Mass Audubon: Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary

My final stop during my adventure on the North Shore was Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, a site maintained by Mass Audubon and located in Topsfield, MA. The property once belonged to Thomas Emerson Proctor, Jr. and his family, who apparently developed a habit of feeding the birds, which can be fed to this day. Additionally, if that name sounds familiar, Proctor School in Topsfield is named after him.

My information on the Proctor family comes from a few distinct sources: the Historic Ipswich blog and its essay “Thomas Proctor’s Wealth” by Bruce Bolnick, the family history from Thomas E. Proctor Heirs Trust; and a pair of sources from Topsfield Historical Society, “Brief History of the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary” by Mark Lapin, and “Thomas Emerson Proctor” by C. Lawrence Bond. At any rate, the Proctor family made its money from leather importing, but Thomas Proctor Jr. had greater interest in land and plants than his predecessors. His method was simple: purchase land and keep the former owners as tenant farmers, or destroy all the buildings on the property. The ethics of his system were not questioned since this was the early 20^th century. When Proctor died in 1949, he owned about 47% of Topsfield.

Like many rich people of the Greater Boston area, Proctor belonged to multiple organizations, including the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England), Topsfield Historical Society, and the Essex Institute in Salem (now Peabody-Essex Museum). As an alumni of Harvard University, then Harvard College, he collaborated with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard to design a beautiful garden of international plants maintained by recently immigrated Italian laborers. The workers may have intended to build track in Topsfield for the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway, a separate entity from the Eastern Railroad Company of Massachusetts upon which the Topsfield Linear Common now stands, but the line never reached Topsfield and eventually was acquired by the MBTA. Back to the sanctuary, all the trail, bridges, and ponds were built by hand but mimicked a natural environment. One of the most interesting features he built on his Topsfield property is called the Rockery, which features small boulders stacked to look like a natural rock formation.

The buildings on the property predate the Proctor family. The Bradstreet family had lived on the land from 1643 to 1898 and likely built their Georgian style house sometime during the 1700s. Based a quote recorded by C. Lawrence Bond, the most likely seller seems to be Horace Dudley Bradstreet, as his wife Mabel Winthrop Warner Bradstreet had just given birth to twin sons Horace Edward and Horton Dudley in addition to older daughters Faith and Mildred, perhaps making the historic house seem a bit crowded.

As the reader may already be aware, Mass Audubon is not affiliated with the National Audubon Society or other Audubon societies such as Audubon Society of Rhode Island. Mass Audubon was the first, as it was formed by a group of about 900 wealthy Boston Brahmin women in 1896 to encourage the protection of birds. (More on this movement can be found in my webinar review and book review about the Migratory Bird Act.) This flavor of elitism continued to my interaction with staff as they tread a fine line between rude and snobby. Those accustomed to visiting sites managed by the Trustees should note that admission is $7 per person, not carload. Plenty of parking is available in a dusty lot, and small bathrooms are available nearby. The sanctuary is open from dawn to dusk with the visitor center open daily or whenever they care to open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Finally, do not forget that you can feed the birds! It is not tuppence a bag but BYOB (bring your own birdseed). I had one single chickidee land on my finger, and while it was a delightful experience, I did not have the same avian attraction as regular visitors or Disney princesses.