Prides Crossing is a neighborhood of the city of

Beverly, Massachusetts Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Sho ...

in the North Shore region. It is bordered to the east by

Beverly Farms Beverly Farms is a neighborhood comprising the eastern part of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts, in the state's North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore region, approximately 20 miles north of Boston. Beverly Farms is an oceanfront community wi ...

, and to the west by the Beverly Cove areas of Beverly.

History

The name is associated with John Pride – supposedly a nephew of

Thomas Pride Thomas Pride, 1606/1608 to 23 October 1658, was a brewer and political activist from Somerset who fought for Parliament during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He is best known for being one of the regicides of Charles I, and the instigator o ...

– who was granted land in the area in 1636. In the late 1800s and early 1900s grand mansions were built as summer "cottages' for wealthy business magnates.

Henry Clay Frick Henry Clay Frick (December 19, 1849 – December 2, 1919) was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company and played a major ...

, who made his fortune in steel (Carnegie Steel) was among the best known of these summer residents. He built "Eagle Rock", located between Hale Street and the Atlantic Ocean. Edward Carelton Swift, at one time the owner of the largest meat packing operation in the U.S. built a mansion, "Swiftmoor" on Paine Avenue in Prides Crossing. Eleonora "Eleo" Sears, a flamboyant female socialite and world class tennis player, owned a residence that still exists where Paine Avenue and

West Beach West Beach may refer to: ;Australia *West Beach, South Australia * West Beach, Western Australia ;United States * West Beach (Santa Barbara), California * West Beach, Beverly, Massachusetts ;South Africa * West Beach, Western Cape See also *''Wes ...

meet. Wealthy residents were known to travel to Prides Crossing in their

private railroad car A private railroad car, private railway coach, private car, or private varnish is a railroad Passenger railroad car, passenger car either originally built or later converted for service as a business car for private individuals. A private car cou ...

s, disembarking at the Prides Crossing station, located on Hale Street across from the entrance gates to Paine Avenue. (Some, including Frick and Moore, had private sidings for their cars.)

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's (MBTA's) transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track on 12 lines to 142 stations. It ...

service to the station lasted until 2020; the structure was converted to commercial use decades prior. On August 11, 1981, a Boston & Maine passenger train operated for the ''

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

'' collided head-on with a Boston & Maine freight train near Prides Crossing, killing four people.

Notable former residents

Frederick Ayer Frederick Ayer (December 8, 1822 – March 14, 1918) was an American businessman and the younger brother of patent medicine tycoon James Cook Ayer. Early life Ayer was born on December 8, 1822, in Ledyard, Connecticut, and was the son of F ...

, industrialist *

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (November 5, 1830 – September 3, 1893) was a French-American military officer who served in the United States Army and later in the French Army. He was a member of the American branch of the House of Bonaparte. Ea ...

, French-American military officer *

, steel magnate *

William Loeb III William Loeb III (December 26, 1905 – September 13, 1981) was an American newspaper publisher. He is remembered for his unyieldingly conservative political views, which helped made the ''Manchester Union Leader'' of Manchester, New Hampshire, on ...

, newspaper publisher known for conservative views *

Alice Roosevelt Longworth Alice Lee Roosevelt Longworth (February 12, 1884 – February 20, 1980) was an American writer and socialite. She was the eldest child of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt and his only child with his first wife, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt. Lo ...

, writer and socialite *Loring family: **Augustus Peabody Loring Jr. (1885–1951), legal writer ** Charles Greely Loring III (1881–1966), architect based in Boston, son of the Civil War general ** Charles Greely Loring Jr. (1828–1902), Union Army general during the Civil War, later director of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts ** Charles Greely Loring Sr. (1794–1867), lawyer and politician based in Boston, father of the Civil War general **

Katharine Peabody Loring Katharine Peabody Loring Royal Red Cross, RRC (May 21, 1849 – August 16, 1943) was an American educator. She was head of the history department at the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, the first correspondence school in the United States, wh ...

(1849–1943), historian ** William Loring (1851–1930), Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice * William Henry Moore, judge and financier *

Norman Prince Norman Prince (August 31, 1887 – October 15, 1916) was an American aviator and leading founder of France's Lafayette Escadrille. Biography He was born on August 31, 1887, in Beverly, Massachusetts. He was son of Frederick Henry Prince. ...

, co-founder of the

Lafayette Escadrille The La Fayette Escadrille () was the name of the French Air Force unit escadrille N 124 during the First World War (1914–1918). This escadrille of the History of the Armée de l'Air (1909–1942)#World War I (1914–1918), ''Aéronautique Mil ...

Richard D. Sears Richard Dudley Sears (October 26, 1861 – April 8, 1943) was an American tennis player, who won the US National Championships singles in its first seven years, from 1881 to 1887, and the doubles for six years from 1882 to 1887, after which he ...

, tennis playerRichard Sears
. International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. Retrieved 15 May 2011. * Edwin C. Swift, industrialist

References

*Wright, John Hardy (2000). Images of America, Beverly (Paperback ed.)Charlestown S.C. Arcadia.

External links

Beverly Farms- Prides Crossing WebsiteHistory of Beverly Farms, Primary research, Neighborhoods of Beverly
{{Coord, 42, 33, 33.68, N, 70, 49, 31.72, W, region:US-MA_type:landmark, display=title Geography of Essex County, Massachusetts Beverly, Massachusetts