Four Old Houses That Stood on High St.

Excerpts from an article by Paul McGinley.

Featured image: The house on the left in this early 20th Century photo by Edward Darling is the Jacob Manning House. To its right is the Caleb Lord House, on the corner of Manning and High Streets. Notice the very steep slope of the roof which hangs over the second story windows, and the massive center chimney. The double house to the right of the Jacob Manning house was constructed by Nathaniel Lord.

While High street was one of the town’s very earliest streets, laid out in 1634, Manning Street is relatively young. It was built in 1882 and is named after the well-known family of Ipswich doctors and entrepreneurs. Dr. Thomas Manning gave most of his estate to the town to establish a high school which was built and dedicated on August 26, 1874. Manning Street was laid out and built shortly thereafter.

The Caleb Lord House, corner of High and Manning

These are traditional characteristics of Ipswich’s First Period houses (built between 1640 and 1725). To the west of the Caleb Lord house is another very early house that was torn down, and for a long time a vacant lot remained. You can see that it was a double house, two houses joined together. The oldest part of the double house was built by Nathaniel Lord after the purchased the property in 1721. It stayed in the family into the 20th Century.

The Jacob Manning house, corner of High and Manning

The Art of the Americas wing at the MFA (Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts features the second-floor framing of the Manning house built in Ipswich about 1692 across Manning Street from the house above. When it was razed in 1925, the timber frame was preserved and put on display at the Museum.

The Baker House, corner of High and Mineral

The Baker house was built in approximately 1686 and stond at the corner of High St and Mineral St. Very conspicuous with its low overhanging straw roof, It was deemed a fire hazard and was razed in 1849. The sketch predates the small green cottage, but the Federal-era houses at 42 High St and 44 High St., and the Georgian William Caldwell house beyond it still stand.