Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A residential community with a vibrant tourism industry, the town is famous for its clams, celebrated annually at the Ipswich Chowderfest, and for Crane Beach, a barrier beach near the Crane estate. Ipswich was incorporated as a town in 1634.
The House of the Seven Gables is a 1668 colonial mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, named for its gables. It was made famous by Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1851 novel The House of the Seven Gables. The house is now a non-profit museum, with an admission fee charged for tours, as well as an active settlement house with programs for children. It was built for Captain John Turner by Samuel Wardwell and stayed with the family for three generations.
Castle Hill is a 56,881 sq ft (5,284.4 m2) Tudor Revival mansion in Ipswich, Massachusetts built 1926-1928 as a summer home for Mr. and Mrs. Richard Teller Crane, Jr. It is also the name of the 165-acre (67 ha) drumlin surrounded by sea and salt marsh the home was built atop. Both are part of the 2,100-acre (850 ha) Crane Estate located on Argilla Road. The estate includes a historic mansion, 21 outbuildings, and landscapes overlooking Ipswich Bay, on the seacoast off Route 1, north of Boston. Its name derives from a promontory in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, from which many early Massachusetts Bay Colony settlers immigrated.
The John Whipple House is a historic colonial house at 1 South Green in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Built in the seventeenth century, the house has been open to the public as a museum since 1899 and was the subject of some of the earliest attempts at the preservation of colonial houses. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960, one of the earliest properties to receive that honor.
The Edwin Abbot House, also known as the Zabriskie House, is an historic house at 27 Garden Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Built in 1889 to a design by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow, it is a prominent local example of residential Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. It has served as the principal building of the Longy School since 1937. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and included in the Follen Street Historic District in 1986.
The Brown House is a historic First Period house in Hamilton, Massachusetts. Built in the 1660s or 1670s, it is one of the oldest surviving houses in Essex County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The Dr. John Calef House is a historic house at 7 Poplar Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It is a well-preserved example of a First Period house with high-quality Georgian modifications. The core of the house was built c. 1671 by Deacon Thomas Knowlton, who purchased the land on which it originally stood on South Main Street in that year. It was subsequently altered in the middle of the 18th century, acquiring its present Georgian styling. In the 1770s the house was owned by noted Loyalist John Calef. It was acquired in 1777 by John Heard, who moved the house to its present location in order to build a more elaborate Federalist house on the site.
The Chestnut Street District is a historic district bounded roughly by Bridge, Lynn, Beckford, and River Streets in Salem, Massachusetts. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and enlarged slightly in 1978. The district contains a number of architecturally significant works of Samuel McIntire, a builder and woodworker who had a house and workshop at 31 Summer Street, and who designed and built a number of these houses, and others that display the profits made in the Old China Trade by Salem's merchants. The district is a subset of a larger locally designated McIntire Historic District.
The East End Historic District encompasses the historic eastern portion of central Ipswich, Massachusetts. The now predominantly residential district is bounded on the north and west by East Street, running from its junction with North Main and High Streets to Jeffrey's Neck Road. The eastern boundary includes the Ipswich River and Turkey Shore Road from its junction with Labor-in-Vain Road to Green Street, and the southern boundary runs along Green Street to North Main. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Nathaniel Felton Houses are a pair of historic houses at 43 and 47 Felton Street in Peabody, Massachusetts. The Peabody Historical Society owns and operates the homes as historic house museums.
The Heard-Lakeman House is a historic house at 2 Turkey Shore Road in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Nathaniel and John Heard built this 2+1⁄2-story wood-frame house in 1776 for Nathaniel to live in. He sold it in 1795 to Richard Lakeman III, member of a seafaring family. The house is notable for an extremely large chimney with an arched foundation over 11 feet (3.4 m) long, which supports two large fireplaces. The building was a notable object of restoration during the Colonial Revival in the 1920s.
The High Street Historic District is a predominantly residential historic district in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It encompasses the oldest section of High Street, which was laid out when Ipswich was founded in 1633. The district runs for four blocks from the junction with Town Farm Road and the railroad right-of-way in the west, to North Main Street in the east. The street was for several centuries part of the principal thoroughfare through the town, but became sidelined by the construction of Central Street in 1871, which bypassed traffic off most of this stretch of High Street.
Meetinghouse Green Historic District encompasses the historic 17th century heart of Ipswich, Massachusetts. The district runs along North Main Street, south from its junction with High Street to the southern end of the Meetinghouse Green. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Ipswich Mills Historic District encompasses a major textile mill complex and associated worker housing along the Ipswich River near the center of Ipswich, Massachusetts. The district includes the factories of the Ipswich Mill Company, and several blocks of modest worker cottages mostly on side streets off Estes and Kimball Streets. The site had been used as for mills since the 17th century, and was purchased by the Ipswich Mill Company in 1868. Mill worker housing was built surrounding the complex through the early 20th century, when River Court, Peatfield Street, and 1st through 6th Streets were laid out. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The Topsfield Town Common District encompasses the historic town common and surrounding buildings in Topsfield, Massachusetts. The common, established by 1650, is the traditional civic and religious center of the town, and is surrounded by houses dating from the 17th to 20th centuries, the town hall, library, and Congregational church. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
The Wade House is a historic house in Ipswich, Massachusetts. The 1+1⁄2-story gambrel-roofed central chimney house was built in 1792 by Francis Merrifield, Jr. It was acquired in 1827 by Mary Wade, daughter of local Revolutionary War soldier Nathaniel Wade. It has been in the Wade family since then. The house originally had two rooms downstairs and two upstairs; the rear of the house was added in two stages. A number of period details survive, including the central staircase and paneled doors. Fragments of period wallpaper have also been preserved, and reproduction wallpaper has been used in one of the downstairs rooms.
The C.H. Brown Cottage is a historic house at 34 Wright Street in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Probably built in the 1830s, it is a well-preserved example of worker housing built for employees of local shoe factories. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Jonas Cowdry House is a historic house at 61 Prospect Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built c. 1833, the Federal style wood-frame house is three bays wide and four deep, a significant local variant to conventional Federal style architecture. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Nathaniel Cowdry House is a historic house at 71 Prospect Street in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Built about 1764, it is one of Wakefield's oldest buildings, built by a member of the locally prominent Cowdry family, who were early settlers. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
The Chapman-Hall House is a historic house museum at 270 Main Street in Damariscotta, Maine. Built in 1754 by one of the area's first permanent white settlers, it is the oldest standing house in the town, and one of the oldest in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
