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
Remarks by Ipswich Historical Commission chairman John Fiske, on accepting the 2014 Community Service Award from the Ipswich Democratic Town Committee to the Historical Commission on January 31, 2015
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 […]
The First Church Clock
As the parish records tell us, “A clock purchased by subscription was landed in Ipswich May 29, 1762. The Parish on May 31st voted their readiness to receive it into the steeple of this meeting house and September 16, 1762 they voted to be at the charge of putting it up there.”
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.
