Haunted hotel guide · Salem, Massachusetts

The Merchant, Salem: The Haunted Joshua Ward House and the Ghost of Sheriff Corwin

A Federal brick mansion where George Washington slept, standing on the land of the sheriff who carried out the 1692 witch trials. The Joshua Ward House has been called one of the most haunted houses in America, and since 2015 you can stay in it.

By The Haunted Rooms Team · Updated November 2026 · How we rate hotels

3.2/5Haunted Rooms Score
1784Year built
1789George Washington's visit

Check availabilityMeet the ghosts

The Merchant is the Joshua Ward House at 148 Washington Street, a three-story brick mansion built for a Salem merchant between 1784 and 1787 and opened as a boutique hotel in 2015. Its floating staircase is believed to be the oldest surviving work of the carver Samuel McIntire, George Washington spent the night here in 1789, and it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Its ghost stories come from the ground it stands on. In 1692 this was the property of George Corwin, the young high sheriff of Essex County who arrested the accused, seized their property and oversaw the pressing to death of Giles Corey. Local legend says Corwin, his victims and a woman in black never left. Several national media outlets have named it among the most haunted houses in the country, although the hotel itself says its staff have never seen or felt anything. For the other places to stay in town, see our guide to haunted hotels in Salem.

The Merchant at a glance

3.2/5
Haunted Rooms Score
Haunted reputation4
History4
Ghost hunter access1
$$$ · Over $300
  • Address 148 Washington Street, Salem, MA 01970
  • Built 1784 to 1787; opened as The Merchant in 2015
  • Most haunted spots The fireplace rooms, the McIntire staircase, the old basement where Corwin was reputedly buried
  • Best-known ghosts Sheriff George Corwin, Giles Corey, the Lady in Black
  • Booking the haunted room There is no designated haunted room. You can book the George Washington room, where the president is said to have slept in 1789.
  • Good to know A small boutique hotel run by Lark Hotels, a short walk from the Witch House and the Salem Witch Museum. The hotel asks guests not to carry out paranormal investigations.

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The ghosts of The Merchant (Joshua Ward House)

Sheriff George Corwin

George Corwin was the nephew of the witch trial magistrate Jonathan Corwin, the son-in-law of Judge Bartholomew Gedney and a grandson of John Winthrop the Younger. As high sheriff of Essex County during the 1692 trials he signed warrants for arrests and executions, chose the execution site and seized the property of the condemned. He died of a heart attack on April 12, 1696, aged 30.

He was so hated that Philip English, one of the accused whose property he had seized, put a lien on his body and held up the burial until he was repaid. Legend goes further and says the family buried him in the basement of his house, on this site, and later moved him to the Broad Street Cemetery, where he lies today. Visitors describe a man seated by the fireplace and, more alarmingly, the feeling of a suffocating grip on the throat. Ghost tours call him the Strangler, a nickname that has never been proven, and the Merchant’s own site notes that his house and jail stood here.

Giles Corey

Giles Corey was an 81-year-old farmer who refused to enter a plea at his witch trial. In September 1692 he was pressed under heavy stones over two days, with Corwin presiding, until he died on September 19, and legend says he cursed the sheriff and Salem as he lay there. Corwin’s death at 30 is often linked to that curse, and later Essex County sheriffs were said to suffer from the curse of Giles Corey until the office moved out of Salem in 1991.

In the Ward house stories Corey is the restless one: candlesticks knocked over, trash cans tipped, belongings moved and deadbolts that lock and unlock on their own.

The Lady in Black

The house’s most famous story is a photograph. In the 1980s, when the building held offices, Carlson Realty tried to take a photograph of an employee. The picture that developed showed a full-length woman in black with wild dark hair and a pale, almost transparent face instead.

The photograph was published by the New England ghost writer Robert Ellis Cahill in New England’s Ghostly Haunts, and she has been called the Lady in Black ever since. Nobody knows who she might be; some say she is one of Corwin’s victims. The hotel’s own site mentions the photo and adds that its staff have “never seen or felt her (or anyone else).”

What the records say

The witch trial history here is real: the land did belong to the Corwin family until 1714, and Corwin’s role in 1692 is well documented. Stories of torture inside the house you sleep in are another matter. Whatever happened on this land in Corwin’s time, his house was demolished in the 1780s, and the brick mansion you stay in was built afterward by Joshua Ward. The 19th-century stories of Washington’s ghost in a window turned out to be a marble bust of the president placed on the second floor.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

  • George Washington room: The hotel’s George Washington King Deluxe, where the president is said to have slept in 1789. Not a haunted room, but the most historic one in the house.
  • Fireplace rooms: Reported sightings of Corwin are by a fireplace. Ask for one of the original rooms in the 1784 house.
  • The McIntire staircase: The floating staircase, believed to be the oldest surviving McIntire staircase, and the heart of the house that guests pass through every day.

History of The Merchant (Joshua Ward House)

In the 17th century this land belonged to the Corwin family, and George Corwin lived here during the witch trials. A Corwin descendant, Bartholomew Corwin, sold it in 1714, and it changed hands several times before the merchant and ship owner Joshua Ward bought it on August 11, 1781. Ward made his money importing molasses, pepper, tea and spices.

Between 1784 and 1787 Ward pulled down the old Corwin house and built a three-story Federal brick mansion on what was then his own wharf, overlooking the South River. Histories credit the design to Samuel Luscomb Jr., with interior woodwork and the floating staircase by Samuel McIntire. In October 1789 the newly elected President Washington visited Salem and stayed here, and in 1793 the town fired salutes outside the house on his birthday.

The house later became the Washington Tavern and a boarding house, and from 1891 to 1937 it was the Washington Hotel. For the next 40 years it held shops and offices.

In the 1970s a developer proposed tearing it down, and the Salem Redevelopment Authority refused. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and restored in 1978 and 1979, when the rooftop deck and the curved-pediment entrance were added. The Higginson Book Company, a publisher of genealogy and local history books, occupied it in the 1980s and 1990s.

Todd Waller bought the house in 2014 and opened it as The Merchant, named for Joshua Ward, in 2015. It is now part of Lark Hotels, a New England group of small boutique hotels, which describes its past lives as a home, a tavern, an office building and a rare book shop.

Tips for a haunted stay

  • Book the George Washington room if you want the house’s best documented story.
  • The hotel asks that no paranormal investigations take place, so leave the equipment at home and be a considerate guest.
  • The Witch House, Jonathan Corwin’s home and the only building in Salem with direct ties to the trials, is a short walk away.
  • Visit the Witch Trials Memorial and the Old Burying Point on Charter Street, about ten minutes on foot, and the Howard Street Cemetery, where Giles Corey is said to have been pressed.
  • October in Salem is extremely busy. Book months ahead and expect minimum stays around Halloween.

Want to investigate, not just sleep?

Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.

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Frequently asked questions

Is The Merchant in Salem haunted?

It has one of Salem’s best-known ghost reputations. Legends tie the house to Sheriff George Corwin, his victims including Giles Corey, and a woman in black seen in a 1980s photograph. The hotel repeats the stories but says its staff have never experienced anything.

What is the Joshua Ward House?

A Federal brick mansion built for merchant Joshua Ward between 1784 and 1787 on the former land of Sheriff George Corwin. It has been a tavern, a hotel, offices and a book publisher, and since 2015 the boutique hotel The Merchant.

Was George Corwin buried in the Joshua Ward House?

Legend says he was buried in the basement of his house on this site after his death in 1696 and later moved to the Broad Street Cemetery. His house was demolished before the Ward house was built.

Did George Washington stay at the Joshua Ward House?

Yes. He stayed there on his visit to Salem in October 1789, and the hotel sells the room as the George Washington King Deluxe.

Can you do a ghost hunt at The Merchant?

No. The hotel asks guests not to carry out paranormal investigations. For an organized hunt, look at the Haunted Rooms events in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Who was the Lady in Black?

The figure of a woman with wild black hair who appeared in a photograph taken by a realty company employee in the 1980s. She has never been identified.

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

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About the authors

The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.

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