The Platts-Bradstreet House, Rowley
The 1677 Platts-Bradstreet House is located on Rt.1A, 233 Main St. in Rowley, maintained, operated and home to the Rowley Historical Society.
Historic Ipswich
The Ipswich Historical Commission acts to preserve the history and historical assets of the Town of Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Portraits of Ipswich People Who Told the Truth
As part of this month’s Ipswich celebration of Americans Who Tell the Truth, the first floor of the Ipswich Town Hall is displaying portraits of local people who have affected change by telling the truth. Read about them by clicking on the captions. […]
Americans Who Tell the Truth
Americans Who Tell the Truth – A group of local residents is bringing Robert Shetterly’s inspiring project, Americans Who Tell the Truth, Models of Courageous Citizenship, to Ipswich in July 2019. View the schedule of events .
The Old Town Landings and Wharfs
Many a pleasant sail down the river are in the memories of William J. Barton. “These were the names of the places and flats along the Ipswich River before my time, and familiar to me during my time. They were used by the fishermen and clammers. I know. I was one of them. It was the happiest time of my life.”
When Herring Were Caught by Torchlight
In the late 19th Century, most of the men around the river would look forward to “herringing” when fall arrived. The foot of Summer Street was the best landing. One year so many herring were caught, they were dumped in the Parker River, and Herring did not return for many years.
The Grand Old Fourth
“The night before the Fourth of July, thousands of people were milling up and down Central and Market Streets and Depot Square. Every man and boy carried a revolver and shot off blank cartridges as fast as they could re-load. “At five o’clock on the morning of the Fourth, the sexton of the Methodist Church could open up the doors and let in the boys ring the church bell for an hour. Then came the parade.”
This Old House visits the Ipswich 1634 Meadery
Kevin O’Connor from This Old House drives to Ipswich and gets a lesson from Dan Clapp in making mead.
Jane Hooper, the fortune-teller
Jane Hooper was in 1760 a Newburyport “school dame” but after she lost that job she found fame as a fortune-teller. When the Madame made her yearly visit to Ipswich, the young and the old called on her to learn of their fates.
Gathering Salt Marsh Hay
Salt marsh hay is still gathered on the North Shore today. The grass that grows between the upland and the marsh is cut. Traditionally the hay was stacked on staddles to raise it above the high tides.
How the Irish Made Their Mark in New England
From the New England Historical Society: Over 50,000 men, women, and children of Irish descent were forcibly transported to British imperial colonies to serve as indentured labor. By 1790, there were 400,000 Americans of Irish birth or ancestry out of a population of 3.9 million.
Help update the Ipswich Community Development Plan
The Town of Ipswich is updating the Town’s Community Development Plan (CDP), a long-range plan to guide the community’s physical evolution. The Town would like your input to help determine goals and priorities.
County Street, Sawmill Point, and bare hills
The town voted in 1861 to build County Street and its stone arch bridge, connecting Cross and Mill Streets. A Woolen mill, saw mill, blacksmith shop and veneer mill operated near the bridge.
The Cape Ann Sea Serpent
The earliest recorded sighting of a Sea Serpent in North American waters was at Cape Ann in 1639. In 1817, reports spread throughout New England of a sea serpent sighted in Gloucester Harbor.
The Town Wharf
The Ipswich Town Landing is one of several locations along the River where wharves were located over the centuries.
Ipswich Pillow lace
In the late eighteenth century, Ipswich had 600 women and girls producing more than 40,000 yards of lace annually. In the 1820’s Ipswich industrialists opened a factory and imported machines from England to mechanize and speed up the operation, which destroyed the hand-made lace industry.
The Ipswich jail
The second jail in the Colony was erected in Ipswich in 1656. Sixteen British prisoners were kept hostage in the cold and cruel stone jail during the War of 1812. A large brick House of Corrections was constructed in 1828 at the site of the present Town Hall on Green Street.
Ipswich Manning house at the MFA
The frame of a 1692 house that once stood at the intersection of Manning and High Streets in Ipswich is on display in the “Art of the Americas” wing at the Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Homes of the Appletons
Appleton Farms was gifted to the Trustees of Reservations by Francis and Joan Appleton in 1998. Originally granted to Ipswich settler Samuel Appleton, it is the oldest continuously operating farm in America. The farm continued in family ownership for seven generations, and the extended family built homes along Waldingfield Rd. and the nearby vicinity.
