A Walking Tour of Swampscott, Massachusetts
By Doug Gelbert
()
About this ebook
There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour is ready to explore when you are.
Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.
For the first two centuries after settlement in the 1620s there wasn’t much to distinguish one fishing village from the next as they spread out along the North Shore from Boston. By the 1800s individual identities began to emerge and in the community of Swampscott, then part of the town of Lynn, large hotels and resorts began to appear alongside the fishing and lobstering docks. In 1852 a group of 97 Swampscott petitioners asserted to the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that: “1. They are situated somewhat remote from the central portion of Lynn; and 2. That their business is different from that of the principal part of Lynn; and 3. That their convenience and interests would be promoted by a separate government, especially after the citizens of Lynn opted to switch from a town to a city form of government.” The leaders of Lynn took $5,450 for the land it was losing and waved bye-bye.
By the late 1800s more and more of the summer visitors began to plan a permanent move to the Swampscott seashore and with the coming of the Eastern Railroad it became easier to commute to Boston and Salem where the new American professional class could find jobs. The migration did not go unnoticed by some of Swampscott’s wealthier residents.
After financier Enoch Redington Mudge died in 1881 his heirs looked to develop his 130-acre seaside estate in the heart of Swampscott into residential homesites. Their vision went beyond clearing some trees and pounding stakes in the ground. Instead they went to Brookline and hired the “Father of Landscape Architecture,” Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted’s resume included New York City’s Central Park, Boston’s “Emerald Necklace” park system and dozens of other influential projects.
Olmsted brought his philosophy of gently curving lines in harmony with nature to planning the 191 house lots for the new planned community. It was not intended as an enclave solely for the rich but included lots of varying sizes to attract a wide range of homeowners. In 1888 the serpentine streets began to be laid out among the rocky hillsides and verdant valleys. By 1917 the subdivision was largely complete with a rich diversity of houses that spanned the end of the ornamental Victorian Age and carried into the cleaner, unadorned styles of the Craftsman and Arts and Craft builders.
For this residential walking tour we will encounter a neighborhood that 100 years later looks as if it might have existed in Frederick Law Olmsted’s famous sketchbooks...
Read more from Doug Gelbert
Look Up, Savannah! A Walking Tour of Savannah, Georgia Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Walking Tour of The New Orleans French Quarter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Miami Beach, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, San Diego! A Walking Tour of Balboa Park Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Walking Tour of Greensboro, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Tucson, Arizona! A Walking Tour of Tucson, Arizona Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Chicago! A Walking Tour of The Loop (North End) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Pittsburgh's Business District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Williamsburg, Virginia Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Walking Tour of Tampa, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Boise! A Walking Tour of Boise, Idaho Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Aiken, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Oakland! A Walking Tour of Oakland, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Georgetown, South Carolina Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Walking Tour of New York City's Upper West Side Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Walking Tour of New York City's Upper East Side Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of St. Augustine, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Jacksonville, Florida Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Uniontown, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Beaufort, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Toledo! A Walking Tour of Toledo, Ohio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Long Beach! A Walking Tour of Long Beach, California Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Madison! A Walking Tour of Madison, Wisconsin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Walking Tour of Bordentown, New Jersey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Wilmington, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Charleston! A Walking Tour of Charleston, South Carolina: The Battery Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Walking Tour of Meadville, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Gettysburg! A Walking Tour of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Nashville! A Walking Tour of Nashville, Tennessee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to A Walking Tour of Swampscott, Massachusetts
Related ebooks
A Walking Tour of Old Saybrook, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Moorestown, New Jersey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Fall River, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Windsor, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of A Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Hope, New Jersey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Pocomoke City, Maryland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLook Up, Asheville! A Walking Tour of the Montford District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Hudson, New York Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Conway, South Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of North Stonington, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of the Boston's North End Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Gloucester, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Andover, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Jamestown, New York Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Princess Anne, Maryland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Kingston, Rhode Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Old Lyme, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Warwick, Rhode Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Wethersfield, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Greenwich, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of The New Orleans Garden District Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Waterbury, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Plymouth, Massachusetts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Easton, Maryland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Westerly, Rhode Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Walking Tour of Farmington, Connecticut Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies) History For You
The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"America is the True Old World" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Stolen: The Truth About European Colonialism in the New World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not My Father's Son: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win | Summary & Key Takeaways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/518 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5101 Secrets of the Freemasons: The Truth Behind the World's Most Mysterious Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Southern Cunning: Folkloric Witchcraft In The American South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Constitution of the United States of America: 1787 (Annotated) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Short History of Reconstruction [Updated Edition] Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The First Frontier: The Forgotten History of Struggle, Savagery, & Endurance in Early America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trail of Tears:The 19th Century Forced Migration of Native Americans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Don Juan and the Art of Sexual Energy: The Rainbow Serpent of the Toltecs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Roland S. Martin's White Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5More Than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memory of Fire Trilogy: Genesis, Faces and Masks, and Century of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything American History Book: People, Places, and Events That Shaped Our Nation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for A Walking Tour of Swampscott, Massachusetts
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
A Walking Tour of Swampscott, Massachusetts - Doug Gelbert
A Walking Tour of Swampscott, Massachusetts
a walking tour in the Look Up, America series from walkthetown.com
by Doug Gelbert
published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 by Doug Gelbert
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.
For the first two centuries after settlement in the 1620s there wasn’t much to distinguish one fishing village from the next as they spread out along the North Shore from Boston. By the 1800s individual identities began to emerge and in the community of Swampscott, then part of the town of Lynn, large hotels and resorts began to appear alongside the fishing and lobstering docks.