The historic seaside city of Salem is perhaps best known for its 17th-century witchcraft hysteria. The town’s Chestnut Street is sometimes noted as the most beautiful street in America. You’ll want to marvel at its unrivaled examples of Federal period architecture. The Pickman House , Salem’s oldest, and the House of the Seven Gables made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne are two to see. Picturesque Derby Wharf is another prime site for visitors, dating back to the fabled era of the China Trade period after the Revolution, when Salem’s Yankee Clipper ships sailed around the globe to Canton and the South Seas. Salem was at that time the wealthiest city in the United States. Friendship, a replica clipper ship, invites a photographic memory. The Salem Witch Museum offers a dramatic audio-visual presentation of the tragic Witch Trials of 1692 and the supposed practices of pagans, wiccans, midwives and healers.