About Us

The Rebecca Nurse Homestead sits on 25+ acres of an original 300 acres occupied by Rebecca Nurse and her family from 1678-1798. The property holds the traditional saltbox home lived in by the Nurse family. This is the only home of a person executed during the trials open to the public.

Another unique feature is a reproduction of the 1672 Salem Village Meeting House where many of the early hearings surrounding the Salem Witchcraft Hysteria took place.

Located on the grounds is the Nurse Family Cemetery. It has been a longstanding family tradition that Rebecca’s son and husband retrieved her body after her execution and secretly buried it here. A monument with a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier was erected years later to commemorate this. Recently another victim of the Hysteria, George Jacobs, was buried here after being found in the middle of the last century on his former property in a lone unmarked grave. This is the only known burial site of anyone convicted of witchcraft during the Salem trials.

The Rebecca Nurse Homestead is a private non-profit house museum owned by the Danvers Alarm List Coy. It is an entirely volunteer group of 18th century living history reenactors that portray the militia, minute and alarm companies of Danvers and surrounding communities, as they existed in the 1774-1775 timeframe. The Alarm List Coy. presents its impression to the public through demonstrations, exhibitions, parades, living history encampments and battle reenactments. We clothe and accouter ourselves with reproductions of the period, according to research done by the members and use the drill manual created in 1775 by Col. Timothy Pickering of Salem, “An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia.”

Timeline
A brief overview of the rich history surrounding the Homestead Property

Pre 1636
Grounds were a popular hunting ground used by local Native Americans.


1636
Original 300 acre parcel is settled by Townsend Bishop who is said to have built a “mansion” on the property.


1678
Reverend Allen leases the property to the Nurse Family. Rebecca, her husband Francis, and a few of their 8 children move to the property and begin making vast improvements as well as a very well producing farm.


1692
Rebecca Nurse is accused of practicing witchcraft and is tried and hanged during the Salem Village Witchcraft Hysteria.


1695
After both his mother and father have passed away, Samuel Nurse retains the home and carries out the remainder of the lease.

1775
Francis Nurse (Rebecca’s great grandson) an officer in the local Danvers militia, responds from the Nurse family home to the alarm at Lexington and Concord.


1784
Benjamin Nurse becomes the last Nurse to live on the property as he sells it to Phineas Putnam.


1908
Salem Local Sarah Hunt campaigns and fundraises to purchase the Nurse homestead with the intent to preserve it as a museum. It is given over to the Rebecca Nurse Memorial Association.


1909
The Nurse Home is historically restored by Joseph Everett Chandler, the same architect who also restored such properties as the Paul Revere House and the House of Seven Gables.


1926
The home is turned over to SPNEA, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (Now known as Historic New England).


1981
Danvers Alarm List CO purchases the Rebecca Nurse Homestead and continues to run and maintain the property.