Careers

Work in a 278-year-old house

We're a small team of about thirty people across the inn, the kitchens, the bar and the garden. Some of us have been here a very long time. One of us arrived in 1812 and shows no sign of leaving.

Current openings How to apply

Working here

The Crane & Lantern House is nine rooms, a restaurant that seats about ninety, a bar, a breakfast room, a garden, two pickleball courts, and a wedding business that keeps the Great Hall busy from May to October. It is not a hotel, and it isn't run like one. Maren and Theo Alcott, who own the house, are here most days; Theo is in the kitchen three nights a week. Samuel Teague, our head innkeeper, has worked here since 2009 and will teach you more about the building in your first week than most people learn in a lifetime.

It's real work. The stairs are steep, October is a month-long sprint, and there is always a drawer that sticks. But people stay: our median staff tenure is a little over five years, which in this industry is something like a miracle.

What we offer

Pay above the Salem average for the role, reviewed every January; tips are pooled fairly and shown on your pay stub
A real staff meal, cooked by the line, before every service (Dee has opinions about family meal and they are good ones)
Health and dental insurance for anyone working 30 hours a week or more, with the house paying 75% of the premium
Paid time off from your first month, accruing from day one
A $300 October bonus for everyone who works through the month, because we know what we're asking
Free pickleball court time, a free night in any room each year (outside October), and 30% off in the restaurant and bar for you and a guest
An MBTA commuter pass subsidy; the train station is a nine-minute walk

Maren and Theo Alcott on the back step with Ledger the three-legged cat — Maren, Theo and Ledger, who is not involved in hiring decisions.

Current openings

Line cook, The Ledger

Full-time · Wednesday to Sunday, evenings · $22–$26/hour plus kitchen tip share · Posted September 22, 2026

We're looking for a cook to join Chef Dolores Okafor's line of six at The Ledger, our restaurant in the old chapel wing. You'll work dinner service on the grill and sauté stations to start, five shifts a week, with some lunch cover in summer and every day in October (with the bonus and a schedule built so you still get two days off in a row). It's a scratch kitchen: we break down whole fish most mornings, smoke our own bluefish, braise for six hours, and make the stocks and sauces ourselves. The menu is New England seafood with West African influences from Dee's family, so you'll learn to make a proper chowder and a proper jollof in the same week.

You should have at least two years on a busy line, ideally with seafood. You should be calm at 7:30 on a Saturday with forty tickets on the rail, keep a clean station, and be someone your fellow cooks are glad to see. You'll need a current ServSafe food handler certification (or get one in your first month; we'll pay for it) and the ability to stand for a full shift and lift 50 pounds. The kitchen has no fancy titles and no shouting, and we hold to both.

What you'll get, besides the above: a seat at family meal, real mentorship from Dee and Theo, a chance to put a dish on the menu once a season, and a sous chef track for the right person.

Apply for line cook

Breakfast server, the Lantern Room

Part-time or full-time · Mornings, 6:45 am–12:00 pm, including weekends · $15/hour plus tips (servers average $34–$40/hour with tips) · Posted October 3, 2026

The Lantern Room serves breakfast every morning to the inn's guests and, Wednesday to Sunday, to the public, which in October means a line out the porch door by a quarter past eight. We need a server for four or five morning shifts a week, at least two of them weekends. You'll be done by noon most days.

The work is what you'd expect, done with care: greeting guests (some of whom have just spent a sleepless night in the Nursery and want to talk about it), taking orders, running plates, keeping coffee cups full, and knowing the menu well enough to describe the difference between red flannel hash and any other kind. You'll also help keep the slate wait list fair on busy mornings, which takes tact, and set up the porch, which takes a good back.

Some serving experience is helpful but not required; we'd rather hire warmth and train the rest. You'll need to be 18 or over, available on weekends, and able to carry a full tray up the two steps from the kitchen corridor. Weekend mimosas mean you'll need to be willing to complete alcohol-service training, which we provide.

Apply for breakfast server

Housekeeper

Full-time, year-round · Five days a week, 9:00 am–3:30 pm, including one weekend day · $21–$23/hour plus a share of room gratuities · Posted August 14, 2026

Housekeeping at an inn this old is a craft. The rooms have 1748 paneling, canopy beds, horsehair plaster, original apothecary drawers in one room and a log book in another that guests write in each morning and we must never, ever tidy away. You'll join a team of four, led by our head housekeeper, Rosa, who has worked in the house for eleven years and knows which floorboards need wax and which ones must not have it.

Each day you'll turn rooms between check-out at 11 and check-in at 3, refresh the rooms of staying guests, look after the Garret rooms' shared bath, help with laundry (we launder all our own linens on site), and keep the front hall, library and stairs as they should be. You'll also be the person most likely to notice what guests need before they ask: an extra blanket in the Widow's Walk Suite, a water bowl for a dog in the Carriage House, a lavender sachet replaced in the Lady's Chamber. Attention to detail matters more here than speed, though by October you'll have both.

The house has four floors and no elevator, so you must be comfortable with stairs, a lot of them, and with lifting up to 30 pounds. Prior housekeeping experience in a hotel or inn is a plus. Weekday-only schedules aren't possible in this role, but we rotate weekends fairly.

And yes: if a marble rolls down the third-floor hall while you're making the bed in the Nursery, you're allowed to leave the room for a minute. Everyone does.

Apply for housekeeper

Seasonal host, October 2023

Seasonal · October 1–31, 2023 · Evenings · $18/hour plus tips · Posted August 2, 2023

October is our busiest month by a long way, and we need an extra pair of hands at the front of The Ledger to greet diners, manage the wait list, answer the phone and keep the room moving. This is a four-week seasonal role, five evenings a week, 4:30 to 10:30 pm, and it's a good way to see how a restaurant runs at full tilt. Costumes are permitted at the host stand on October 31 only. Experience helpful, a good memory for names essential.

To apply, send a short note and your availability to table@cranelantern.example by September 1, 2023.

How to apply

Email the address on the job you're interested in with a short note about yourself and, if you have one, a résumé. Tell us when you can start and which days you can work. We read everything and reply to everyone, usually within a week; if it's October, please forgive us for taking two.

If there's nothing listed that suits you but you'd like to work here, write anyway to stay@cranelantern.example. We hire for the garden, the bar, the front desk and weddings at different times of year, and we keep good letters on file.

The Crane & Lantern House is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of every background, and we'll make reasonable accommodations in the hiring process and on the job; just tell us what you need. This is a historic building with steep stairs and no elevator, and some roles involve them; we'll always be clear about which.