Beverly, Massachusetts facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Beverly
City
Post Office in 1919
Seal
Motto(s):  Patri Simillima Proles (Latin) was "May we be as our children"
Location in Essex County and the state of Massachusetts.
Beverly, Massachusetts Location in the United States
Country	United States
State	Massachusetts
County	Essex
Settled	1626
Incorporated (town)	1668
Incorporated (city)	1894
Named for	Beverley, England
Government
• Type	Mayor-council city
Area
• Total	22.59 sq mi (58.50 km2)
• Land	15.09 sq mi (39.08 km2)
• Water	7.50 sq mi (19.42 km2)
Elevation	36 ft (11 m)
Population  (2020)
• Total	42,670
• Density	2,827.70/sq mi (1,091.80/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (Eastern)
ZIP Code	01915
Area code(s)	978/351
FIPS code	25-05595
GNIS feature ID	0614200

Beverly is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, and a suburb of Boston. The population was 42,670 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. A resort, residential, and manufacturing community on the Massachusetts North Shore, Beverly includes Ryal Side, North Beverly, Montserrat, Beverly Farms and Prides Crossing. Beverly is a rival of Marblehead for the title of "birthplace of the U.S. Navy".

History

Soldiers' Monument in 1907

Beverly Harbor c. 1912

View of the Beach at Beverly, Massachusetts, 1860, John Frederick Kensett

Native Americans inhabited what would become northeastern Massachusetts for thousands of years before European colonization of the Americas. At the time of contact in the early 1600s, the area that would become Beverly was between an important Naumkeag settlement in present-day Salem and Agawam settlements on Cape Ann, with probable indigenous settlement sites at the mouth of the Bass River. During the early contact period, virgin soil epidemics ravaged native populations, reducing the indigenous population within the present boundaries of Beverly from an estimated 200 to less than 50 if there were any survivors.

Europeans, under Roger Conant's leadership, first colonized the area in 1626 as part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Initially part of Salem, Beverly would be set off and officially incorporated in 1668, when it was named after Beverley, the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Surviving from the settlement's early history is the Balch House, built, according to dendrochronological testing performed in 2006, about 1679.

English colonists did not initially seek permission from indigenous inhabitants to settle in Beverly; however, when Charles II revoked colonial charters to establish the Dominion of New England in 1684, Beverly joined a number of Massachusetts municipalities in seeking out heirs to local sachems and paying them ex post facto in order to establish a right to the land. So it was that in 1686, the town selectmen agreed to pay six pounds, six shillings, and eight pence to three grandchildren of Chief Masconomet, last sachem of the Agawam. They did not pay this sum until 1700.

The first ship commissioned for the US military, by the US Army (the US Navy had yet to exist), was the armed schooner USS Hannah, under the command of Captain Nicholson Broughton. It was outfitted at Glover's Wharf and first sailed from Beverly Harbor on September 5, 1775. For this reason, Beverly calls itself the "Birthplace of America's Navy."Marblehead makes a similar claim, in part, because Broughton was from there and belonged to the Marblehead Regiment. However, official US Navy history and the naval history of Rhode Island contradict this. Hannah can be found on the patch of the city's police department.

Beverly has also been called the "birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution," as it was the site of the first cotton mill in America (1787) and largest cotton mill of its time. The town is the home of one of the country's first Sunday schools, which was built in 1810. Beverly was incorporated as a city in 1894.

In 1902, the United Shoe Machinery Corporation built a quarter-mile (400 m) stretch of factory buildings in Beverly. The stretch was an early landmark example of reinforced concrete construction, devised by concrete pioneer Ernest L. Ransome. In 1906 it went into production. Closed in 1987, the complex was bought by Cummings Properties in 1996, and developed into a campus of hi-tech companies, salons, restaurants, medical offices, and more. Parker Brothers, makers of Monopoly and other games, was headquartered in Beverly, acquired by Hasbro, and eventually ceased operations in Beverly. In 2012, the Dunham Road property was acquired by Cummings Properties and named Dunham Ridge.

President William Howard Taft rented a house for the summer White House from Mrs. Maria Evans in Beverly. In the summers of 1909 and 1910, he lived in a house located at what is now the site of the Italian Garden in Lynch Park, the city's principal public park, and in 1911 and 1912 he rented a different house a mile (1600 m) away, "Parramatta", from Mrs. Robert Peabody. Beverly Hills, California, was named in 1907 after Beverly Farms in Beverly because Taft vacationed there.

In 1984, the deadliest arson fire in Massachusetts history occurred at the Elliott Chambers, a rooming house located on the corner of Rantoul and Elliott Streets in downtown Beverly. 15 people died as a result of the fire.

Beverly has a former Nike missile site on L. P. Henderson Road, immediately east of the Beverly Municipal Airport. This site was in operation from March 1957 until August 1959, when the Army handed it over to the National Guard. It is now used by Beverly as a storage site and is under the scrutiny of many environmental organizations, due to concerns about polluted groundwater, which could be potentially hazardous to the nearby Wenham Lake water supply.

In April 2013, Bill Scanlon, Beverly's longest-serving mayor, announced that he would not be running for re-election in November. Scanlon first won election to the mayor’s seat in 1993 and held the office through 2013 (with the exception of a single term by Tom Crean from 2002-2003). In 2013, Michael Cahill beat Wes Slate to become Beverly's 34th mayor.

In December 2021, Mayor Cahill received one of two top honors from the Mayors Climate Protection Awards recognizing mayors for their climate work. The award focused on two Beverly efforts: the conversion of its vehicle fleet to electric and its Green Schools Program, which involves making buildings more energy efficient. Salem Mayor Kimberley Driscoll also received an honorable mention for her work on Resilient Together, a Beverly-Salem collaboration to address climate change. Whether it involves vehicle electrification or the greening of city buildings, the coastal city of Beverly has made climate work a central focus to protect its future.

Beverly is home to The Cabot, one of only approximately 250 similar movie palaces left out of an estimated 20,000 theaters built in the 1920s. For its first 40 years, it served as a center of community life for downtown Beverly. In 1944, the venue was leased to movie chain giant E.M. Loew’s, which eventually purchased it in 1962, and renamed it the Cabot Cinema. In 1976 it was purchased by Le Grand David and His Own Spectacular Magic Company. For 37 years, The Cabot hosted Le Grand David’s long-running magic show that made seven White House appearances and won recognition in the Guinness Book of Records and TIME, Smithsonian and National Geographic World magazines. When the Magic Company wound down and they placed the theater up for sale, thanks to the efforts of the five “founders”: Henry Bertolon, Bill Howard, Rich Marino, Thad Siemasko, and Paul Van Ness, the theater was saved and became a non-profit. In October 2015, the new Cabot board welcomed its first Executive Director, J. Casey Soward. The Cabot has welcomed thousands through its hallowed halls. In 2016, The Cabot embarked on a multi-year, multi-million dollar renovation to not only restore parts of the theater to its original 1920s grandeur and upgrade and modernize all current systems to better enhance the live experience, including replacement of all theater seating, opera box restoration, new sound and stage lighting systems, new heating and air conditioning, and most recently, the completion of the lobby renovation and restoration of the original rose window. In 2024, the successful non-profit welcomes comedian Jay Leno to its Big Night fundraiser.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 22.6 square miles (58.5 km²), of which 15.1 square miles (39.1 km²) is land and 7.5 square miles (19.4 km²), or 33.19%, is water. Beverly is located on the North Shore, the name given to communities north of Boston along Massachusetts Bay. There are many smaller coves, as well as two islands, the Great and Little Misery Islands, which are part of the city. From Woodbury Point westward lies Beverly Harbor, which lies at the mouth of the Danvers River. The Bass River empties into the Danvers River from within the city. Several other small streams lie within the city as well. A large portion of Wenham Lake, as well as several other lakes and ponds lie within the city. The city has its own city forest and reservation land as well.

Much of the western half of the city is relatively urbanized, while the eastern part of the city (roughly from Woodbury Point east) is more rural. Beverly is home to several parks, five beaches, the Beverly Golf & Tennis Club (est. 1910) and two yacht clubs, Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly Harbor and Bass Haven Yacht Club along the Bass River.

Besides Massachusetts Bay to the south, Beverly is bordered by Manchester-by-the-Sea to the east, Wenham to the north, Danvers to the west and Salem to the south. Beverly and Salem are separated by the Danvers River and Beverly Harbor, with three bridges, the Veterans Memorial Bridge (former location of the historic Essex Bridge), the MBTA railroad bridge, and the Kernwood Bridge, connecting the two cities. Beverly's city center lies 2 miles (3 km) north of Salem's, and is 14 miles (23 km) west-southwest of Gloucester and 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Boston.

Climate

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Beverly has a warm-summer humid continental climate, abbreviated "Dfb" on climate maps. Accordingly, the city experiences generally cold and snowy winters (though temperature and precipitation can vary greatly) along with warm to hot and humid summers. A sea breeze will often keep much of the southern part of the city cooler in the summer. Beverly is prone to thunderstorms and tropical rainstorms in the summer and nor'easters that can bring heavy rain and/or in the winter, fall, and spring. Generally, however, precipitation is relatively even throughout the year, with a slight increase around the spring and the fall. The hottest temperature recorded in Beverly was 98 °F (36.7 °C) on July 4, 2002 and July 25, 2022, while the coldest temperature recorded was −13 °F (−25.0 °C) on February 4, 2023.

Demographics

As of the census of 2020, there were 42,670 people and 16,568 households in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 82.3% White, 4.0% African American, 0.1% Native American, 9.3% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, and 3.1% from two or more races. 5.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 16,158 households in the city. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 3.02.

19.0% of residents were under the age of 18, and 81.0% were over the age of 18. 17.7% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.4 males.

The median household income was $84,354. The per capita income for the city was $47,494.

Economy

Major employers

• Axcelis Technologies
• Beverly Hospital/Lahey
• Endicott College
• YMCA of the North Shore
• Cell Signaling

Arts and culture

Points of interest

Cabot Street c. 1906

Beverly Common

• The Beverly Cotton Manufactory site, the first cotton mill in America. The monument sits in North Beverly next to the Veterans Memorial and North Beverly fire station.
• The Cabot boasted the world's longest running magician's show; Le Grand David Spectacular Magic Company, which ran from February 1977 through May 2012. The theater is early 20th-century style and is a live entertainment venue and movie theater. The Cabot was purchased in 2014 to save it from demolition, and became a nonprofit.
• The Larcom Theatre, an historic multipurpose music and performing arts theatre in Downtown Beverly. Built in 1912, the 560-seat restored vintage theatre is known for its acoustics, and was built by the Ware brothers (architects of the Cabot Theatre).
• Harry Ball Field, home of the Beverly Little League—first and oldest little league in Massachusetts
• Hurd Stadium (home of the Beverly Panthers)
• John Balch House (c. 1679)
• John Cabot House (1781)
• Exercise Conant House (1695)
• John Hale House (c. 1694)
• Lynch Park & Beaches, located in the city's Cove section, is a popular summer spot for swimming, kayaking, sun bathing, and picnics.
• The North Shore Music Theatre, offering a program of musicals and celebrity concerts
• The Odd Fellows' Hall, on the corner of Cabot and Broadway streets
• Montserrat College of Art

Education

The city has five K–4 elementary schools: Ayers Ryal Side, Centerville, Cove, Hannah, and North Beverly. The city's sole middle school is Beverly Middle School, which finished construction in 2018. Beverly Middle School serves residents in grades 5–8.

Beverly High School is a grade 9–12 public high school located in Beverly. It was founded in 1858, and currently enrolls over 1300 students. In September 2011, construction was completed on a new academic building, which is now in use by students and faculty.

Prior to the current state of Beverly's schools, Briscoe served as a middle and high school. Constructed in 1923, the historic building lies near downtown Beverly. Its use for high school students from 1923 to 1964 came to an end when it was transformed to the towns Junior High School, serving grades 6–8. There, it lasted until 2017 when the newly built Beverly Middle School took in the students.

Beverly is home to several K–12 private schools, including New England Academy, Landmark School, Harborlight-Stoneridge Montessori School, Kindercare Learning Center, Beverly School for the Deaf, Saints Academy, the Bright Horizons School, The Waring School, Glen Urquhart School, Shore Country Day, Mrs. Alexander's School, and several others.

In addition, Northshore Academy offers K–12 alternative public education services. Many schools exist on campus, including schools for those struggling with learning disabilities and for people with more severe mental and physical disabilities such as Down syndrome and paralysis

The city is home to Endicott College, which offers 23 bachelor programs, 27 concentrations, and 27 minors. Master programs are offered in business, education, nursing, computer science, and political science. Beverly is also home of Montserrat College of Art, a private four-year visual arts college.

Infrastructure

Veterans Memorial Bridge, looking toward Beverly from Salem

Transportation

Route 128, the chief circumferential highway of the Boston area, crosses Beverly from east to west and connects the city to Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1 in Peabody. Route 1A passes through Beverly from south to north, along main streets in downtown Beverly. The city is also the terminus of four different state routes: Route 22, which heads northeast from Route 1A; Route 62, which heads west from Route 127; Route 97, which parts with Route 1A northwest of downtown before heading north; and Route 127 which heads east from Route 22.

Beverly is the site of the split between the separate lines of the Newburyport/Rockport Line of the MBTA Commuter Rail, which provides service to Boston's North Station. South of the junction lies Beverly Depot near downtown, which is accessible along both lines. Along the Newburyport portion of the line is the North Beverly stop, just south of the Wenham town line. Along the Rockport portion of the line are two working stops, Montserrat and Beverly Farms, as well as the Prides Crossing station to which service is indefinitely suspended. Additionally, MBTA bus Route 451 serves the city, with service to downtown Beverly and Salem from the North Beverly station. A local bus route called the Beverly Shoppers Shuttle serves downtown and western Beverly, and is contracted through the Cape Ann Transportation Authority. Beverly is home to Beverly Municipal Airport, though parts of the airfield itself lie within Danvers, as well as a very small portion of the north runway in Wenham. Logan International Airport provides the nearest national and international regularly scheduled air service.

The Hall-Whitaker Bridge which spans the Bass River on Bridge Street was closed to vehicular traffic by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in June of 2023. A permanent replacement is expected in 2027.

Notable people

Film appearances