If you’re like me, you LOVE Hocus Pocus. For you, it represents the quintessential Halloween. You’ve always dreamt of visiting Salem around Halloween. And, you also introduced your significant other to it so that one day they are willing enough to visit Salem with you. Seriously so grateful Chris indulges me on some of these trips.
So, as you probably already know, Salem has SO much interesting history, and so much to offer. Along with that history, it is also home to a lot of filming sites of the popular movie Hocus Pocus.
Here is a complete list of those sites for you!
Ropes Mansion:
Ropes Mansion is where Allison lives, and where you see Dani and Max visiting her family’s Halloween party before venturing off on their own Halloween adventure. Located just down the street from the Witch House. I recommend getting there early – there was virtually no one when we arrived at about 10 am, which made it easy to get a shot of the mansion. And with me infront of it. 🙂 Behind the mansion is also a pretty decent sized garden you can walk through while enjoying all the pretty flowers. Unfortunately, you cannot go inside.
Aside from it being a filming site of Hocus Pocus, portrayed as a big happy home for a Halloween Party – The Ropes Mansion has a much darker, spookier story. It was one of our stops on our ghost tour, where we learned so much. If it’s not one of your stops on your next tour, we recommend asking your tour guide the history. We’re sure they will know, and it’s a fun fact to share during your next Halloween conversation.
Old Town Hall:
Old Town Hall, located in Derby Square, is where the Dennison parents attended their adult Halloween Party. There they danced the night away and it’s where we were introduced to the song I put a spell on you. It’s a beautiful brick building with a green door. We did walk around for quite a bit trying to find this building, though I don’t know why, because once we realized where it was – you really can’t miss it. Though we did not go inside, the Old Town Hall is open to the public as a Museum, and we did see some people dressed for the time in the windows. There was also a group dressed up as the Sanderson sisters. They hung out at the back of the town hall to take pictures.
Max and Dani’s house:
This one is a little bit out of the way. We walked from downtown Salem, however, we love to walk everywhere. It’s also very accessible by car. In fact, once we got to the street, we knew we were going the right way. It definitely had some traffic heading to the end of the street, where the house is located. This spot was actually surprisingly not all that crowded when we went, and it was Halloween day. I’d say we made the stop mid afternoon. Don’t get me wrong, they’re were people, but everyone was very courteous in regards to pictures.
Being there felt like you were in the movie, and you can definitely envision it. I, however, was surprised when we saw that it was right on the water. We were surprised, as you never would guess from watching the movie.
Pioneer Village:
This village is seen during the opening credits of the movie. This is also a ways out, so we made a point to see it when we walked to Max and Dani’s house, as it was fairly close to that site. Now, we do recommend looking up hours when you plan your trip to Salem. It was unfortunately closed when we went. But, I did get a boost from Chris and get a peek over the wall. They do offer tours here as well.
Salem Common:
Many outdoor scenes were filmed here. During Halloween, this outdoor space is decked out as an outdoor market. It’s a great place to buy some souvenirs. There are also carnival stands set up, and very loud, but fun, live music. The movie is also shown here every year during Haunted Happenings. A schedule of when can be found at their website. You can also see Phillips Elementary school from here. This school was featured in the movie. You can no longer go inside as it is closed to the public.
We hope you have as much fun as we did while walking through Salem to find these sites! If you have time to visit Boston on your trip to Massachusetts, be sure to check out our day trip to Boston post!