Newbury Historic District

Description and history

The town of Newbury was incorporated in 1635, with the original town center located around the Lower Green, about 2-1/2 miles to the south, on the banks of the Parker River. The present upper green was laid out in 1642 as a militia training ground, and became the new center of the town (which then included both Newburyport and West Newbury). The first meetinghouse was built in 1646 on a site at the green's northwest corner, where subsequent churches stood until the present 1869 First Parish Church was built across High Road. The First Parish Cemetery was also laid out in 1646, and is where many of Newbury's early settlers are buried. The green was used as an encampment side during the American Revolutionary War by forces under the command of Benedict Arnold, en route to Quebec in 1775.

The historic district is bounded on the south by the upper green, and the buildings that face it on High Road, Green Street, and Hanover Street. It then extends northward along High Road to the present town line with Newburyport (separated from Newbury in 1764). Most of the buildings in the district are residential wood frame structures. Notable among these are the Swett-Ilsley House and the Coffin House, two 17th-century houses that are now museum properties of Historic New England. The district also includes Newbury's town hall (c. 1935) and the 1898 Woodbridge School, built on the homesite of the town's first schoolteacher, John Woodbridge.

References

References

1. {{NRISref. 2008a
2. "NRHP nomination for Newbury Historic District". Commonwealth of Massachusetts.