Salem's Historic Peabody Essex Museum Adds Some New Wrinkles

SALEM, MA — The Peabody Essex Museum is making some changes and additions with hopes they will bring some new visitors to the nation's oldest continuously operating museum — and maybe even save a life.

Starting Friday, the Salem museum will be open for extended hours on Fridays for the first time with the opportunity for visitors to get their coronavirus vaccination at Peabody Essex through a partnership with Curative's mobile vaccine unit.

"One of our motivations was just making any opportunity for it to be easier for anybody to be vaccinated," Peabody Essex Interim Chief Operating Officer Bob Monk told Patch. "I don't know that we'll get great crowds for vaccinations. We don't have any expectations for that, but we hope it helps. It's all about mitigation."

Monk said Peabody Essex expressed a willingness to host a vaccination site in downtown Salem early in the vaccine rollout before the focus turned to the mass vaccination sites like the one Curative operated at the Danvers DoubleTree Hotel. That site closed on June 30 as the state shifted its focus to targeted efforts and pop-up mobile vaccination units like the one scheduled to be at the museum from 4 to 7 p.m. for the next four Fridays.

"If one person gets a shot and that helps one person from getting sick that's a win as far as we're concerned," Monk said.

The vaccination effort is part of a greater reopening of the museum and all it has to offer.

Peabody Essex closed on March 12, 2020 — along with most of the rest of the state's non-essential businesses — at the onset of the coronavirus health crisis. The museum was able to reopen on July 16, 2020, adhering to the state's reduced-capacity and social distancing guidelines.

"We were really fortunate that, unlike the Boston museums that had another closure, we were able to stay open right along, which has really been great," Monk said. "Even early on after we reopened — because of all the protocols we had in place and that probably being a bigger museum we are blessed with large and open spaces — the feedback we got from visitors was that they felt comfortable and safe in the museum."

The year since certainly had its challenges, however, including those from Salem's "Stay Away" campaign last fall to dampen crowds during what is typically an overflowing Halloween season.

But Monk said visitations to the museum increased through the spring as coronavirus vaccinations increased and business restrictions waned.

"Getting our staff vaccinated was a major goal for us because we were concerned for their own safety," Monk said. "The easing of restrictions came in conjunction with the start of tourism season so it's tough for us to get a handle on which one was more responsible for (the increased crowds)."

Monk said the museum maintained its indoor mask mandate for staff and visitors a month longer than the state required — all statewide business restrictions expired on May 29 — but that was lifted as of July 1.

"It led to some contentious situations for us in June," Monk allowed. "People didn't have to wear masks most places and we were still requiring them. But we got through it. People are pretty understanding overall."

Now the museum has expanded the Friday hours to 8 p.m., will reopen the Ropes Mansion on July 24, resumed historic house tours this week, will resume the interactive exhibit "Where the Questions Live" on July 22 and will expand hours for the Atrium Café throughout the summer.

"This just provides more of an opportunity for people who typically work during the days to come by the museum after work," Monday said of the later Friday close. "They can come down later, visit the museum, and maybe sit down and have a drink and something to eat."

Monk said the museum is planning some additional tours and performing arts exhibitions this summer along with the later Friday close. The museum is also open Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"We have not had evening hours in the past so it's kind of a new venture for us to see how it works."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)