Macy-Colby House

The Macy-Colby House is a historically significant Eighteenth Century saltbox located at 257 Main Street in Amesbury. Original construction was in 1654 by Thomas Macy, a merchant who served as Amesbury's first Town Clerk. A few years later, Macy was forced to leave town, after he allowed a group of Quakers to take shelter in his home for a few hours, during a thunderstorm, "Harboring Quakers" was considered a criminal offense.



Following Macy's departure the house was acquired by prominent Amesbury citizen Anthony Colby. Around 1712, the original house built by Macy was torn down. By 1745 the saltbox style house that exists today was completed by Obadiah Colby. The house remained in the Colby family for nine generations, and was used as a private residence by Colby's descendants until 1958, after which time it was acquired by the Daughters of the Revolution, which owned it up until 2000. The Friends of the Macy-Colby House now maintain the house as a museum.

http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/1161069

Lowell's Boat Shop

Lowell's Boat Shop is a National Historic Landmark at 459 Main Street in Amesbury. Built in 1793 by Simeon Lowell, it continues to build dories and skiffs as a working boat shop and museum.

Within the boat shop’s buildings, located on the banks of the Merrimack River, remain such interesting historic features as ancient ship’s knees and heavily worn floorboards with two centuries of accumulated paint. The oldest buildings remaining on the site are combined Greek Revival structures that were built in the 1860s. Lowell’s Boat Shop is a rare existing example of an early American industry of the Merrimack River Valley.

http://www.lowellsboatshop.com/

Josiah Bartlett Museum

The Josiah Bartlett Museum is located at 270 Main Street in Amesbury, occupying an 1870 Italianate schoolhouse named after Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.



The museum's collections include items related Amesbury's carriage industry, as well as maps, and artifacts related to local history, including Native American activities. A substantial number of taxidermic birds, as well as fossils, minerals and shells are included in the museum's natural history collection and the museum recreates a 19th century schoolroom with antique school desks, children's games, and toys. Also on display is the recently added "Amesbury At War" exhibit.

http://bartlettmuseum.org/

John Greenleaf Whittier House

The John Greenleaf Whittier Home is a historic house located at 86 Friend Street in Amesbury. It was the home of American poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier from 1836 until his death in 1892, and now operates as a museum.

Whittier moved to this house in 1836, where he lived with his mother, aunt, and sister Eliza. Whittier wrote most of his poetry and prose in this house, including his classic "Snow Bound" written in the Garden Room. During his 56 year residence, he enlarged the house several times, raising the original building at the left up and adding another story, then adding the section to the right. The house and its furnishings essentially unchanged from the poet's death, including living rooms, bedroom, and Whittier's writing study with all its furnishings.

http://www.essexheritage.org/sites/amesbury_whittier-home.shtml

Amesbury Friends Meeting House

The Amesbury Friends Meetinghouse is a Friends Meeting House in Amesbury at 120 Friend Street. The building was constructed in 1850, with poet John Greenleaf Whittier serving on the building committee. The facing bench displays a small plaque that reads, "Whittier's Bench." The meetinghouse still hosts an active Quaker congregation, the Amesbury Friends Meeting. In 2002, the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

http://www.fgcquaker.org/connect/fall99/8.html

John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead

The John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead, located at 305 Whittier Road in Haverhill, is the birthplace and home of American Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier. The property, built in 1688 by Thomas Whittier, pioneer and great-great-grandfather of John Greenleaf Whittier, now operates as a museum.

John Greenleaf Whittier was born in 1807 in the southwest parlor of the farm house, which today remains essentially unchanged. The homestead is the setting for his well-known narrative poem "Snow-Bound", published in 1866. Whittier also set many of his other poems in the Haverhill area, including "Fernside Brook", "The Barefoot Boy", and "The Sycamores".

Whittier lived in the home for 29 years, before moving to Amesbury.

http://www.johngreenleafwhittier.com

Rocky Hill Meeting House

The Rocky Hill Meeting House (circa 1785) is a New England meeting house located at 4 Old Portsmouth Road, Amesbury. It is the best preserved example of an original 18th century meeting house interior in New England. Now a nonprofit museum operated by Historic New England, the Rocky Hill Meeting House is open to the public several afternoons a year.

http://www.historicnewengland.org/visit/homes/rocky.htm