The North Shore is a region in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, loosely defined as the coastal area between

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. The region is made up both of a rocky coastline, dotted with marshes and wetlands, as well as several beaches and natural harbors. The North Shore is an important historical, cultural, and economic region of Massachusetts. The southern part of the region includes several of Boston's densely populated inner suburbs. At the center of the North Shore lies its most prominent geographic feature,

Cape Ann Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns o ...

, with numerous small fishing towns, and at the northern end lies the

Merrimack Valley The Merrimack Valley is a bi-state region along the Merrimack River in the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Merrimack is one of the larger waterways in New England and has helped to define the livelihood and culture of those ...

, which was a major locus of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. It contains the cities of Salem, known worldwide as the site of the

Salem witch trials The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. More than 200 people were accused. Thirty people were found guilty, 19 of whom w ...

; and

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

, site of

Charles Olson Charles Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modern American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York ...

's ''The Maximus Poems'', and of Sebastian Junger's 1997 creative nonfiction book '' The Perfect Storm'' and its 2000

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

. Beverly was home to author

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

until his death. Salisbury Beach State Reservation, lying within the town of

Salisbury, Massachusetts Salisbury is a small coastal beach town and summer tourist destination in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The community is a popular summer resort beach town situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of Boston on the New Hampshire bord ...

, is a popular beach resort with over 1 million annual visitors. The region also prominently figures in the works of

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

and H. P. Lovecraft, notably the latter's ''

The Shadow over Innsmouth ''The Shadow over Innsmouth'' is a horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in November–December 1931. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilization, and references several shared e ...

'', as well as

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

poets T. S. Eliot and

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the '' Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, incl ...

's 2010 feature film '' Shutter Island'', set on a fictional

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History ...

island, was partly shot on location on the North Shore.

Kenneth Lonergan Kenneth Lonergan (born October 16, 1962) is an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the co-writer of the film ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), and wrote and directed '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), ''Margaret'' (2011), and ' ...

's 2016 film '' Manchester by the Sea'' is set in the eponymous seaside town, and major portions of it were filmed in Gloucester, Beverly and other North Shore communities. Sian Heder's 2021

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning feature ''

CODA Coda or CODA may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * Movie coda, a post-credits scene * ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television *''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...

'' was set in Gloucester and filmed there, along with other North Shore locations.

Definition

The North Shore has no fixed definition as a region. It may include only those communities between Boston and

, as defined by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (whose purview does not go beyond

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern a ...

); or the larger part of Essex County, including parts of the

, as defined by the North Shore Chamber of Commerce. The Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, which defines regions in terms of

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

, refers to the North Shore as the coastal region of Massachusetts north of Boston stretching from

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

to Revere, including the inland city of

Amesbury Amesbury () is a town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It is known for the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge which is within the parish. The town is claimed to be the oldest occupied settlement in Great Britain, having been first settl ...

Coastal

North Shore of Massachusetts could be taken to mean the entire coast of Massachusetts from New Hampshire to Boston (listed in order, north-to-south):

Economic

The Boston Metropolitan Area Planning Council'
North Shore Task Force
a regional planning agency, defines the North Shore as also encompassing

and several inland communities. When combined with the North Shore Chamber of Commerce's definition of the region, the North Shore comprises the following cities and towns:

Cultural

The North Shore has historically been viewed as a wealthy, exclusive collection of towns and fishing villages, but also contains some working-class cities and suburbs of Boston. In 1893, ''The New York Times'' described the region as a notable summer destination for the socialites, politicians, and businessmen of New York and New England, dotted with hotels, cottages, and burgeoning gentlemen's clubs. Salem, known worldwide as the location of the

; the working-class fishing city of Gloucester; and the region's many beaches make it a popular tourist destination.

History

The North Shore communities have varied and rich histories:

was America's first fishing community; Salem was the location of the infamous witch trials as well as one of the largest centers of shipping and sixth largest city in early America. The hysteria that led to the witch trials began in the part of Salem that is now Danvers. Lynn was once the center of the American

shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from cultur ...

industry. Saugus is home to the first integrated ironworks in North America. Peabody had the largest concentration of

tanneries Tanning may refer to: * Tanning (leather), treating animal skins to produce leather * Sun tanning, using the sun to darken pale skin **Indoor tanning, the use of artificial light in place of the sun ** Sunless tanning, application of a stain or dy ...

in the world; and Beverly and Marblehead often dispute over which town was the birthplace of the

American Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Newburyport Newburyport is a coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, northeast of Boston. The population was 18,289 at the 2020 census. A historic seaport with vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island. The mo ...

was well known for producing clipper ships and for a brief time in history was the richest city in the Union; it is also the birthplace of the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

. Newburyport maintains the largest collection of Federal period commercial and residential architecture in the nation.

Sites of interest

*The Peabody Essex Museum – a museum with large collections of maritime artifacts and Asian art. *

National Register of Historic Places listings in Salem, Massachusetts This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Salem, Massachusetts. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Salem, Massachusetts, United Stat ...

*The Salem Witch Museum *Historic Downtown Salem *The Salem Seaport *The Saugus Iron Works *The

Swampscott Fish House Swampscott Fish House is a historic fishing supply storage house off Humphrey Street on Fisherman's Beach in Swampscott, Massachusetts. It is the oldest active fish house in the country. The shingle-style house was built in 1896 on land taken by ...

– the oldest active fish house in the country. *

's historic district maintains the nation's largest collection of Federal period architecture *Historic

and Rockport Seaports *

North Shore Navigators The North Shore Navigators are a wooden-bat, collegiate summer baseball team based in Lynn, Massachusetts, playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL). The team plays home games at Fraser Field in Lynn. The team is owned by Ol ...

collegiate-league baseball team *The North Shore Music Theatre in Beverly, New England's largest

regional theater A regional theater or resident theater in the United States is a professional or semi-professional theater company that produces its own seasons. The term ''regional theater'' most often refers to a professional theater outside New York City. A reg ...

*The

Larcom Theatre The Larcom Theatre is a 600-seat auditorium located at 13 Wallis Street in Beverly, Massachusetts and offers live music, theatrical productions, ballet, and comedy. From 1985 through 2012 the Larcom Theatre housed the two-hour Le Grand David prod ...

in Beverly built in 1912 is the oldest, operating Vaudeville theatre in the region, also once home to Le Grand David. *The

Cabot Street Cinema Theatre The Cabot Performing Arts Center is located at 286 Cabot Street in Beverly, Massachusetts. History For more than ninety years the Cabot Street Cinema Theatre has been an important part of the Boston's North Shore community. Harris and Glover War ...

in Beverly was home to Le Grand David, the world's longest-running resident

stage magic Magic, which encompasses the subgenres of illusion, stage magic, and close up magic, among others, is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by tricks, effects, or illusions of seemingly impossible feats, using natural means. It ...

show. until 2013. * Castle Hill in Ipswich *Revere Beach, the first public beach in the United States, in Revere * The Rebecca Nurse Homestead in Danvers, the only home of a victim of the

open to the public

Definition

Coastal

Economic

Cultural

History

Sites of interest

See also

References

Further reading