This opinion piece first appeared on The Townie website on April 14 2026 There’s a familiar rhythm to the current housing debate in Newburyport. On one side, a practical argument, often pitched by developers and many in real estate. Older homes are replaced with newer ones. Values rise. Tax revenues follow. The city benefits. On…
Preservation Month 2026, History, Houses and Help, starts in just over a week! Our first event scheduled for Saturday May 9th. We have lots of great topics and speakers lined up for you: Expert insight from a timber framer, art conservation and restoration techniques, a round-table of old house experts, NBPT Powder House tours, Merrimac…
Reprinted from the Newburyport Daily News on March 14, 2026 NEWBURYPORT — While still months away, folks interested in including their property in this year’s iteration of “If This House Could Talk” are being urged to dive into the story of their home. “The event happens the last week of July, but people really have…
by Elizabeth Harris and Linda Miller At the beginning of the nineteenth century, citizens of Newburyport who fell on hard times relied on a combination of public assistance in the form of incarceration in the poorhouse or jail (if a debtor), or some limited subsidies that paid for some expenses of the truly indigent. One…
A great many Newburyport houses have windows that were installed before the “modern” invention of weights and pulleys and sash cords. A great many of them were fitted with sash buttons that fit into notches on the side of the lower window sash. You push the button in, raise the sash, and release the button…
Due to the efforts of four local researchers and historians, a new informational sign was installed this month at Atwood Park to honor Margaret Atwood, an 18th century Newburyport woman who was an indominable merchant, ship owner, landlord and philanthropist. Posted on the southeast side the park, the sign provides information about Atwood and the…
If This House Could Talk begins on July 26, coinciding with the start of Yankee Homecoming. Homeowners are encouraged to hang a poster to share a story or information about their house or the people who have lived in it. Need inspiration? Read some of the stories from past participants. When Nicholas Lake, a merchant…
The five-unit row house from 5-13 Beck St. is a good example of the multiple-family residences built throughout Newburyport during the prosperity of the textile mills. The James Steam Mills was just a short distance away on Charles Street. Built as an investment property by Sewell B. Noyes in 1877, all units were individually sold…
More than 70 history buffs got the inside scoop on where to look when tracing the background of a historic house on Thursday, Feb. 20 at the Museum of Old Newbury. Longtime researcher Ellie Bailey, who researches old houses for the Newburyport Preservation Trust’s historic house plaque program, kicked off the presentation of “Researching Your…
If you ask people what they know about the history of the Pink House, you may hear the story of it being a “spite house” – a replica of a house built on a forsaken piece of land as part of a nasty divorce settlement. The complete story, while still unseemly, is a bit more complex and has been corroborated by two independent research efforts.
