Joshua Ward House – The Haunted Mansion

The brick Georgian mansion rises sharply above Washington Street, its Federal-style architecture elegant and imposing against the New England sky.

Three stories of red brick and white trim. Four chimneys reaching upward. Windows that catch the light during the day but seem to hold shadows even when the sun is brightest.

Tourists walk past on their way to Dunkin’ Donuts or the gift shops next door. Most don’t give it a second glance.

They should.

Salem’s most infamous historic haunted home looms grimly above busy Washington Street, visitors on tours and townspeople pass by every day, largely unaware of the horrors that may lurk inside.

Ask a local tour guide which house they think is the most haunted and nine out of ten times they’ll lead you straight to 148 Washington Street.

This is the Joshua Ward House. On the surface, a beautifully restored 18th-century mansion. Underneath, a location soaked in the blood and terror of Salem’s darkest chapter.

The Joshua Ward House is considered one of the most haunted places in all of Salem, up there with The Salem Witch House.

What makes this mansion so terrifying isn’t what happened within its walls. It’s what happened on the ground beneath them. Before the brick was laid. Before the fine woodwork was installed. Before George Washington himself slept in an upstairs room.

This land belonged to a man whose cruelty earned him a nickname that still echoes through Salem’s haunted history.

The Strangler.

A House Built on Salem’s Darkest Ground

The Joshua Ward House is a historic house on Washington Street in Salem, Mass. Built between 1784 and 1787, the house is a three-story Federal-style brick mansion constructed for local merchant Joshua Ward.

Joshua Ward was a wealthy sea merchant who made his fortune in the molasses trade. He was famous for being a prime supplier of molasses (used for rum) and spices such as Sumatran pepper to the United States. His efforts helped build the city of Salem.

The three-story Federal style brick house, built in 1784, is one of the first brick houses in Salem. Its interior woodwork was done by noted Salem builder and woodworker Samuel McIntire, including an original staircase that is the oldest surviving staircase created by him.

The house was prestigious enough that George Washington is reported to have specifically requested staying in this house when he visited Salem in 1789.

But the mansion’s elegant facade conceals a much darker foundation.

It was built on the same site as the former home of Sheriff George Corwin, famously associated with the Salem witch trials.

The house is built on the former site of Sheriff George Corwin’s house. Corwin was the high sheriff in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials and was reportedly buried in the basement of his house, after his unexpected death in 1696, due to threats from some of the surviving accused witches that they were going to steal and ransom his body.

Today, visitors can still see ragged stones along the building’s foundation, which are all that remain of the 1692 home of George Corwin.

When Joshua Ward purchased the property in 1781 and demolished the old Corwin house to build his mansion, he may not have realized what he was building upon. Or perhaps he didn’t believe in such things.

But the land remembers. And according to countless witnesses over the centuries, so do the spirits.

Sheriff George Corwin — The Man Whose Ghost Won’t Leave

The Cruel Sheriff

Twenty-five-year-old George Corwin was the High Sheriff during the witchcraft trials of 1692. This important position may have been obtained through nepotism — he was the nephew of both Judge Jonathan Corwin and Judge Wait Winthrop, as well as the son-in-law of Judge Bartholomew Gedney.

At just 25 years old, Corwin held the power of life and death over the accused witches of Salem.

It is alleged that he used his private home as a sadistic torture dungeon for the innocent victims of the Witch Hysteria.

According to local legend Corwin’s chosen method of eliciting confessions from his victims was to choke them until they admitted whatever he accused them of! This brutal technique earned him a chilling nickname.

Salem lore holds that Corwin would strangle his victims until blood flowed from their mouths and their eyes nearly popped out of their skulls. It has been said that Corwin did not just interrogate suspects for the purpose of gaining information, but that he relished it, he enjoyed their suffering.

Nicknamed ‘the Strangler’ after his preferred method of torture (which included tying his prone victims’ necks to their ankles until the blood ran from their noses), he is said to be responsible for many of the deaths of the accused witches, including that of Giles Corey.

Within his duties as High Sheriff, George Corwin also oversaw the gruesome death of Giles Corey. The elderly farmer refused to enter a plea, and Corwin subjected him to the brutal torture of peine forte et dure.

According to some reports, when Corey’s tongue lolled out of his mouth as a result of the weight on his chest, Corwin callously used his walking stick to poke the tongue back in — a disturbing image.

Beyond the torture, Corwin profited from his position. As required by law, Corwin would also confiscate the property of condemned prisoners — not land, but belongings such as livestock, hay, apples, and corn.

George Corwin, the High Sheriff whom everyone despised, visited Corey’s home and took all of the man’s money and goods as his own.

By the time the witch hysteria ended, Corwin was one of the most hated men in Salem.

Death and Unfinished Business

Corwin’s death came suddenly and mysteriously.

In 1697, four years after the Salem Witch Trials had ended, Corwin died in his home of a suspected blood clot. He was only 30 years old.

It is recorded that George Corwin died of a heart attack while at his home on April 12, 1696.

His death was just the beginning of his strange afterlife.

Due to his notorious reputation during the trials, his family feared his body would be dismembered or stolen by victim’s families. To counter this, his body was entombed in the basement area of his home.

Philip English, a wealthy merchant whose wife had died during the witch trials, put a lien on Corwin’s corpse. This tale is often retold, claiming that English threatened to snatch the body, or that Corwin was buried in his own basement for years, for fear he would be stolen from his grave.

Corwin’s body was later reburied in the Corwin family tomb in the nearby Broad Street Cemetery after the threats died down.

But the rumor still persists that his corpse is walled up in the basement of the Joshua Ward House, the stately historic home that was built on his land.

Centuries later, George Corwin is still remembered as the most hated man of the Salem Witch Trials, and so it’s not much of a surprise that his spirit may still be haunting the land in which he once lived.

Locals believe his spirit never left the property. That his unfinished business, his victims’ curses, or perhaps his own dark attachment to the land keeps him trapped here.

And he’s not alone.

The Haunting of the Joshua Ward House

The Woman in the Black Dress

Perhaps no piece of paranormal evidence from Salem is more famous than the photograph taken at the Joshua Ward House in the early 1980s.

The home was purchased in 1981 by a realty company looking to use it as a satellite office.

After moving in, an employee by the name of Dale Lewinski began the task of taking photographs of the staff members to add to a welcome display. Lewinski was using a Polaroid camera to snap head-and-shoulders, passport-style pictures.

What happened next shocked everyone.

After photographing a colleague by the name of Lorraine St. Peter, a peculiar sight greeted Lewinski. The Polaroid was developed but, instead of showing Lorraine St. Peter, it appeared to depict a most frightening image: that of a strange, black-haired female figure. St. Peter was nowhere to be seen (the photograph has not been cropped at all; St. Peter has been entirely replaced by the ‘apparition’).

What he saw when he glanced down was something entirely different: a dark-haired woman with rough-hewn features and skin that was so pale and translucent he had to take another look.

A mysterious photograph was taken at the Joshua Ward House in the 1980s. It shows a woman in black with a distorted face. No one present at the time matched her appearance, and the photo became a local legend.

This photograph was also included in the book “Ghostly Haunts” and once the image was released, many news channels began covering this story.

It is an outrageous image that is considered one of the best, most irrefutable examples of a spirit caught on film of all time.

Many believe this apparition is the spirit of one of Corwin’s victims, possibly a woman accused of witchcraft. She may be forever tied to the house by the injustices she suffered.

The Lady in Black is often seen in hallways and stairwells, sometimes appearing in mirrors or photographs. A chilling sense of sorrow and loss accompanies her presence.

Choking Hands in the Dark

The most terrifying reports from the Joshua Ward House involve something visitors feel rather than see.

Visitors report to have the feeling of someone or something, wrap what has been described as cold hands around their necks, and gently squeeze.

There have been a variety of reports of supernatural phenomena including multiple witnesses claiming that they have been strangled by an unseen pair of hands while visiting.

One paranormal investigation team experienced this phenomenon firsthand. As Robert poked around the basement he was struck from behind and his throat was seized. He whirled around to face his attacker, there was no one there! Yet the strangling sensation continued.

It felt as if someone was attempting to choke the life out of him. Robert tried to shout for help, not a sound could issue from his mouth as his invisible assailant had his windpipe so constricted.

As Robert revived and shared his story it was noticed his neck had massive bruising consistent with what is seen on victims who have been violently choked.

Is Sheriff Corwin reenacting his brutal interrogation methods? Or are his victims trying to show the living what they suffered?

Objects That Move, Disappear, or Fall

The Joshua Ward House is filled with unexplained physical phenomena.

A rogue candle flying off the shelves, the aching, ghostly cries of a child, and, of course, the startling sensation of invisible hands circling your neck and tightening.

Many of these happenings are typical of any haunting: pockets of chilled air in a heated room, books and pictures falling from their shelves, and candles being melted even though they were never lit.

The candles are particularly strange. However, there is one occurrence that is unique to this spirit. As candles melt, they consistently form into the shape of an “S”. Many paranormal fanatics take this as a sign from the spirit of Giles Corey and interpret the “S” as standing for “Sheriff”.

Equally as strange are the reports of warm, half-melted candle wax present in rooms where no candles are supposed to be.

A bullish farmer who was accused of being a witch during the trials, Giles Corey was personally tortured by Corwin. His ghost has been responsible for knocking various items off shelves throughout the house, as well as stacking up books that his spirit takes right off the shelves.

Eerie Voices and Phantom Footsteps

The sounds of the Joshua Ward House are as disturbing as the sights.

Former employees at the Joshua Ward House will recount tales of how they would be sitting in their offices alone, working after hours. Then they hear it. Footsteps above them. In rooms they know are empty.

One investigator captured something remarkable on audio equipment. When she played back the tape from the basement her blood ran cold. A rough voice growled out the phrase “I just want to keep you”.

No physical person had been in the room when the eerie audio had been recorded. The voice on the tape was distinct and clear. There was no background distortion.

It is one of the clearest and most convincing examples of EVP ever recorded. Could Mollie possibly have captured the vicious Sheriff calling for blood from beyond the grave?

To this day it is thought that she is responsible for the crying sounds heard in the house, no doubt centuries old residual screams from the torture she endured at Corwin’s hands.

Men who enter the house seem to attract particular attention. Several men have reported that they have left the house with unexplainable scratches on their chests or have experienced an uncomfortable feeling of another person in the room watching them while they were inside the house.

Perhaps the most frightening of all encounters are that of guests having sudden, unexplained scratches and burns appearing on their arms.

The Mansion Through the Ages

The Joshua Ward House has served many purposes over its long history.

After Joshua Ward’s death in 1825, the house continued as a prestigious residence. For a time in the late 19th century, the Joshua Ward House was converted into a fancy hotel by the name of The Washington Hotel.

The hotel traded on its presidential connection, but rumors of strange occurrences began to spread among guests and staff.

More recently it had been headquarters for Carlson Real Estate. It had in recent years been the subject of folklore, with tales of noises, apparitions, cold spots and fire alarms going off inexplicably.

Robert Murphy, owner of Higginson Book Company bought the Joshua Ward House in 1994. It had been vacant for two years.

Throughout its various incarnations, one constant remained: people experienced things they couldn’t explain. Employees quit. Tenants moved. Some refused to work alone after dark.

The tension between the building’s historical beauty and its supernatural disturbance has always been present. How do you operate a business in a building where employees report being choked by invisible hands?

For many locals though, they say that there is something eerie and unsettling about the place, and all too many confess to taking other streets late at night and avoid having to pass by it whenever possible.

Paranormal Investigations and Modern Attention

The Joshua Ward House has attracted serious attention from the paranormal community.

Historians who have held seances over the years conclude that there are three distinctively different spirits haunting the location.

The first is George Corwin himself, the Strangler. The second is Giles Corey, his most famous victim. The third is the unidentified woman in black, believed to be one of the accused witches who suffered at Corwin’s hands.

The Joshua Ward House was the site of some of the Spellbound organization’s first Salem paranormal investigations.

Investigators have documented:

• EVP recordings of distinct voices in empty rooms
• EMF spikes in the basement and second floor
• Temperature drops of 20 degrees or more in seconds
• Photographic anomalies including orbs and shadow figures
• Physical evidence including unexplained bruising on investigators

CBS News named the Joshua Ward House one of the six most haunted houses in the U.S., the New York Post named it one of the 15 scariest haunted houses in the U.S. and International Business Times named it one of the 10 best haunted houses in the U.S.

It’s said that three spirits linger at the Joshua Ward House, two of which are not the friendliest of paranormal entities.

The house has been featured on paranormal television programs and in numerous books about haunted New England. While it is not the subject of inspiration and tourism as the House of Seven Gables, the Joshua Ward house has seen its own fame in books on the collective hauntings of Salem and a comprehensive segment on the History Channel series Haunted History.

Investigators consider it a “high-energy hotspot,” a location where paranormal activity is so consistent and intense that meaningful evidence is almost guaranteed.

Visiting the Joshua Ward House Today

What the Mansion Looks Like Now

In downtown Salem resides a hotel known as The Merchant. Its exterior is freshly painted and the interior is filled with luxurious furnishings.

Since 2015, the Joshua Ward House has become the boutique Merchant Hotel.

For the present day, the Joshua Ward house is something of a boutique hotel, now called The Merchant. It’s registered as a historical landmark there in Essex County and every year receives thousands of visitors.

The restoration has preserved the mansion’s elegant Federal-style architecture while adding modern amenities. Since this is now a small hotel and not a museum, visitors who are not booking a room, but would still like to see the house should go to the door and ask to be given a tour. The people who work at the hotel are always more than happy to show people around, as long as they are not asking to do so for the purpose of “ghost hunting.”

The location sits within easy walking distance of Salem’s other major haunted sites, including the Witch House, Old Burying Point Cemetery, and the Witch Trials Memorial.

Availability for Tours

Today it is home to a boutique hotel that does not take kindly to night tours showing up on their doorstep hunting for ghosts. It used to be one of the top spots on our nightly Spellbound Voodoo, Vampires, and Ghosts tour, but now they try to conceal the haunted history.

The best way to experience the Joshua Ward House is to book a stay at The Merchant hotel. Visitors can also stay in the actual room that George Washington slept in by requesting the “George Washington King Deluxe.”

The Merchant Hotel’s very own website embraces their haunted history!

During Salem’s Halloween season in October, interest in the property peaks. Book well in advance if you want to stay during this time.

Ghost tours still pass by the exterior and share the house’s dark history, even if they can no longer bring groups inside.

Tips for the Brave

If you’re determined to experience the Joshua Ward House’s paranormal energy, here are some suggestions.

Best times to photograph: Dusk and foggy mornings offer the most atmospheric conditions. The mansion’s brick facade takes on an eerie quality in low light.

Where to stand for the best chance of capturing anomalies: The front of the house, particularly windows on the second and third floors, is where apparitions are most frequently reported by passersby. The basement area (visible through ground-level windows) is said to be particularly active.

What to expect:

• Sudden temperature drops, even in summer
• The feeling of being watched from the windows
• Shadows that seem to move independently
• An oppressive atmosphere that many visitors describe as “heavy”

If you book a stay:

• Request an upper floor room for the most reported activity
• Bring a camera and leave it running overnight
• Pay attention to your dreams, as guests report vivid, disturbing dreams
• Be prepared for unexplained sounds in the night
• Check yourself for unexplained scratches or marks in the morning

Despite the hotel’s reluctance to embrace the supernatural the historic Joshua Ward House is worth seeking out. After your Spellbound Tour you may even want to book a room and see if you can survive a night with Sheriff Corwin.

The Legacy of a Mansion That Won’t Forget

The Joshua Ward House sits at the intersection of beauty and brutality.

Above ground, it’s a masterpiece of Federal architecture. Below ground, it’s built on soil soaked with the suffering of the innocent.

For decades now, the Joshua Ward House has sat, a beautiful example of 18th century architecture with a less than ideal past. A past that isn’t content to remain a slice of history.

Why do hauntings persist where trauma once lived? Perhaps extreme emotion imprints itself on a location. Perhaps the dead cannot rest when injustice was never addressed. Perhaps some places simply hold memory in ways we don’t understand.

The Joshua Ward House holds all of this. The screams of the tortured. The cruelty of the torturer. The curse of a dying man. The sorrow of the wrongfully accused.

There is no evidence to substantiate the claim that Corwin was torturing prisoners, nor that this was taking place within his own home. However, today popular tradition maintains that the Joshua Ward House is the most haunted house in Salem.

Whether the stories are entirely true or embellished by legend, the experiences continue. Year after year. Visitor after visitor. The choking hands. The woman in black. The candles melted into accusatory shapes.

Are the spirits trapped by the past? Or are they refusing to let the world forget what happened here?

Perhaps both. Perhaps neither.

The only certainty is that something remains at 148 Washington Street. Something that has outlasted centuries. Something that makes even longtime Salem residents cross to the other side of the street after dark.

Closing Scene: The Knock Behind the Door

Evening settles over Washington Street. The Merchant hotel glows warmly, its windows inviting.

Inside, guests enjoy the elegant furnishings, the historic atmosphere, the sense of staying somewhere important. Most are thinking about dinner reservations or tomorrow’s sightseeing.

But upstairs, in a room on the third floor, something shifts.

A soft knock echoes from inside a closet door. No one is in the closet. No one has been in the closet. The knock comes again. Three times. Deliberate.

Down the hall, a shadow passes a window. From outside, a pedestrian glances up and sees the shape of a woman in the glass. She blinks, and the window is empty. Just curtains. Just reflection.

At the beautiful McIntire staircase, a guest pauses mid-step. Something cold touches the railing beside her hand. Not a draft. Something more specific. More intentional. Like fingers. Impossibly cold fingers.

She withdraws her hand quickly, heart racing, and hurries down the stairs.

Behind her, the temperature drops. The air grows heavy. And somewhere in the walls of this beautiful, terrible house, something waits.

It has waited for over three hundred years. It can wait a little longer.

In the Joshua Ward House, history doesn’t stay in the past. It follows you back into the light.