Literature Related to Churches in Salem

The Custom House Sketch of The Scarlet Letter

Hawthorne refers to real places in Salem in the Custom House chapter of The Scarlet Letter. Among those places is St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 24 St. Peter's Street at Brown St. on St. Peter Square. Hawthorne refers to this church when talking about the digging up of the remains of Surveyor Pue in the graveyard of St. Peter's church.

Our Old Home

Hawthorne refers to John Prince pastor of First Church at 121 Washington St., 231 Essex St. Mall, in Our Old Home. This church, established in 1629, was the first Protestant church in America. In the early 1800s, the church became Unitarian in its theology. In 1824 Charles W. Upham became associate pastor with John Prince, and after Prince's death in 1836, became pastor. He remained in this position until 1844 when he left the post because of illness. Margaret Moore points out in The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne that "Hawthorne wrote in Our Old Home that only fond memories of John Prince of First Church helped him retain 'a devout, though not intact nor unwavering respect for the entire fraternity' of ministers' (CE 5:28)" (110).