Things to do at the house
Most of our guests come for Salem and end up spending more time at the house than they planned. Here is everything that happens on Mercy Lane, from the courts out back to the lantern at the front door.
The Crane & Lantern House has been many things since Captain Josiah Crane raised the frame in 1748: a merchant's home, an apothecary, a sailors' boarding house, a funeral parlor, a set of drafty apartments and, since 1997, an inn. Every one of those lives left something behind, and most of what we offer guests today grew out of them. The ghost walk exists because people kept asking Samuel about the stairs. The herb garden exists because Dr. Pell's seed list turned up in a drawer. The candle workshop exists because, well, the house is called the Lantern.
The pickleball courts are the exception. Nobody in 1748 played pickleball. But the old kitchen-garden lot behind the carriage house was sitting empty, Theo had developed a habit, and here we are.
Inn guests get free or reduced rates on almost everything below. Most activities are open to the public as well, and several fill up, especially on weekends and all through October, so we recommend booking ahead. You can book any activity at the front desk, by phone at (978) 555-0148, or with the forms on each activity's page.
Two courts on the old kitchen-garden lot, opened May 2024. Open 8 am to dusk, April into November, weather permitting. Paddles and balls free to borrow. Saturday clinics with coach Benny Ruiz and the Thursday "Pickle & Pint" social.
Courts, clinics and bookingNightly at 8:00 pm, April through November. Seventy-five minutes through the house and three nearby streets with Samuel Teague or one of our guides. History first, then the stories. No one jumps out at you.
About the walk
Sundays 2–5 pm in the Library with Madame Corvina. A twenty-minute reading, a pot of tea and one of Abigail's lavender scones. For reflection and enjoyment.
Meet Madame Corvina
Saturdays at 3 pm in the old apothecary workroom. Pour and wick your own beeswax lantern candle, and take it home wrapped in brown paper.
Workshops
Saturdays at 10 am. A half-hour stroll through the beds where we've replanted Dr. Ezra Pell's apothecary plants, with the stories of what each was used for in the 1840s.
More about the garden
Thursdays at 7 pm in the Library. Samuel, who has worked here since 2009, tells the house's story from the captain to the Fairweathers, with the old ledgers on the table.
About the talkOn the side lawn between the garden and the carriage house you'll find a croquet set (the good, heavy kind, with the wooden mallets), a cornhole set that Theo insists is "regulation," and a box of lawn games for younger guests staying in the Carriage House Suite. There's nothing to book. Take what you need from the bench by the garden door and put it back when you're done. Please keep the croquet balls away from the herb beds; Dr. Pell's foxglove does not bounce back.
We also keep six bicycles for guests, free to borrow for the day. They are upright, unglamorous cruisers with baskets and bells, well suited to Salem's flat streets and the ride out along the water. Helmets and locks are in the carriage house. Ask the front desk for a bike and a printed map; Samuel has marked his favorite loop, which takes about an hour if you don't stop, and nobody ever doesn't stop.
In October we don't recommend bikes downtown on weekends. The streets are given over to people on foot, and some are closed to all wheels. Weekday mornings are still lovely.
From the first of October to Halloween night, Salem is one of the busiest small cities in the country, and the house changes gear with it. We add a second ghost walk at 9:30 pm, the restaurant opens every day, and on Friday nights the Great Hall becomes the setting for our Séance Supper, a candlelit theatrical dinner for adults (18+, $145 per person). On the last Sunday of the month we host a costume brunch in the Lantern Room. Everything books up early. Please read our October guide before you plan.
Activities run rain or shine except pickleball and the garden walk, which we move or cancel in heavy weather (we'll let you know by text or a note under your door). Quiet hours at the house are 10 pm to 7 am, which is why the late ghost walk ends on the street rather than in the front hall.
Planning a stay around an activity? Our getaway packages bundle a few of these with a room, including the Haunted Weekend and the Pickle & Pint Getaway.
