North Shore (Massachusetts)

The North Shore has no fixed definition as a region. It may include only those communities between Boston and Cape Ann, as defined by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (whose purview does not go beyond Greater Boston);[1] or the larger part of Essex County, including parts of the Merrimack Valley, as defined by the North Shore Chamber of Commerce.[2] The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, which defines regions in terms of watershed, refers to the North Shore as the coastal region of Massachusetts north of Boston stretching from Salisbury to Revere, including the inland city of Amesbury.[3]

Economic

Fishing boats in the harbor of Rockport, Massachusetts.

The Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council's North Shore Task Force, a regional planning agency, defines the North Shore as also encompassing Cape Ann and several inland communities. When combined with the North Shore Chamber of Commerce's definition of the region, the North Shore comprises the following cities and towns:

Amesbury Beverly Boxford Danvers Essex Georgetown Gloucester Groveland

Hamilton Haverhill Ipswich Lynn Lynnfield Manchester Marblehead Merrimac

Middleton Nahant Newbury Newburyport Peabody Rockport Rowley Salem

Salisbury Saugus Swampscott Topsfield Wakefield Wenham West Newbury

The North Shore communities have varied and rich histories: Gloucester was America's first fishing community; Salem was the location of the infamous Witch Trials as well as one of the largest centers of shipping and sixth largest city in early America. The hysteria that led to the Witch Trials began in the part of Salem that is now Danvers. Lynn was once the center of the American shoe industry. Saugus is home to the first integrated ironworks in North America. Peabody had the largest concentration of leather tanneries in the world; and Beverly and Marblehead often dispute over which town was the birthplace of the American Navy. Newburyport was well known for producing clipper ships and for a brief time in history was the richest city in the Union; it is also the birthplace of the United States Coast Guard. Newburyport maintains the largest collection of Federal period commercial and residential architecture in the nation.

Market Square in downtown Newburyport, Massachusetts.

• The Peabody Essex Museum – a museum with large collections of maritime artifacts and Asian art.
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Salem, Massachusetts
• The Salem Witch Museum
• Historic Downtown Salem
• The Salem Seaport
• The Saugus Iron Works
• The Swampscott Fish House – the oldest active fish house in the country.
• Newburyport's historic district maintains the nation's largest collection of Federal period architecture
• Historic Gloucester and Rockport Seaports
• North Shore Navigators collegiate-league baseball team
• The North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, New England's largest regional theater
• The Larcom Theatre in Beverly built in 1912 is the oldest, operating Vaudeville theatre in the region, also once home to Le Grand David.
• The Cabot Street Cinema Theatre in Beverly was home to Le Grand David, the world's longest-running resident stage magic show. until 2013.
• Castle Hill in Ipswich
• Revere Beach, the first public beach in the United States, in Revere
• The Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers, the only home of a victim of the Salem witch trials open to the public

• Greater Boston
• Merrimack Valley
• South Shore (Massachusetts)

• Garland, Joseph E., Boston's Gold Coast : the North Shore, 1890-1929, Boston, MA : Little, Brown & Co., 1981.