Quick History Stops: Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA | Part 1

In September 2024, I visited places and attended events in Essex National Heritage Area as part of its annual event Trails & Sails. As my first day drew to a close, I made many quick history stops around the town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, so many that this requires a two-part post. The second half of this adventure will appear on Friday. Stops covered in this part include the harbor and train station, library, historic houses, memorials, church, and post office.

The town earns its name in part for its little harbor, which looks stunning at sunset. Plus, New Hampshire and Connecticut also have towns called Manchester, so this eliminated any confusion. The train station near the harbor is now part of the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail. According to The Rail Lines of Southern New England, this stretch of track was originally called the Gloucester Branch, and Manchester-by-the-Sea was a terminus when it first opened in 1847. The railway expanded to include Rockport by 1861. The has long town had a reputation for being fancy, and rich Bostonians could by season passes to visit the area between 1892 and 1920. In 1964, the MBTA was founded and chose Manchester as the farthest northeast point to get money, a decision no doubt aided by the town’s railroad history.

Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library was formed after a series of attempts to share books around the town. A Lyceum Library sprang up around 1830 but closed by 1871, and the books were given to the town. A building was not constructed until 1887, when wealthy Bostonian and summer resident Thomas Jefferson Coolidge dropped a chunk of change on the project. He was indeed related to both third United States President Thomas Jefferson (great-grandson) and thirtieth United States President Calvin Coolidge (sixth cousin twice removed). He hired Charles Follen McKim to design the suitably fancy stone building in the American Beaux-Arts style. McKim had previously redecorated the interior of Governor John Langdon House of Portsmouth, NH in 1877 and had begun work on St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Stockbridge, MA in 1874. After the library in Manchester was complete, he began building the Boston Public Library the next year, last mentioned on this blog during Historic New England Summit 2023 Day 1. McKim’s designs have stood the test of time, as the only addition to the library was the children’s room in 1965. Today, the library is part of Merrimack Valley Library Consortium along with two other libraries featured on this blog, Amesbury Public Library and Newburyport Public Library.

Kimball Block, also known as Smith House, is on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Manchester Village Historic District. According to a plaque on the outside of the building, Captain Augustus Smith and Major Burley Smith constructed the house around 1835, but no other information is available. The building appears to be a tenement or mill worker housing.

Like most small towns, Manchester has its share of memorials. A statue of a World War I soldier stands in uniform with an American flag and a waving hand stands atop a metal and granite pedestal. The soldier proclaims “Lafayette, we are here”, referring to the French aristocrat who convinced his country to aid the young United States during the American Revolutionary War. An inscription on the pillar notes that this memorial was erected by the town in 1931. A plaque for the American Civil War listing all men from Manchester who served was erected near the library in 1928 by the Women’s Relief Corps (WRC). This organization was founded in 1883 as the women’s branch to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and apparently has been in turmoil since 2007, as six national presidents have been dishonorably discharged with no public explanation during that time. Back to Manchester memorials, a newer monument covers all men and women in the armed forces between 1914 and 2019. Its shiny black wall with carved names represents World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, and other conflicts not named there.

The post office of Manchester-by-the-Sea is a little red brick building with a tall white cupola. My favorite feature of the post office was the fallout shelter sign still attached near the main entrance. During the 1960s with the threat of nuclear war, small towns designated public buildings where people could hide. The general public now understands that these shelters would have been useless against a bomb, but they made people feel safe during the Cold War.

First Parish Church, Congregational is like many old churches in this area in that the congregation claims roots in the Mayflower passengers. The current meeting house was built in 1809 based on a design drawn by American architect Asher Benjamin, who specialized in Federal and Greek Revival styles. This was apparently the town’s fourth meeting house, and although I could not find information on what happened to the first three, I imagine a combination of fire, deferred maintenance, and a belief that the congregation would grow much larger than it ever actually did likely led to their demises.

Directly next to the church is the Town Hall, reminding visitors that a 1780 law required all residents of Massachusetts to attend a church, and state funding of churches was not suspended until 1833. The town hall is built in the same Greek Revival style and painted the same white as the church. Not far away is the Manchester-by-the-Sea Museum, which I was not able to go inside but did admire from a distance. Self-made entrepreneur Abigail Hooper (great name) constructed the building in 1823 with her own money at age thirty-five. She later married ship captain Richard Trask and used their combined income to double the size of the house and add a side porch. Unfortunately for the house, their only child Charles Hooper Trask did not want the property after his mother died in 1885. An uncited article on the blog OralHistory.ws noted that Manchester Historical Society got the house in 1925 and restored it between 1933 and 1945, turning it into the museum. Like Kimbell Block, all buildings in this area are on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Manchester Village Historic District.