The Essex Coastal Scenic Byway is a 90-mile route linking 14 coastal communities from Lynn to Salisbury and featuring scenic views, period architecture, historic sites, and recreational opportunities throughout. Along the way, Lynn reflects its past as an early colonial settlement and industrial center while offering public art, architecture, a cultural district, and oceanfront parks and open spaces. Swampscott retains its seafaring character as a fishing village and is associated with the invention of the lobster pot by Ebenezer Thorndike in 1808 and the crafting of the Swampscott Dory in 1840. Marblehead honors its maritime heritage and is known for its harbor and sailing races. Salem is noted for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as well as maritime heritage, military engagements, and achievements in literature and architecture. Beverly combines a picturesque coastline, historic sites, and a downtown arts and cultural district. Manchester-by-the-Sea is a quiet residential village marked by a vibrant harbor, beaches, open spaces, estates, and distinctive neighborhoods. Gloucester, settled in 1623, is home to America’s oldest seaport and the oldest continually operating art colony in North America, with a coastline that has inspired artists since the early 19th century. Rockport offers beaches, granite shores, wooded paths, and natural light long valued by painters. Essex is known for seafood, antiques, locally made gifts, museums, and access to the Great Marsh. Ipswich, founded in 1634, is rich in history and open space, with 58 pre-1725 houses, Castle Hill, Crane Beach and Refuge, the Old North Burying Ground, the Downtown Riverwalk, and the 1764 Choate Bridge. Rowley, one of the earliest towns in the nation, links its past and present through farmland, historic homes, the Great Marsh, and industries including salt marsh haying, farming, fishing, shipbuilding, and the arts. Newbury, settled in 1635, offers historic houses, Great Marsh vistas, the Parker River, Old Town Hill, the First Settlers’ Burial Ground, Plum Island, and the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. Newburyport features Merrimack River views, a historic downtown, trails, parks, galleries, museums, a boardwalk, and access to nearby Plum Island beaches. Salisbury includes Salisbury Beach, Salisbury Plains, Salisbury Square, and Ring’s Island, as well as Salisbury Beach State Reservation, the Old Eastern Marsh Trail, the barrier beach and boardwalk at Salisbury Beach, the East Parish United Methodist Church clock installed on February 22, 1897, oceanfront amusements, and Butler’s Toothpick, the wooden Black Rock Beacon built in 1873 to help guide ships in the Merrimack River.

Photo: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)

Photo: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)

Photo: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)

Photo: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)

Salisbury, Massachusetts · USA