Quick History Stops: Amesbury, MA | Part 2
In the second part of my two-part series on quick history stops in Amesbury, MA, I marched across a training field used during the American Revolutionary War, walked a wooded trail, passed by multiple historic buildings, and visited two monuments.
Training Field Park
Currently managed by Amesbury Recreation, Training Field Park is a militia training ground from the late colonial period. According to a plaque erected by the now-defunct Josiah Bartlett Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, George Washington reviewed the militia on the training field in 1789.
Powder House Conservation Area
A short walk from the Training Field were some of the Amesbury Trails. I hiked through the Powder House Conservation Area, which consisted of twelve acres of woods and a powder house. According to a plaque near its base, this building was constructed at the top of Brown’s Hill in 1810 and stored gunpowder and shot during the War of 1812. Today, the Amesbury Improvement Association (AIA) maintains the site. Significant preservation work is currently needed for the crumbling building.
Alliance Park & Union Congregational Church
As another site maintained by AIA, the current iteration of Alliance Park was restored by the organization in 1920 after a fire in 1918 burned down the original wharf. The park is named after the frigate Alliance, a warship built during 1777 and 1778 at the order of the Continental Congress. The boat was named for the treaty between the young United States and France during the Revolutionary War. According to local legend, the Marquis de Lafayette made three transatlantic voyages on this ship. The boat was part of a squadron commanded by Captain John Paul Jones, whose museum is located in nearby Portsmouth, NH. Also in the park is a plaque “dedicated to the memory of the ship and boat builders on the Powow and Merrimac Rivers” erected as part of the 325th anniversary celebration for the incorporation of Amesbury.
Across the street from Alliance Park is Union Congregational Church, a classic white New England church building constructed in 1835. The church has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2014. Originally called Union Evangelical Church of Salisbury & Amesbury, the first congregation had a female majority, with twenty-one women and six men becoming members.
Bartlett Museum & Cemetery
Down the street from the Mary Baker Eddy Historic House is the Bartlett Museum, a cute two-story building that features exhibits, artifacts, and events about local history. The house was closed for the season during my visit, as its only open between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Across the street from the museum is Bartlett Cemetery, named for Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, although he is buried in Kingston, NH. This cemetery was founded in 1899 and is still open for burials.
Macy-Colby House
Next door to Bartlett Cemetery is Macy-Colby House, named for the builder and the family that lived there. Carpenter Thomas Macy built the house around 1649 as one of the first English colonists in the area. Five years later, in 1654, he sold the house to Anthony Colby. From then on, nine generations of Colbys lived in the house. Macy’s story became even more interesting after he moved. As a Baptist, in contrast to the Puritan leadership, Macy did not follow the restrictive rules set by the church-ruled government. In either 1657 or 1659, he allowed a group of four Quakers to stay in his home for about forty-five minutes during a rainstorm, although Quakers were not allowed indoors in the town. A neighbor snitched to the minister, and the courts fined Macy. By fall of 1659, Macy and his family had enough of local politics and went to Nantucket with the Coffin family, whose Newbury home I visited back in September 2022. Abolitionist poet and Amesbury native, John Greenleaf Whittier, wrote The Exiles in honor of the Macy family, although he suggested that they were banished from the colony, rather than choosing to leave. As for the house, descendent Moses Long Colby donated the house to the town along with land for the cemetery in 1899. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2008.
Golgotha Rock
Located across the street from a small strip mall, Golgotha Rock marks the first burial ground for English colonists in Amesbury and dates from around 1654. This Greek name comes from a pilgrimage site outside of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified, and it means “place of the skull”, although some sources incorrectly gloss the meaning as “a place of great suffering”. A plaque on the memorial lists people whose remains are buried at the otherwise unmarked site, but it also lists Thomas Macy, who is buried on Nantucket, and Edward Cottle, who is likely buried on Martha’s Vineyard. Near the rock memorial is a somewhat dated sign highlighting “Amesbury Treasures”, a list of historic sites in the area. I am pleased to say that I managed to visit all extant sites on the sign!
Doughboy Memorial & Well
In front of Amesbury Middle School is a statue of The Doughboy, which memorializes soldiers from World War I. The original statue was erected in 1929, while it underwent restoration and rededication in 2014. Down the street is The Captain’s Well, which is memorialized in an 1889 John Greenleaf Whittier poem by the same name. An Amesbury native and sixth-generation descendent of Anthony Colby, Captain Valentine Bagley II was stranded on the Arabian coast in 1792 and nearly died of dehydration while walking through the Arabian Desert. Once back in the States, he dug a well so no one in his community would ever be thirsty again. Today, the well is connected to the town water system, providing clean and safe water to his descendents and their neighbors.
Looking for more information about historic places in Amesbury? Here are the other posts from this adventure: