Heritage Tours and Events 2025

Saturday, July 26 – Saturday, August 2, 10:00 – 5:00 PM. *Merrimack Valley Ship Model Club Exhibition. Unitarian Universalist Church, Lower Level, 28 Pleasant Street. The Merrimack Valley Ship Model Club will exhibit a wide range and variety of ship models displaying tiny miniatures, and modest rowing craft in contrast with ocean-going vessels. MVSMC members will be at the exhibit demonstrating modeling techniques and sharing background stories about the models on display.

Saturday, July 26 – Sunday, August 9. *If This House Could Talk neighborhood stroll. City residents will be displaying posters with stories about their homes. Stroll Newburyport neighborhoods and look for house stories prominently displayed. Online map and details HERE. https://walknewburyport.wordpress.com Museum of Old Newbury: *Guided Tours, Thursdays through Sundays 11 am – 5 pm. (last tour at 4 pm); 98 High St. Tickets online at www.newburyhistory.org.  Come take a 50-minute tour of this 1808 Federal period house which tells the story of the Cushing family and the greater Newburyport area.  Since 1877, the Museum of Old Newbury has been collecting, preserving, and presenting the history of Newburyport, Newbury, West Newbury, Byfield, and Plum Island. With objects and documents, we tell the stories of local people from the past four centuries.  [email protected]; phone: 978-462-2681.

Custom House Maritime Museum: *Guided Tours. Tuesday – Saturday: 10 am -5 pm; Sunday Noon to 5 pm. 25 Water Street. Free admission for Newburyport residents, children, students and active military. A new Discovery Center is perfect for K-12 and adults too! An important Revolutionary War exhibition is a must-see with incredible art and artifacts from 250 years ago. For more information, visit our website www.thechmm.org or call us at 978-462-8681.

Saturday, July 26, 1:00 – 2:00 pm. Road to the American Revolution. Parker River Wildlife Refuge Headquarters. Plum Island Turnpike. Historian and author Ghlee E.Woodworth will take you on a visual tour of Newburyport soldiers, reformers and revolutionaries and talk about their role in the American Revolution. Discover how the Merrimack River entrance was fortified to protect the harbor for ships and trade.

Saturday, July 26, 1:00 – 3:00 pm. *Newburyport Powder House Park and Learning Center, 57 Low Street (across from Nock/Molin Schools). Come and visit the restored Powder House built in 1822 on Godfrey’s Hill. View the exterior and interior restoration and original cobblestone wagon path. The Powder House is an American Association of State and Local History merit award winner.

Sunday, July 27, and Saturday, August 2, 10 am to 6 pm. *Local Citizens and Their Contributions. Oak Hill Cemetery. Brown and State Streets. Over 20 gravesites will be labeled – ministers, benefactors, sea captains including Francis B. Todd who was buried in a rum barrel. View the grave of Anna Jaques, the hospital benefactor. Enjoy a stroll through beautiful Oak Hill Cemetery while learning about our local citizens of the past.

Sunday, July 27, and Saturday, August 2; 10:00 am to Noon. *Superior Courthouse Open House, Bartlet Mall. Visit the 1805 courthouse, designed by Charles Bullfinch, and learn about its history and beautiful interior and exterior architecture including the courtroom where President John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster tried cases. Presented by Essex County Clerk of Courts Tom Driscoll and the Greater Newburyport Bar Association.

Sunday, July 27, Sunday 11- 12 Noon. Stop by Central Congregational Church on the corner of Pleasant and Titcomb Street. Hear The Killeeshil Irish Band play as you enjoy cookies and lemonade. Browse the history displays telling the story of the church, started in 1768.  Accessible bathrooms.

Sunday, July 27, 12:00-4:00 pm – Self-Guided Historic Graveyard Tour, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 166 High Street, Newburyport, MA. The tour is free. For more information, call 978-697-4084. Stop inside the graveyard to get your narrative history map and follow the numbers to the gravesites of prominent people at your own pace. A self-guided history tour of the colonial graveyard surrounding St. Paul’s Church begins with a brief history of St. Paul’s parish from its founding in 1711 in British America. Follow a narrative history map to the gravesites of the founding merchants who amassed tremendous wealth, revolutionary leaders like Tristram Dalton, who became the first senator from Massachusetts, loyalists whose lives were impoverished and shattered after the Revolution, the sea captain who transported Thomas Jefferson to Paris in 1783, and the gravesite of the only known African American buried in the graveyard.

Sunday, July 27, 1:00 to 3:00 pm. *Old South Church Tours, 29 Federal Street. Meet at the Federal Street front doors. Step right in and experience the way the church used to be in the 1700’s! Your tour will be steeped in history as you learn of Paul Revere’s bell, see spittoons in the sanctuary, descend into the crypt and discover a forgotten Founding Father buried directly under the pulpit!

Call 978 465-9666 for more information.

Sunday, July 27, 4:00 to 6:00 pm. *Old South Revolutionary War Tour. 29 Federal Street. Meet at the Federal Street front doors. Hear how the Old South Church and its parishioners participated in the American Revolution and played a vital role in sending soldiers to the ill-fated journey to Quebec with Colonel Benedict Arnold.

Sunday, July 27, 1:45 – 3:15 pm, and Monday, July 28, 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Tuesday, July 29, 11:00 – 12:30 pm, *Clipper Heritage Trail’s Along the Water’s Edge Waterfront Harbor Tour. Boardwalk near Black Cow restaurant. Tickets go fast! Make reservations online at www.harbortours.com. Join historian Ghlee Woodworth aboard the Yankee Clipper and enjoy a 90-minute cruise along the beautiful Merrimack River. Step back in time and hear about shipyards, Caldwell’s Rum, and a castle as we cruise upriver to Amesbury. On the return leg, the Yankee Clipper takes us along the shores of Joppa and learn how citizens fortified the harbor against the British in the 1770s.

Monday, July 28, 9:00 to 10:30 am. *Feathered Friends and Long Forgotten Friends, Oak Hill Cemetery, main gates, Brown and State Streets. Join Sue McGrath of Newburyport Birders and local historian Ghlee Woodworth for an exciting outing at Oak Hill Cemetery. Many different species are attracted to the diverse habitat of Oak Hill and while learning to identify birds, see the graves of Newburyport benefactors, sea captains, early American photographers, and abolitionists.

Monday, July 28, 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Tuesday, July 29, 11:00 – 12:30 pm, *Clipper Heritage Trail’s Along the Water’s Edge Waterfront Harbor Tour. Boardwalk near Black Cow restaurant. Tickets go fast! Make reservations online at www.harbortours.com. Join historian Ghlee Woodworth aboard the Yankee Clipper and enjoy a 90-minute cruise along the beautiful Merrimack River. Step back in time and hear about shipyards, Caldwell’s Rum, and a castle as we cruise upriver to Amesbury. On the return leg, the Yankee Clipper takes us along the shores of Joppa and learn how citizens fortified the harbor against the British in the 1770s.

Tuesday, July 29, 11:00 – 12:30 pm, *Clipper Heritage Trail’s Along the Water’s Edge Waterfront Harbor Tour. Boardwalk near Black Cow restaurant. Tickets go fast! Make reservations online at www.harbortours.com. Join historian Ghlee Woodworth aboard the Yankee Clipper and enjoy a 90-minute cruise along the beautiful Merrimack River. Step back in time and hear about shipyards, Caldwell’s Rum, and a castle as we cruise upriver to Amesbury. On the return leg, the Yankee Clipper takes us along the shores of Joppa and learn how citizens fortified the harbor against the British in the 1770s.

Tuesday July 29, 4:00 – 5:30pm. *Overlooked Stories, Forgotten No More: A Downtown Walking Tour by the Newburyport Black History Initiative. Meet at Green Street, Brown Square, across from City Hall. The mission of the award- winning Newburyport Black History Initiative is to affirm Black heritage and belonging in the city of Newburyport by illuminating histories that have long been overlooked and ensuring that these stories are publicly accessible to a broad audience. This walking tour of the interpretive signs installed in the downtown core will be led by two of the three co-founders of the Initiative, Geordie Vining, Dr. Kabria Baumgartner and Cyd Raschke. We will hear some of the stories of Black Americans, including domestic servants, mariners, barbers, soldiers, lawyers, and activists, who lived and worked in Newburyport from the pre-Revolutionary War era to the early 20th century. We will meet at Green Street, Brown Square, across from City Hall.

Wednesday, July 30, 10 am to 11:30 am. The Road to Revolution. Meet at the corner of Fruit, Prospect and Fair Streets. A morning stroll through sites connected with Newburyport’s Revolutionary past. Join author and historian Ghlee Woodworth for a walk in the downtown area.

Wednesday, July 30, 5 to 6 pm. Old Hill Burying Ground, Greenleaf Street behind Bartlet Mall. Join historian Ghlee Woodworth and take a stroll through the burying ground and visit the final resting places of citizens with a connection to Newburyport’s American Revolution past.

Thursday, July 31, 10 to 11 am. Oak Hill Cemetery. Brown and State Streets entrance by Brown Chapel. Take a walk through beautiful Oak Hill Cemetery and meet a soldier of the American Revolution, photographers, abolitionists and a lighthouse keeper.

Friday, August 1, 10 am to 2 pm. First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist, 26 Pleasant Street 10:00-2:00. Make your own Bonnet or Tri-corner Hat; – hosted by the Central Church and UU. Children and families come and help celebrate the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Get a photo of yourself as a colonial resident with a cardboard family of “Stand-Ins” and sign your name with a quill pen to a historical document.  All are welcome!

Friday, August 1 and Saturday, August 2, 11 am – 2 pm. *History Tours. First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist, 26 Pleasant Street. Drop in for a tour 11 am – 2 pm and help celebrate the church’s 300 th anniversary and history. View the drone video of the beauty of church grounds and steeple, experience the architectural beauty and social history of the church, a cornerstone of Newburyport since 1725. See the 1750s clock hand struck by lightning and studied by Benjamin Franklin. Be sure to head downstairs to see the Merrimack Valley Ship Model Club display and stop by next door at Parish Hall’s book sale.

Saturday, August 2, 10 am to 6 pm. *Local Citizens and Their Contributions. Oak Hill Cemetery. Brown and State Streets. Over 20 gravesites will be labeled – ministers, benefactors, sea captains including Francis B. Todd who buried in a rum barrel and view the grave of Anna Jaques, the hospital benefactor. Enjoy a stroll through beautiful Oak Hill Cemetery while learning about our local citizens of the past.

Saturday, August 2; 10:00 am to Noon. *Superior Courthouse Open House, Bartlet Mall. Visit the 1805 courthouse, designed by Charles Bullfinch, and learn about its history and beautiful interior and exterior architecture including the courtroom where President John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster tried cases. Presented by Essex County Clerk of Courts Tom Driscoll and the Greater Newburyport Bar Association.

Saturday, August 2, 11 am – 2 pm. *History Tours. First Religious Society, Unitarian Universalist, 26 Pleasant Street. Drop in for a tour 11 am – 2 pm and help celebrate the church’s 300th anniversary and history. View the drone video of the beauty of church grounds and steeple, experience the architectural beauty and social history of the church, a cornerstone of Newburyport since 1725. See the 1750s clock hand struck by lightning and studied by Benjamin Franklin. Be sure to head downstairs to see the Merrimack Valley Ship Model Club display and stop by next door at Parish Hall’s book sale.

Saturday, August 2nd at 11:00 am to 1:15 pm. & 1:30 – 2:45 pm – Historic Church Tour: King and Revolution. St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 166 High Street, Newburyport, MA. The tour is free. For more information, call 978-697-4084. Your tour guide will escort you back through time to the parish’s founding in 1711 during British New England during the reign of Queen Anne and will take you through the Revolutionary War period to the present day. Visitors will tour the current church building surrounded by its 18th-century graveyard and Civil War-era chapel.