjamin Pickman Jr., and Thomas Robie. Stand here a moment and let the worn lettering and shaded paths speak to the lives commemorated beneath your feet.
Notice the worn lettering and shaded paths, and the stones stretching across the street to Pickering House.