The Essex Coastal Scenic Byway is a 90-mile roadway linking 14 coastal communities from Lynn to Salisbury, with scenic views, period architecture, historic sites, and recreational opportunities throughout. Along the route, Lynn combines its past as an early colonial settlement and industrial center with public art, architecture, a downtown cultural district, and open spaces including the oceanfront, Lynn Woods, and High Rock Tower Reservation. Swampscott, long a seafaring fishing village, includes a historic downtown between King's and Fisherman's beaches, a protected bay that once supported a large commercial fishing fleet, one of the few municipally owned and operated fish houses on the east coast, and inventions and craft traditions including the lobster pot in 1808 and the Swampscott Dory in 1840. Marblehead honors its maritime heritage with historic sites, restaurants, shops, and a harbor that hosts many national and international sailing races. Salem is known for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as well as maritime heritage, military engagements, and achievements in literature and architecture. Beverly offers beaches, parks, historic sites, and a vibrant downtown arts and cultural district. Manchester-by-the-Sea is a quiet residential village with locally owned businesses, a harbor, beaches, open spaces, grand 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 rugged scenic coastline, beaches, maritime history, schooner sails, and seafood. Rockport features beaches, granite shores, wooded paths, and light that has inspired painters since Winslow Homer, along with dining, music, and shopping. Essex offers seafood, antiques, locally made gifts, the Essex Shipbuilding Museum, Cogswell's Grant folk art museum, access to the Great Marsh, scenic trails, golf, and annual events. Ipswich, founded in 1634, has 58 pre-1725 houses, open space, Castle Hill, Crane Beach and Refuge, Ipswich Museum, Old North Burying Ground, the Downtown Riverwalk, and the 1764 Choate Bridge. Rowley is one of the earliest towns in the nation, with farmland, historic homes, the Great Marsh, and industries including salt marsh haying, farming, fishing, shipbuilding, and the arts. Newbury, settled in 1635, includes historic houses, views of the Great Marsh, the Parker River, First Settlers' Landing, Old Town Hill, the First Settlers' Burial Ground, Plum Island, the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, and farm stands and restaurants. Newburyport offers Merrimack River views from its historic downtown, dining and shopping, a rail trail, parks, galleries, museums, a boardwalk, and access to nearby Plum Island beaches. Salisbury contains four distinct areas: Salisbury Beach, Salisbury Plains, Salisbury Square, and Ring's Island, and features Salisbury Beach State Reservation at the mouth of the Merrimack River with campsites, beach access, and boat ramps; the Old Eastern Marsh Trail through the Great Marsh; Salisbury Beach with white sand, salt marshes, shops, restaurants, cafes, arcades, and Atlantic views; the East Parish United Methodist Church, where a town clock was installed in 1897 as a memorial gift; and Butler's Toothpick, a wooden navigational beacon built in 1873 at the Black Rocks 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