The Annabelle Doll Is Coming to Salem. The City Council Has Concerns.

A proposal to open the Haunted Warren Museum on Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts hit resistance from the Salem City Council last week over a requested 2 a.m. closing time. The museum would display items from the Warren Occult Collection, including allegedly cursed artifacts gathered across decades of paranormal investigation. Matt Rife and Elton Castee purchased the Warren property in Monroe, Connecticut in August 2025 and are reopening the original Connecticut location for overnight stays this fall. The Salem location is a separate expansion.

Ed and Lorraine Warren spent more than five decades collecting objects they believed were connected to demonic activity, haunting, or malevolent energy. The collection lives in the basement of their home in Monroe, Connecticut, catalogued, contained, and now under new management. Matt Rife and paranormal investigator Elton Castee purchased the property and the guardianship of the collection in August 2025. Overnight stays with private access to the museum are already being booked through their site. The collection, including Annabelle, is intact.

Now someone is trying to bring a version of the Warren experience to Salem, Massachusetts. And the city is not entirely sure it wants a 2 a.m. closing time.

The Salem Proposal

According to Salem News, a proposal for the Haunted Warren Museum at 259 Essex Street was presented to the Salem City Council earlier this month. The concept is a curated mixed-media museum experience on Salem’s main commercial strip, replacing the existing Haunt Blackcraft venue. The proposed operating hours: seven days a week, year-round, from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The city council’s reception was cool. Neighbors raised objections. The 2 a.m. closing time was the specific sticking point. The proposal is still being reviewed.

The location makes a particular kind of sense. Salem is the most commercially haunted city in the United States by some distance. It drew an estimated one million visitors during the 2023 Halloween season alone, and its tourist infrastructure is built around exactly the kind of paranormal history the Warren collection represents.

What the Warren Collection Is

The collection was assembled across roughly sixty years of active investigation. Ed Warren, a self-taught demonologist, and Lorraine Warren, a clairvoyant, investigated thousands of alleged cases including the Amityville haunting and the possession case that became the basis for The Conjuring franchise. Objects removed from those investigations came back with them. By their account, the items were not merely historical artifacts but active carriers of negative energy that required containment.

The most famous object in the collection is Annabelle, a Raggedy Ann doll that the Warrens claimed was inhabited by a malicious spirit after being linked to a series of disturbing incidents in 1970. The doll is currently on tour. Under the new guardianship arrangement, it will eventually return to Monroe.

The Warren Museum in Monroe operates under strict protocols: no touching of objects, spiritual protection provided before entry, access limited to a supervised four-hour window from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. The entire overnight experience, which includes access to all 750-plus items including Annabelle, costs $1,999 per night for up to eight people.

The Salem Question

Bringing the Warren aesthetic to Salem raises an interesting cultural collision. Salem has worked for decades to separate itself from the sensationalized horror-tourism version of its history and position itself as a serious city with a complex past. A paranormal museum anchored in the Warren brand and operating until 2 a.m. every night of the year sits at the intersection of exactly the kind of commercial paranormal experience the city has sometimes been ambivalent about.

The city council has not approved or rejected the proposal. The concerns raised were practical: noise, late-night foot traffic, neighborhood impact. Whether the Annabelle doll ends up on Essex Street remains an open question.

Sources: Salem News — City Council raises concerns about 2 a.m. closing time for planned paranormal museum — Atlas Obscura — The Warrens’ Occult Museum — Haunted Warren House