Fences Make Good Neighbors
Just three years after the town of Ipswich was incorporated, each household had its own fenced lot within the town, and the town itself was fenced off from the rest of the world. Boundaries matter.
John Fiske
Chair, Ipswich Historical Commission, antiques dealer in 17th century material
The Fox Creek Canal
The Fox Creek Canal provided the missing link between the forests of New Hampshire and the shipyards of Essex. Lumber boats would sail down the Merrimack to Newburyport, cruise south along the landward-side of Plum Island and reach the Ipswich River without ever having to go on the ocean, then take the canal to the Castle Neck River to Essex Bay.
To live locally
“You can’t ask for anything more ‘local’ than that,” was my thought as I was writing this story about Tyler Fahey’s, restoration of Glover’s Mill and his family house. His was built for one of his ancestors around 1700, and has never been sold!
To secure a competence
The following remarks were made by the Ipswich Historical Commission chairman John Fiske, on accepting the 2014 Community Service Award from the Ipswich Democratic Town Committee on January 31, 2015: As Chair of the Ipswich Historical Commission, I know how pleased and proud we all are that you […]
The APD: A balance between the community and the individual
Ipswich got the balance between the community and the individual just about right when it decided to preserve its historic district.
The Old Tann Flats
This article first appeared in the September 2013 Antiques Journal. We have a dear friend who has moved three or four times since we’ve known her. And each time, she and her husband have bought or built a new house. As she said to us once, “I can’t […]
Abraham Knowlton, “Workman of rare skill”
Ipswich is home to two groundbreaking masterworks of early eighteenth century America, a paneled wall and a pulpit. Both were made by Abraham Knowlton (1699- 1751), a woodworker who is less well known than he deserves to be. William Knowlton, born in England in 1615, was the first of the family to settle […]
Properly Seated
February 17, Wednesday Evening Lecture, 7:30pm Properly Seated: Two Centuries of Chairs in the Ipswich Museum From the Whipples to the Heards, from the Pilgrim settlement to industrial America, chairs trace the history of domestic life in Ipswich and New England. Drawing upon examples in the Ipswich Museum’s […]
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