“Bewitched” Statue

At first glance, Samantha Stephens seems an unlikely resident of Salem. Sitting gracefully on her broom before a crescent moon, she welcomes visitors with a smile that is a world away from the painful events for which this city is best known.

The bronze statue was unveiled in 2005 as a tribute to the beloved television series Bewitched. Although the show was filmed primarily in Hollywood, several episodes were filmed on location in Salem in 1970 after a fire temporarily closed the California set. Those episodes introduced millions of television viewers to Salem and helped cement the city’s reputation as a destination long before modern tourism reached its current scale.

The statue itself has become something of a landmark, but not without controversy. Some residents appreciate it as a celebration of a classic television show and recognize the role it played in bringing visitors to the city. Others believe that a whimsical television character distracts from the solemn history of the Salem Witch Trials, during which nineteen innocent people were executed and many others suffered imprisonment and public accusation. They argue that the city should be remembered first for the lessons of intolerance and injustice rather than for fictional witches.

Whether one agrees with the statue’s presence or not, it has become part of Salem’s continuing story and one of its most recognizable landmarks.