Donating to the Proctor’s Ledge Memorial

Open space with landscaping intended to offer tasteful place for reflection

With the announcement earlier this year of the final design plans for the Proctor’s Ledge memorial, the City is now accepting donations from those interested in helping to fund a portion of the project.

Last year a team of researchers and historians identified this location as the probable site of the executions of 1692. In the months that followed a team of City staff and a consulting landscape architect worked with descendants of the victims, the Salem Award Foundation, local historians, and abutting neighbors to develop a plan to tastefully memorialize the location.

When the location was announced last year, the City heard from many descendants of those who were wrongfully executed interested in the memorialization of the site. Now that the design plans are complete and the project has been bid, any interested individuals who wish to make a donation in support of this project are invited to do so.

The memorial plans call for a landscaped slope down from the ledge where the executions are believed to have taken place. At the base of the slope, on Pope Street, there will be a semi-circular area surrounded by a stone wall. Stones with the names of the nineteen individuals who were hanged near the site will be set into the wall and lit from the ground below with a single light on each name. At the center of the memorial on Pope Street there will be a single oak tree, as a symbol of endurance and dignity.

Those interested in making a donation may send their gift payable to “City of Salem” with “Proctor’s Ledge” on the memo line to:

City of Salem

Office of the Mayor

93 Washington Street

Salem, MA 01970

All who make a donation will be recognized at the dedication ceremony for the memorial, unless they indicate that they wish to remain anonymous.