The story below is from our July/August 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo above: Preston House, home of GLOW Healing Arts
Photos By Anthony Giorgetti
The oldest home in Salem now houses New Age business GLOW Healing Arts.
People may find it an ironic dichotomy that perhaps the most New Age business in Salem is housed in the oldest home. But when you look at the home’s history and see the appreciation of the practitioners’ relationship to the building, you’ll see that GLOW Healing Arts fits quite well into Preston House.
“We view this as a sacred space and we have so much respect for the history,” says Meredith Novak.
Novak is the owner of GLOW and she’s sought to develop a heart-centered healing community that honors the legacy of Preston House while adding to its storied history.
Built in 1821, the Preston House was owned solely by the Preston family for over a hundred years.
The last Preston to own it was Dr. Esther Cole Brown. Appropriately, and in another historic landmark, Brown was also the first female doctor in Salem. Not content to coast by on only one pioneering act, Brown also challenged the times by refusing to segregate the waiting room at her practice even when not doing so could endanger her business, or worse.
Though Preston House was her personal home, the practitioners who now use it as their office feel the healing energy she left behind both in and outside of its walls growing in the roots and branches of the ancient magnificent tree, the age of which dwarfs that of the 200-year-old structure itself.
But Brown left more than good vibes behind. As the last Preston to live in the home, she understood its importance. Before she died, she willed the building and surrounding land to Salem Museum and Historical Society.
Now under the Salem Museum’s stewardship, it’s leased to Novak, who shares the space with six other practitioners, speakers and guests.
GLOW also allows other community members to rent the space for their events, such as bridal showers.
“We’re not limiting it to the holistic space because we really want to share the space with as many people as we can.”
To learn more about GLOW Healing Arts, visit their website at glowhealingarts.com.
The story above is from our July/August 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
