The North Shore is a region in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, loosely defined as the sea coast between

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. Its counterpart is the South Shore region extending south and east of Boston. The North Shore is a significant historical, cultural, and economic region of Massachusetts. The southern North Shore includes historic towns that are now part of the Boston metropolis. The

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Not everyone wh ...

took place here. At the northern end, the

Merrimack Valley The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those ...

was an important center of the

Industrial Revolution in the United States In the United States from the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution affected the economy of the United States, U.S. economy, progressing it from manual labor, farm labor and handicraft work, to a greater degree of industrializa ...

. The North Shore includes a number of places that are significant in the literary and cultural history of the United States. The North Shore landscape includes seaports, fishing villages, and rocky coastline dotted with marshes and wetlands, as well as beaches and natural harbors.

Cape Ann Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns of Essex, Man ...

is the largest promontory.

Definition

The North Shore has no fixed definition as a region. It may include only those communities between Boston and

, as defined by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (whose purview does not go beyond

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...

); or the larger part of Essex County, including parts of the

, as defined by the North Shore Chamber of Commerce. The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, which defines regions in terms of

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

, refers to the North Shore as the coastal region of Massachusetts north of Boston stretching from

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

to Revere, including the inland city of

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settl ...

Coastal

North Shore of Massachusetts could be taken to mean the entire coast of Massachusetts from New Hampshire to Boston (listed in order, north-to-south): *

Newburyport Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The m ...

* Newbury *

Rowley Rowley may refer to: Places Canada * Rowley, Alberta, a hamlet * Rowley Island, Nunavut United Kingdom * Rowley, County Durham, a hamlet - see Rowley railway station (England) * Rowley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, a village and civil par ...

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

* Rockport *

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

* Manchester-by-the-Sea * Beverly * Danvers * Peabody * Salem * Marblehead * Swampscott *

Nahant Nahant () is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,334 at the 2020 census, which makes it the smallest municipality by population in Essex County. With just of land area, it is also the smallest municipali ...

* Lynn * Saugus * Revere * Winthrop

Economic

The Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council's North Shore Task Force, a regional planning agency, defines the North Shore as also encompassing

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: *

* Beverly * Boxford * Danvers *

* Georgetown *

* Groveland *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

* Haverhill *

* Lynn * Lynnfield * Manchester-by-the-Sea * Marblehead * Merrimac * Middleton *

* Newbury *

* Peabody * Rockport *

* Salem *

* Saugus * Swampscott * Topsfield *

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

* Wenham * West Newbury

Cultural

The North Shore has historically been viewed as a wealthy, exclusive collection of towns and fishing villages, but also contains some working-class cities and suburbs of Boston. In 1893, ''The New York Times'' described the region as a notable summer destination for the socialites, politicians, and businessmen of New York and New England, dotted with hotels, cottages, and burgeoning gentlemen's clubs. Salem, known worldwide as the location of the

; the working-class fishing city of Gloucester; and the region's many beaches make it a popular tourist destination.

History

The North Shore communities have varied and rich histories:

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 A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. Though the human foot can adapt to varied terrains and climate conditions, it is vulnerable, and shoes provide protection. Form was originally tied to function, but ...

industry. Saugus is home to the first integrated ironworks in North America. Peabody had the largest concentration of

tanneries Tanning may refer to: *Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather *Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun **Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dye t ...

in the world; and Beverly and Marblehead often dispute over which town was the birthplace of the American Navy.

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 The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

. Newburyport maintains the largest collection of Federal period commercial and residential architecture in the nation.

Sites of interest

* The

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and th ...

: A museum with large collections of maritime artifacts and Asian art. *

National Register of Historic Places listings in Salem, Massachusetts This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Salem, Massachusetts. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Salem, Massachusetts, United Sta ...

* The

Salem Witch Museum The Salem Witch Museum is a history museum located at 19 1/2 Washington Square North in downtown Salem, Massachusetts across from Salem Common. The museum features a display of artifacts and archived information pertaining to the Salem Wi ...

* Historic Downtown Salem * The Salem Seaport * The

Saugus Iron Works Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site is a National Historic Site about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of Downtown Boston in Saugus, Massachusetts. It is the site of the first integrated ironworks in North America, founded by John Wint ...

* The Swampscott Fish House: The oldest active fish house in the country. *

's historic district maintains the nation's largest collection of Federal period architecture * Historic

and Rockport Seaports *

North Shore Navigators The North Shore Navigators are a wooden-bat, collegiate summer baseball team based in Lynn, Massachusetts, playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). The team plays home games at Fraser Field in Lynn. The team is owned by ...

collegiate-league baseball team * The

North Shore Music Theatre North Shore Music Theatre is the largest operating regional theater in New England. It is located in Beverly, Massachusetts and is one of the few remaining theatre-in-the-round stages left in the United States. The theater is owned by Massachuse ...

in Beverly, New England's largest

regional theater In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

* 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 A stage illusion is a large-scale magic trick. As the name implies, stage illusions are distinct from other types of magic in that they are performed a considerable distance away from the audience, usually on a stage, in order to maintain the illu ...

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

open to the public

Definition

Coastal

Economic

Cultural

History

Sites of interest

See also

References

Further reading