It was just last month the Newburyport Preservation Trust presented our annual awards for local preservation efforts. Here’s Ken Jackman, who along with his wife Kristen Jackman, received an award for the historic restoration of the slate roof on their home at 114 State St., Newburyport. That’s a semi-birdseye view of the house on the screen.
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.
The house on the north corner of Olive and Russia Streets in Newburyport, 22 Olive Street, is a classic example of mid-19th-century architecture. It is a substantial two-story brick house originally built by Moody Pearson in 1838 for his family of eight. Moody Pearson started his career selling fish, wheat, wood, and vegetables on John…
Researching the history of Newburyport homes often leads to the discovery of interesting facts that provide a deeper understanding of our city’s development. An analysis of Deacon Joshua Beck’s will of 1747 more clearly defines a three-and-a-half acre parcel of land on the south side of Newburyport including most of Beck and School Streets. Deacon…
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…
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…
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…
