SALEM — Six years after it closed, Pioneer Village is finally open to the public again.

The city's replica 17th-century historic settlement is buzzing with Colonial characters and interactive historical re-enactments — including church services, cooking demonstrations and 17th-century songs, dances and games.

The site reopened this week under new leadership, and admission now includes a free trolley ride from downtown Salem to the settlement, located in Forest River Park. The grand reopening will take place Saturday when a new gift shop will also be unveiled.

"Pioneer Village needs to be open because it's such a wonderful thing to have in our Salem," said Kristina Stevick, artistic director of the "History Alive!" program. "It's not downtown, so it's often overlooked."

The small village of gardens, thatched structures and cottages was built in 1930 as part of the city's 300th anniversary celebration. It is billed as the country's oldest living history museum.

It closed in 2003 after falling on hard times, but last summer the Gordon College Institute for Public History, a nonprofit, secured a five-year lease from the city to operate the village and roll out its "History Alive!" program there.

"There is so much that can't be learned from a book," Stevick said, "like how the wood smoke smells, how plants feel, how to grind meal. Those lessons speak more strongly to some people."

Gordon also leases Old Town Hall where it runs ongoing performances of "Cry Innocent," an interactive drama about Bridget Bishop, who was accused of witchcraft in 1692.

A crew of 19 actors rotates between "Cry Innocent" and Pioneer Village, which is an 11-acre site dotted with 10 structures, including replica cottages, a wigwam, a two-story house and a blacksmith workshop where an actual blacksmith is now working.

Yesterday morning, a handful of tourists wandered through the newly opened village.

"They're just starting the Sabbath Day meeting," said stage manager Kaitlin Prior, as people gathered on benches in the "governor's house," where an actor dressed as a Puritan minister "lined" a hymn to the congregants.

"We also enact a testimony of a woman up for church membership," Prior said. "Sometimes she's voted in; sometimes not."

Visiting children gathered in a circle with reenactors and played a paddle and shuttlecock game, while other visitors roamed the village, watching women in period clothing weed the gardens and grind sugar off a block of sugarcane.

"They're all responsible for keeping the fires going in the houses," Prior said, "and everything else housewives would have been responsible for in the 17th century, like weeding the garden, harvesting herbs and making pottages and boiled salads."

Months of preparation

The calm pace of life in the village belies the months of work to prepare the site and the History Alive cast and crew. Clean-up days were followed by lessons and workshops with Plimoth Plantation staff and other experts in cooking, farming and Colonial life, all under the guidance of Gordon history professor David Goss.

The staff tilled the fields and acquired heirloom seeds to plant period vegetables, which they fertilized with ash and seaweed.

The staff also had to make repairs to Pioneer Village, replacing rotting boards and broken windows, and fixing flood damage.

"The governor's house had a lot of rot and was inhabited by several animals," Stevick said.

The House of the Seven Gables operated the village for several years, but the nonprofit was not able to make a success of it, and the lease was ended in 2003.

The new leadership hopes to acquire goats (which happen to be great, natural "lawnmowers"), and will offer credit courses in which students would study local history and create new material for History Alive.

Next year, the group plans to open an exhibit on the first floor of Old Town Hall to illustrate Salem history from the 17th to the 20th century, including the construction of Pioneer Village in 1930.

"The more I researched it, the more inspired I was by the Salem community's effort to create this," Stevick said as she walked through the property yesterday. "It was during the Great Depression, and that community spirit and level of commitment is a story that should be told — and preserved."

Want to go?

Pioneer Village

What: Folkways: A day in the life of early colonists

When: Open daily 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., History Alive performances run Friday through Tuesday

Where: Forest River Park, off West Avenue

Admission: $9, $8 for students/seniors, free for children under 6

Transportation: Ticket includes a Salem Trolley ride between Pioneer Village and downtown Salem

More information: Visit www.gordon.edu/historyalive or go to the box office at Old Town Hall, 32 Derby Square.