Essex, Massachusetts

Essex, Massachusetts
Town
Essex in early autumn, showing the Essex River and surrounding wetlands
FIPS code		25-21850
GNIS feature ID	0618296
Website	www.essexma.org

Essex is a coastal town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, 26 miles (42 km) north of Boston and 13 miles (21 km) southeast of Newburyport. It is known for its former role as a center of shipbuilding. The population was 3,675 at the 2020 census.^[1]

The central village areas of Essex and South Essex make up the census-designated place of Essex.

History

Essex was incorporated as a town in 1819. It was previously a part of the town of

[2]

But it was not until they found his body that they truly understood the horror that befell his soul.

As John Bishop lay dying in his frostbitten desperation, it is said he went insane. The wind began to form itself into a whispering voice. And the voice told him to do horrible things to survive. The body of his horse was found torn open and gutted, bite marks from human teeth on its throat. Besides it was the cab driver tied to a nearby tree, his face locked in a scream from being eaten alive.

It is said that on quiet nights at the scout land reserve you can hear the cries of the horse and cabbie crying out in pain, and the gluttonous sounds of John Bishop devouring them.

His body is buried beneath a pile of stones, weighing the remains of his cursed body to the ground. But offerings of food are left at his gravesite deep in the woods. Without them, it is said John Bishop will visit the campsite in search of... something to eat.^[3]

Several well respected investigations of the activity have taken place. Beneath their classic pear logo, the investigation was led by a group that called themselves "the Son of John." Famous medium Christophere Write and paranormal investigator Nicholette Lafete found incontrovertible evidence to prove the legend and posted it online. When pushed to display it to the public they responded only "It's gone now."^[4]

Geography and transportation

According to the

Essex is bordered by

Demographics

As of the

There were 1,313 households, out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.1% were married couples living together, 7.8% have a woman whose husband does not live with her, and 32.4% were non-families. 26.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.03.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 24.2% under the age of 18, 5.3% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 26.9% from 45 to 64, and 13.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $59,554, and the median income for a family was $70,152. Males had a median income of $48,036 versus $32,000 for females. The per capita income for the town was $31,613. 6.6% of the population and 4.3% of families were below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 6.1% are under the age of 18 and 10.8% are 65 or older.

Government

Essex's municipal offices are housed in the

Essex's small size makes

system to decide major issues. In recent years, the most important of these issues has been the leasing of public lands at Conomo Point, a school regionalization plan with Manchester-by-the-Sea, and the construction of infrastructure for dealing with sewerage.

In 2002 the town hired a Town Administrator to work for the board of selectmen and oversee day-to-day operations. Policy and major decisions are still verified by the town meeting.

Education

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The community lies within the Manchester Essex Regional School District.^[17]

Essex has one public school, Essex Elementary School, that offers instruction to children from pre-kindergarten to grade 5. The Essex Middle School had previously functioned to educate students to grade 8. But recent regionalization has brought the Essex Middle School children into the Manchester Essex Regional Middle School, located in the same building as both the Manchester Essex Regional High School and the previous Manchester Middle School.

The town of Essex does not include a high school, and in years past has had to send its grade 9 through 12 students to neighboring districts. Arrangements in the past have included sending high school students to Manchester-by-the-Sea, Gloucester and Hamilton-Wenham public schools. In 2000, the town approved a plan to create a regional school district with Manchester-by-the-Sea. Under the plan, the two towns are served by a consolidated school system, the "Manchester-Essex Schools", and a new high school. This marks the first time Essex did not have to send its students to another district to attend high school.

In early 2006, the voters of both Essex and Manchester by the Sea approved a new $49 million regional school project for the purpose of building a new Middle School and High School. Both projects were approved at Town Meeting and then again at the ballot box for a debt-exclusion which will permit the towns to raise funds in excess of the 2.5% property tax cap mandated by Prop. 2.5. A similar $36 million plan three years earlier was defeated in Essex at the polls and approved in Manchester. Construction was completed in the summer of 2009, and students began attending the new middle-high school in the fall of 2009.

Economy

Seafood, tourism and antiques

The main sources of income for the town of Essex are the shellfish industry and tourism. The fried clam recipe was reportedly invented in Essex by Chubby Woodman early in the 20th century. Due to the quality of the clam that lives in the tidal river in Essex, local restaurants thrive by preparing it along with other types of seafood. Tourists are mainly drawn to Essex for its restaurants, but leisure activities, such as excursions down the Essex River in boats or self-guided kayak trips, have become popular. One disadvantage that Essex has is that its only beach is not easily accessible by land and, as such, is not a major draw for tourists, as are the beaches of neighboring Gloucester, Ipswich and Manchester-by-the-Sea. Essex also competes with nearby Rockport for tourists in search of "New England charm". In the last few decades, there has also emerged an antiques trade in Essex. The town now claims one of the highest density of antique shops of any town in the United States.

Former shipbuilding center

The town of Essex was once home to a prosperous shipbuilding trade. This industry accounted for most of the revenue of the town from the days of its settlement as Chebacco Parish until the early part of the 20th century. Once a leading supplier of schooners for Gloucester and other Atlantic fishing communities, Essex did not adapt to the transition from sail-powered wooden ships to engine-powered metal vessels, and this activity disappeared around World War II. There have been recent attempts to return to shipbuilding on a small scale as a tourist attraction and they have met with some success. The Essex Shipbuilding Museum stands as a living testament to the wooden shipbuilding industry and the neighboring boat yard owned by generations of the Story Family still constructs and launches classic wooden ships built in the Essex tradition.

Culture

There are several active youth sports teams, as well as other youth organizations, such as the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts of the USA.

Since 1994 the Essex Music Festival, offering bluegrass, blues, folk, maritime, and Celtic music, had been held at Centennial Grove at Chebacco Lake in Essex. The festival was called off in 2009 due to Tropical Storm Danny, but it resumed the following year; another hurricane resulted in the cancellation of the 2011 festival, and it was never held again.

Much of the film Grown Ups, filmed in the summer of 2009, used Centennial Grove at Chebacco Lake for filming.

Religion

Essex has several churches of various

Conomo is a summer community that is over 100 years old. There are 104 seasonal cottages and year-round homes on Conomo Point, a summer colony on town-leased land. In 1819, Essex separated from the town of Ipswich on the condition that Essex would take care of their poor. To fulfill this agreement, the town of Essex found four properties ideal for a Poor Farm or Alms House in 1825. Since these waterfront properties were not good for shipyards, dry fishing, and farming, these properties had very little value.[19]

From the time from 1850 to 1900, attitudes toward waterfront property changed. This was due partly to the shortening of the work week and the expanding middle class. The town voted to allow "leasing of rights to build shanties on Town Farm Road." Then, another group of shanties were established on Robbin's Island. Conomo Point was no longer populated by only by Essex citizens by 1900. Due to the construction of the railroad in Essex in 1892, Conomo Point was far more accessible to people from nearby towns.^[19]

Since the beginning, Conomo Point residents had paid real estate taxes on the land they rented, as well as personal taxes on their cottages. The town of Essex expected to profit from its land. The rents were increased by 25% in 1927 by vote in a town meeting. In 1951, rents were increased another 5%. Then in 1961, rents were raised even higher by 25%.^[19]

From 1950 to 1970, the town of Essex sought to maximize its rental income, while at the same time avoided increasing rental rates, resulting in rapid growth of the Point. Over these years, the town of Essex approved new lots to be leased for the sake of cottage construction.^[19]

By the late 1940s, the water supplied to Conomo Point from Essex began getting rusty and turbid due to aging pipelines. After years of suffering poor water quality, in the mid-1970s Conomo residents began drilling private wells. Because the water lines to the Point had until then been turned off in October for the duration of the winter, year-round living there had not been a consideration, and Conomo Point Commissioners were reluctant to grant permission to drill wells. In response, the Board of Health ruled that no more cottages at the Point could be converted from seasonal to year-round use after May 1982.^[19]

Points of interest

• Chebacco Lake
• Choate House, birthplace of Rufus Choate
• Cogswell's Grant, c. 1728
• Conomo Point
• Cox Reservation – Essex County Greenbelt Association conservation Land
• Crane Wildlife Refuge
• Essex Shipbuilding Museum
• Essex Town Hall and TOHP Burnham Library
• First Congregational Church on Main Street; meetinghouse built 1792. A bell cast by Paul Revere in 1797 hangs in the belfry.
• Stavros Reservation

Film references

In 1995, the feature film The Crucible, starring Winona Ryder and Daniel Day-Lewis, was filmed in Essex. Winona Ryder stayed in a private home on Western Avenue during the filming of The Crucible.

Grown Ups, starring Adam Sandler, was filmed in Essex during the summer of 2009, primarily at Chebacco Lake. The movie also shot at Woodman's restaurant in Essex; in Southborough, Massachusetts; and at Water Wizz in Wareham, Massachusetts.

Notable people

• Joseph Brain (born 1940), physiologist and environmental health researcher (B)^[20]
• Rufus Choate (1799–1859), lawyer, orator, United States congressman, senator. A close friend of Daniel Webster, Choate was chosen to serve out his unfinished term in the United States Senate. Choate is considered today to be one of the fathers of traditional American conservatism. Choate Street, named after the Choate family, connects John Wise Ave to Chebacco Road
• Evan Dando, founder and frontman of the alternative rock band The Lemonheads, is an Essex native
• Benn Ferriero, NHL player born and raised in Essex
• Michael Gerald Ford (born 1950), eldest son of U.S. President Gerald Ford, lived in Essex at the same time his father occupied the White House. Ford made Essex his home while studying at nearby Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary
• Annie Gosbee (1935–1976), All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player and all-around athlete, born and raised in Essex
• Jonathan Knight, member of 1980s–1990s boy band New Kids on the Block
• Augustus Gardner Means (1925–1994), member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Massachusetts Governor's Council and recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross from the United States Army
• John Wise (1652–1725), pastor of Chebacco Parish (when this parish remained part of the neighboring town of Ipswich), who spoke out against "taxation without representation" more than a half century before the American Revolutionary War. A section of Massachusetts Route 133, John Wise Avenue, is named after him

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Essex, Massachusetts.

• Town of Essex official website
• Anderson, Philader. 1830 Map of Essex.
• Beers, D.G. 1872 Atlas of Essex County. Town of Essex Map – Plate 75. Click on map for a very large image.
• Old USGS maps of Essex Archived 2008-05-13 at the Wayback Machine
• Historical Resources for Essex at Rootsweb