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I visited Witch City Walking Tours in Salem, MA and all I got was this stupid ghost

Kati Cooke
Jan 25
6 min read

That's right, I was haunted in Salem, Massachusetts last week and all I have to show for it is a brand new phone. My company flew me out to Boston for a training, and I took the opportunity (and free airfare) to visit a bucket-list destination for me: Salem, Massachusetts.

A dark blue house with snow-covered trees and yard, set against a blue sky. A wreath hangs on the door, creating a wintery, calm scene. — The Salem Witch House - one of the few original 1600s houses in Salem. It isn't just in its "goth phase" - it is dark grey because the Puritans believed that was the most temperature efficient color.

Witch City Walking Tours

I attended the History and Hauntings of Salem tour (link here), in order to get the most comprehensive history of Salem. I'm a huge "dark history" fan, so I already knew a lot about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, mostly thanks to Last Podcast on the Left's incredible series on the subject from 2022 (listen here).

Our tour guide, Lisa, included many topics on the tour: history, architecture, and of course... hauntings. She is a passionate ghost hunter who has traveled the country looking for evidence of ghosts. I am mostly ghost-agnostic, leaning towards believing, but this tour actually did convince me and now I have my own slightly-traumatic haunting story (I'll save that for the end!)

Woman in a brown beanie and black coat smiles in a snowy alley with blue sky. Trees and houses with snow in the background. — It was about 20-25 degrees during our tour and actively snowing!

Highlights from the Tour

I visited Salem on Martin Luther King Day, so unfortunately most of the museums were closed for the holiday. I still enjoyed seeing the famous sights from the outside, and it was a gorgeous snowy day, which added to the aesthetic.

My favorite parts of the tour were the famous Witch House, Rockafella's Bar (in the 1629 First Church of Salem building), the architecture and the colonial era homes, and the cemetery.

I did have a few disappointments with Salem - I love colonial history (and all history), so I was really hoping to see farmland, historic buildings and artifacts, and learn about how people lived in the 1600s. Unfortunately the town has very much leaned into the "witchcraft" gimmick (which is ironic, considering none of the people hung in 1692 were actual witches). All the stores felt very kitschy and tourist-trappy, which was disappointing and in my opinion, disrespectful to the lives lost here. The town is also completely functioning as a suburb of Boston, so there were definitely strip mall vibes. It was a little jarring looking at a house from the 1600s right next to a Dunkin Donuts.

I was, of course, in Boston for work, so I only had a limited time to spend in Salem. If I could go back, I'd love to tour the Witch House and visit the Witch Museum. I'd also love to go for long walks in the New England woods. I briefly lived in Pennsylvania five years ago, and the difference in East Coast vs. West Coast forests is fascinating to me. I love the PNW but the East Coast will always be special to me and I'm starting to miss it more and more.

Snow-covered trees arch over a snowy path with wooden fences. Cloudy sky above, creating a serene, winter atmosphere. — I asked ChatGPT to identify these trees, and it described my photo as, "peak New England winter dogwood energy"... reason 1,000,000 why I will never use AI to write for me

My Encounter with the Lady in Blue

As promised.... here's my first ghost encounter. One of our first stops was the First Church building, now home to Rockafella's Restaurant. The current building was created in 1826 as a church (I think the building says 1629 because that was when the original church was built).

As we approached the building, I pulled my phone out to take a picture (as I had already done several times). I panicked a little because my phone wouldn't open, it was just a black screen and wouldn't respond to any buttons. I tried a few more times and finally got it to work. The screen was lagging and when I finally got the camera button to work, it took 3 pictures at once. I chalked it up to the 25 degree weather.

Red brick building with snow on a black awning. Text reads First Church 1620. Snowy sky and leafless trees in the background. — The photo of the First Church building I almost couldn't open my phone to take - yes, I've looked at every window for any kind of spectral face peering at me

Our tour guide then began to share the history of the building. An indentured servant named Sarah was murdered and buried in the brick wall. In the picture below, you can see the difference in bricks where they had to rebuild after removing her bones (they were found during a renovation). She now haunts the building and is known as the Lady in Blue.

Red brick wall with a small barred window. A human-sized portion of the bricks are a slightly different color — Can you see the part of the wall that held Sarah's bones?

I love ghost stories, and mostly just consider them silly, innocent fun. HOWEVER, our guide then told us that,

"Sarah has a long history of interfering with technology."

Apparently, our guide's phone crashes 50% of the time she tries to show photos in that very spot. I immediately spoke up and told our guide what happened to my phone a few minutes before she told the story! She agreed, it was likely the Lady in Blue interfering with my phone.

A few days later, in Boston, I was curious about the Lady in Blue. I started to read about other's experiences with her. Apparently, she is known for crashing technology. She was once seen on the Rockafella's restaurant computer, and a few days later, the entire system crashed.

Again, I didn't think much of this. Until, on the very last day of my business trip, my phone screen started to flicker bright green. It flickered for about 10 minutes when I tried to use it, then went totally black. Every once in a while it would light up a glowing green, then go back to black. I waited in a panic overnight to see if it would fix itself, but it was absolutely toast.

The morning of my flight back home, I ran to the nearest Verizon store to try and fix the problem. I was phoneless in an unfamiliar city - no way of finding my way around, calling an uber to get to the airport, etc. Luckily, I was able to get a new phone within an hour, and only lost a day's worth of photos and messages.

It didn't "click" in my brain that the Lady in Blue made her appearance just a few days before my phone crashed until I was chatting with the Verizon salesmen about my trip. I realized that my iPhone saga followed her MO exactly. I'm still a skeptic, and I fully believe this could be a coincidence. But... it also might not be? I'll let you decide for yourself, but I'm going to milk this for all it's worth and tell everyone I was haunted in Salem, Massachusetts.

Salem, Massachusetts Final Thoughts

I know I usually focus on the PNW and Upper Peninsula, but I love to travel and hope to share more guides and advice to the rest of the country! 2025 was consumed by wedding planning and setting up my AirBnb, so I'm looking forward to more travel this year.

Thanks for reading all about my Salem MA trip, and let me know if you've been or if you plan on going!

Smiling woman in winter coat stands in snow before a blue house with a wreath on the door. Signs read "Please don't walk on the snow." — I'd love to come back during my next work trip and tour the inside of the Witch House!

As a self-professed Weird Girl, I know if I lived in Salem in 1692, I'd have a nonzero chance of being hung. Throughout my tour, there was one phrase that kept coming up, "This is crazy, but I can honestly see it happening again today." To me, that was scarier than any Lady in Blue destroying my phone.

But that being said, please, ghosts, leave me alone! I've been through enough and I really can't afford another phone!

Fun Links

Rockafella's Instagram - the restaurant haunted by the Lady in Blue. They share ghost encounters every once in a while, especially when their security cameras catch objects moving on their own
Witch City Walking Tours webpage
Salem Witch House - one of the few original 1600s houses left in Salem. Accused persons were interrogated here before their trials
Salem Witch Museum - I didn't have time to visit, but I'd love to go next time!
A PBS documentary on the Witch Trials - I started watching this after my visit. I was actually in the middle of it when my phone crashed out.
Last Podcast On The Left - Episode 500 is the beginning of their Salem Witch Trials series (not suitable for kids - lots of language and crude humor)

Bewitched Salem Saga - Several episodes of the classic TV show, Bewitched, were filmed in Salem. I watched a few after my trip and loved seeing places I visited.