On the Massachusetts North Shore
The 2026 Ipswich Downtown Tuesdays will again be hosted at the Take-out Terrace Truss & Stage on the Riverwalk Extension next to the Ipswich Mural. View and share on your phone. July 7: Orville Giddings Band July 14: Hilltown Hamhocks July 21: Chuck & The Players July 28: Clements Brothers August 4: Wangari Fahari Trio… Continue reading 2026 Downtown Tuesdays
The concepts of freedom about which Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence originated from the pen of the Rev. John Wise of Ipswich: "The origin of civil power is the people...and when they are free, they may set up what species of government they please."
The Town of Ipswich July 4 Independence Day Parade on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will be a historic walking and bicycle event. We muster at 9:30 am at Winthrop School, to decorate bikes, trikes and wagons, and the one-mile parade begins promptly at 10:00 am. We reach Town Hall about 10:30… Continue reading Ipswich Independence Day Walking and Bicycling Parade Will Feature Revolutionary Era Homes
In 1639, the Colony ordered that a road be laid out from Boston to Portsmouth, to be constructed by each town along the way. The Bay Road made Ipswich an important stagecoach stop. Several milestones to indicate distances are still standing.
Bull Brook originates in Willowdale, crosses Linebrook Rd. and merges with Dow Brook at the Ipswich Utilities site on Rt. 1A. From that point the combined stream becomes the Egypt River.
Featured image: Ipswich Post Office Mural signifying the Ipswich Revolt of 1687. On Tuesday, May 12, Ipswich Town Meeting voted 326 – 162 for Article 14, calling on Congress to “fully exercise its constitutional duty of oversight and authority, including, but not limited to, the power to impeach and remove the sitting President of the… Continue reading Area Town Meetings Call on Congress
Opinion article by Michael Corbelle “Are we kinda being pricks?” Those words, spoken recently by Marblehead citizen David Modica as he questioned why his town’s leadership was voting to shirk its state-mandated responsibility to alleviate the housing crisis, have become a rallying cry against the “Not In My Backyard” attitude of so many property owners… Continue reading Unjust Town Meeting is a Problem Older than Ipswich
At the May 12, 2026 Ipswich Town Meeting, by an 8 vote margin, voters failed to secure a 2/3 majority to approve funding for construction of a new Public Safety building. For 73 years, the town has tried to replace the Central St. Fire Department, constructed in 1907 for horse-drawn fire trucks. Town Meeting's failure… Continue reading Public Safety snubbed at Town Meeting but passes at election.
Featured image: Ipswich Post Office mural representing a meeting in 1687 for which Ipswich is known as the "Birthplace of American Independence." By Stephen Miles In a resounding vote at the May 12, 2026 Town Meeting, citizens of Ipswich, in the spirit of their forebearers, passed Article 14, asking their duly elected representatives in Congress… Continue reading John Wise Would Be Proud
RESOLVED: That this duly assembled Town Meeting, as the legislative body of the Town of Ipswich, Massachusetts, respectfully calls upon the Congress of the United States to fully exercise its constitutional duty of oversight and authority, including, but not limited to, the power to impeach and remove the sitting President of the United States.
by Gordon Harris On October 14, 2025, Microsoft ended support for Windows 10, which will no longer receive hardware and security updates. An estimated 200 million computers built before 2017 (Intel 8th Generation) don't have TPM 2.0, and can't be updated to Windows 11. Windows 10 will still be safe for any purpose that doesn't… Continue reading Installing Linux Mint or Kubuntu on your Windows computer.
Distinct destinations. Paired playlists. Friday evenings this spring, join Ipswich ReCreation & Culture as we venture out into the wild — board the bus at Town Hall for a mystery ride... Come prepared for a guided stretch that we might settle into ourselves, a walking meditation to arrive in right relationship with place, and then… Continue reading Wild Dance May 8-29, 2026
Exerpt from: Letters from an American, by Heather Cox Richardson, April 19, 2026. On the evening of April 18, 1775, the people who lived in the British colony of Massachusetts had gone to bed with the sun, as usual. By the evening of April 19, everything had changed. In the past twenty-four hours, soldiers from… Continue reading Ipswich Minutemen March to Lexington and Concord, April 18, 1775
Capt Nathaniel Wade's company and Capt. Abraham Dodge's company fought from the trenches in Col. Moses Little's regiment. 18-year-old Jessie Story of Chebacco Parish was killed, the first Ipswich man to lay down his life in the struggle for Independence.
We measure history by time, but for the Ipswich River and its alewives, time could be running out. We can help preserve the human and natural history of the Ipswich River by freeing it from its man-made encumbrances.
One of the most hated Intolerable Acts, the Massachusetts Government Act of May, 20, 1774, ordered that on August 1 of that year, the upper house of the legislature would be replaced by thirty-six new members appointed by Governor Thomas Gage, on a "royal writ of mandamus." The new councilors became marked men when their… Continue reading The Mandamus Councilors
Historic Ipswich 