The Hawthorne Hotel is a historic hotel located on Washington Square West in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

. The hotel is named after

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

and Salem native

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

. Built in 1925, the hotel is currently a member of the Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...

. The U.S. News & World Report ranked it the number one hotel in Salem. It has also been listed as one of the top allegedly haunted places in Massachusetts and the country.

History

Franklin Building

Before the hotel’s construction, the location the hotel sits on used to be the site of the Franklin Building, built in the early 1800s. The building soon became the headquarters of the Salem Marine Society, acquired by sea captain

Thomas Handasyd Perkins Colonel Thomas Handasyd Perkins, also known as T. H. Perkins (December 15, 1764 – January 11, 1854), was an American merchant, slave trader, smuggler and philanthropist from a wealthy Boston Brahmin family. Starting with bequests from his grand ...

in 1838. It was damaged by fire twice mid-century, and in 1860 it was completely razed to the ground by flames. Between 1863 and 1864, the Marine Society ordered the reconstruction of the building.

Hotel

By 1923, prominent members of the Salem community agreed that the city needed a modern hotel to house the increasing travelers for business. Frank Poor, founder of the Sylvania Lighting Company and North Shore native, was the most outspoken about ideas about the hotel. Construction of the hotel as it is today began in 1924, and on July 23 the following year the hotel was inaugurated and opened to the public as the Hotel Hawthorne. In the 1950s, the hotel temporarily changed its name to Hawthorne Motor Hotel due to the growing demand for cars. It became a member of the Historic Hotels of America in 1991.

References

Hotels in Massachusetts Historic hotels in the United States Hotels established in 1925 Buildings and structures in Salem, Massachusetts Reportedly haunted locations in Massachusetts Historic Hotels of America {{Massachusetts-struct-stub