Newburyport's distinctive landscape features — rivers, hills, meadows and tidal flats — were instrumental in shaping the history of the community from the earliest Native American use of the land to the present day.

The Merrimack River was an important Native American transportation route and fishing ground. During the Contact period (1500-1620) the Newburyport area was inhabited by members of the Pawtucket group (also called Penacook) who were found in coastal areas from Massachusetts Bay north to York, Maine. In the 1630s English settlers established the town of Newbury on the Parker River, with an agricultural economy based on the rich meadows and marshes of the Merrimack estuary. Soon, however, entrepreneurs were drawn to the Merrimack River to build a waterside settlement that became a fishing and trading center. By the 1640s, the first of several ferries connected this waterside section of Newbury on the south side of the Merrimack to Salisbury on the north, an important link on the main route from Boston to Portsmouth and Maine. Captain Paul White built the first wharf in 1655. By 1660, shipbuilding was an established industry and, by the end of the century, the town enjoyed a brisk trade with the West Indies and Europe. As wharves and shipyards proliferated, the town set aside “Wayes to the Water” to ensure public access forever. In 1764, the port section of the community broke off from Newbury to become Newburyport. The town continued to grow in the years leading up to the American Revolution with trade, shipbuilding and related industries providing the economic base. Privateering during the Revolution and renewed maritime trade after it fueled the city’s economy, sparking unprecedented building activity, including many of the large Federal style houses still found along High Street and elsewhere throughout the city. In 1811, a catastrophic fire leveled the downtown. That event, together with trade embargoes leading up to the War of 1812, the silting of the harbor, and the diversion of New Hampshire goods to Boston by the Middlesex Canal, resulted in the city’s economic decline. Ironically, the 1811 fire led to stringent fire safety codes, which have helped to preserve the downtown.

Improved transportation systems played a significant role in the 19th century. Ferry boats crossed the Merrimack until the end of the 18th century when the first Essex Merrimac Bridge (to Amesbury) and the Newburyport Bridge (to Salisbury) replaced ferries across the Merrimack. The Newburyport Turnpike, Newburyport’s answer to the Middlesex Canal, was laid out in 1804, connecting State Street directly with Boston. The Eastern Railroad arrived in Newburyport in 1840. In 1851, the town became a city and annexed the fishing community of Joppa downriver and the shipbuilding area of Belleville upriver. Pride in this status led to the construction of new civic buildings, monuments and parks. At the same time, new steam-powered mills provided a financial boost to the city. Many of the large brick mill buildings that exist today were built in this period. While the West Indies trade and shipbuilding declined, the city remained the commercial center for the surrounding towns.

By the early 20th century, Newburyport had gone into another decline that lasted past mid-century. In the 1950s, construction of Route 95 provided faster access to and from Newburyport, while rail service declined. In the 1960s, the city launched an urban renewal project, which, after portions of the waterfront and downtown were leveled, was turned by popular protest into a restoration project in the 1970s, restoring the decaying downtown and waterfront to a lively commercial center again. Today, Newburyport is a community of 17,500 that places high value on its natural and historic resources and is concerned about the impact of growth on community character.

From Newburyport Reconnaisance Report, Essex County Landscape Inventory, Massachusetts Heritage Landscape Inventory Program (pdf document)