County Street is in the Ipswich Architectural Preservation District and has some of the oldest houses in town. The section between East and Summer Streets was originally called Cross St, and the section between the County Street bridge and Poplar Street was known as Mill St. The roads were connected when the County Street Bridge was constructed in 1861. It continues as County Road beyond the South Green.

Sawmill Point

When the County street bridge was built in 1860 it joined together Cross and Mill streets, which then became County street, and completely obliterated “Falls Island” which stood in the middle of the river and had always been a busy center of industry since Robert Calef built the first grist mill in 1715. Fulling, saw, grist and woolen mills flourished along with the several small enterprises across the street: saw, box and veneer mills. In time the mill burned down, the smaller mills closed their doors, and all that’s left to remind us of that long ago time are the three small houses, facing Elm street, and standing more or less on what was Fall’s Island.
















We live at 23 County St at the corner of Green St. Our understanding is that this house was originally built by the Caldwell family, the same family that the Caldwell block downtown is named for and the nursing home across the street was named for.
Thank you Sandra, I began a post this morning about your house, at https://historicipswich.org/j-caldwell-house-25-county-st/