The view looking north on State Street from the corner of Essex Street in Newburyport, around 1865-1885. Image courtesy of the New York Public Library.
The scene in 2024:
Located at the mouth of the Merrimack River in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts, Newburyport was a major seaport during the 18th and early 19th centuries. During this time, it prospered from the shipping, fishing, and shipbuilding industries. These two photos show State Street facing toward Market Square in the distance. This was the commercial hub of Newburyport, and the streets around here are lined with brick, three-story commercial buildings that primarily date to the early 19th century. This area suffered a devastating fire in 1811, and many of the buildings that are shown in these photos were built in the immediate aftermath of the fire.
During the second half of the 19th century, Newburyport’s economic prosperity began to decline. Shipping became increasingly concentrated in larger northeastern ports like Boston and New York, although Newburyport continued to be an important shipbuilding center for many years. However, as ships grew larger, and as steamships began replacing sailing vessels, Newburyport’s small harbor became inadequate. For part of the 19th century, the textile industry provided a boost to the local economy, but the city could hardly compete with the much larger water-powered industrial cities farther upstream, such as Lawrence and Lowell.
By the time the top photo was taken, Newburyport’s population stood at about 13,000 people. This was a considerable increase from earlier in the 19th century, but the city would see only very modest growth in future decades. This stagnation was a result of the economic decline of the city, but it also had the unintended effect of preserving much of Newburyport in its early 19th century appearance, as shown in the comparison between these two photos, which has nearly all of the same buildings in both photos, despite the passage of around 140-150 years.
However, Newburyport’s well-preserved downtown area was nearly lost in the 1960s, when it was the subject of a large-scale urban renewal project that would have leveled the early 19th century commercial center in favor of strip malls and parking lots. Thankfully, preservation advocates were successful in having this project scrapped, and instead the State Street area was restored in the 1970s. As a result, Newburyport’s downtown area is now a strong asset to the city, and it survives as a remarkably well-preserved example of an early 19th century New England seaport.