High Street

An almost-unbroken mile of Federal-era sea captains' mansions

The pulled-back avenue that runs the length of the city, parallel to the Merrimack at a quarter-mile remove from the waterfront. For roughly a mile from Pleasant Street out to the High Street Cemetery, the road is lined on both sides with Federal and Greek Revival houses built between 1790 and 1840 by shipbuilders, ship captains, and the merchants whose vessels traded with Canton and Calcutta.

Most of the houses are private; the Cushing House Museum is one of the few open to the public. A slow walk in either direction is the single best thing to do in Newburyport. Look for the carved Federal door surrounds — fan-lights, swags, urn-and-vine reliefs — that local craftsmen made their specialty.

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A story
When Andrew Jackson visited Newburyport in 1833 he was driven down High Street and pronounced it the handsomest avenue he had seen in America — which was both flattery and an accurate observation: even by the standards of the time, the density of grand houses on a single street was remarkable.

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