Abby Epplett, Historian

During my trip to the North Shore, I visited quick history stops and trails in Essex County, Massachusetts. On two occasions, I walked along the Topsfield Linear Common (TLC) , which includes a rail trail, pedestrian bridges, peaceful water, and a model solar system. With a stone dust path and plenty of parking areas, this trail is accessible to all.

During my trips to the North Shore several weeks ago, I visited many historic sites and took plenty of hikes. One of my stops was at Cedar Pond Wildlife Sanctuary in Wenham, MA. The scenic walking area is 158 acres (0.64 km sq) in size and is managed by Mass Audubon along with belonging to the Eastern Essex County Interior Forest Important Bird Area. Besides beautiful scenery and accessible pathways, the grounds contain the ruins of a mansion whose presence is more mysterious that it first seems.

The Lord of the Rings was originally written as an exercise in speculative linguistics, and Tolkien scholars enjoy discussing the invented languages, unique words, and antiquated concepts found in the text. Of the many words and phrases that may bring discomfort to the modern reader because of the evolution of language and changing social attitudes is one of Sam’s favorite words: master. While a thesaurus might list “boss” or “manager” as synonyms, “master” connotates feudalism in Europe and slavery in the Americas. Interestingly, the negative connotation seems to have arisen after these periods due to the Nazi Party declaring whites a “master race” during the Holocaust, changes in Western social structure after World War II, and the rise of social movements during the 1960s and 1970s. The word was part of daily language from the 16 th to early 20 th century, as a boy of an upper class family or a man of low social status were given the title “master” opposed to the higher ...

Right after my walk at Hamlin Reservation, I went to another site maintained by The Trustees of Reservations, Greenwood Farm in Ipswich, MA. The 216-acre property contains a short, g-shaped walking trail and a pair of historic houses, which won the 1998 and 2001 Mary P. Conley Preservation Awards given by Ipswich Historical Commission . While the site does not include much information about the three “dynasties” who lived on the property, these people are by far the most interesting part of the story.

During one of my trips to the North Shore in Massachusetts, I visited Hamlin Reservation in Ipswich, which is currently managed by The Trustees of Reservations . This one-mile walking path through the Great Marsh allows some sharp-eyed visitors to see birds that only live in this part of the state , including cattle egrets, snowy egrets, and black-ground night-herons. While I only saw a few crows, the quiet walk was a relaxing rest after running around the center of town, and the land turned out to have a connection to national history.

This post comes a day earlier than usual, as Friday is American Independence Day, colloquially known as “the Fourth of July”. This is the fourth and final post in my miniseries of quick history stops in Ipswich. For a quick history review, I shared a pair of banks, a post office, murals on a factory building, and a story from the Industrial Revolution in Part 1 . I shared the Riverwalk, a war memorial, the town visitor center, a commercial block, and other historic buildings in Part 2 . I shared the history of three churches, a school building, the library, and informational signage in Part 3. Now I will finish up with several war memorials, an art installation, a very old bridge, public buildings, and a church with interesting tangents in its backstory.

Today, I continue with my miniseries on quick history stops in Ipswich, MA. As a quick history review, last week I shared a pair of banks, a post office, murals on a factory building, and a story from the Industrial Revolution in Part 1 . On Monday, I shared the Riverwalk, a war memorial, the town visitor center, a commercial block, and other historic buildings in Part 2 . I will discuss the history of three churches, a school building, the library, and informational signage in Part 3.