An accident at 4:40 pm on July 3 at the southeast end of the Choate Bridge destroyed the beautiful hand-made wrought-iron 1764 Choate Bridge sign, installed in 1996. The same spot on the bridge has seen two other accidents in recent years that dislodged sections of the parapet, requiring replacement.
Former Ipswich Historical Commission member Don Curiale provided the history of this sign:
“My spouse and I traveled through the UK in the 90s. We fell in love with small villages in East Anglia. And we fell in love with the signs as you entered the villages. It was Rye that gave us the inspiration for the present Choate Bridge sign. Around 1995, I went to a welder in Rowley on Rt. 1 with a sketch of the sign. The price was high, but he was kind enough to lower it as his donation to Ipswich.
“Now I had to pay for the sign! Nat Pulsifer helped, and we started a Mary Conley Fund. Arthur Finkelstein and Nat Pulsifer were its chief contributors. And with this Fund, we also started the Mary Conley Award, dedicated to voluntary renovations of historic Ipswich homes. The sign was installed by the generosity of IPW director Armand Marchand. My worker and I painted it, but it needs a fresh coat of paint. I really see it as a dedication to Mary Conley. It was the same period when the Historical Commission completed repairs to the Choate Bridge. It was the right moment and time for a village sign.”
At the site of the recent accident are pieces of trim and a broken plastic cover for an Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) radar sensor from the 2020 Ford Transit, which suffered extensive front-end damage. According to the Ipswich Police accident report, the driver claimed that the sun was in his eyes and he went off the road. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured.
Read: The Choate Bridge
Historic Ipswich 