The South Green Historic District encompasses one of the oldest central civic parts of

Ipswich, Massachusetts Ipswich is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 13,785 at the 2020 census. Home to Willowdale State Forest and Sandy Point State Reservation, Ipswich includes the southern part of Plum Island. A reside ...

. The town's South Green was laid out in 1686, and is now the heart of a collection of historic properties dating from the 17th to the 19th century. The centerpiece of the district is the

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

itself, and its most notable associated property is the

John Whipple House The John Whipple House is a historic colonial house at 1 South Green in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Built in the seventeenth century, the house has been open to the public as a museum since 1899 and was the subject of some of the earliest attempts a ...

, a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

and museum. The district boundaries extend from the junction of South Main and Elm Streets, southward past the green to where County Road ( Massachusetts Route 1A) crosses Saltonstall's Creek. Ipswich voted to establish the South Green in 1686, after which it was used as a common grazing area, and as a training ground for the local militia. It was also the site of Ipswich's earliest school buildings, which even predated the establishment of the green as a common area. The first schoolhouse was built in the area in 1652; it was moved to the Meetinghouse Green in 1704, at which time private education continued in the area. A public school was again introduced to the South Green area in 1794, which became the English High School from 1836 to 1874. Most of the surviving structures in the district are houses. The oldest is the c. 1653 Whipple House, which was moved to the area in the 1930s. The green is flanked by buildings dating through the 19th century, in a variety of styles. The predominant styles are Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival, although there are several later Victorian properties. The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Essex County, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Ipswich, Massachusetts New England town greens

See also

References