Historic New England envisions the Haverhill Center for Preservation and Collections as a catalyst for a global-national-regional-local arts and culture district in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts.
A BOLD VISION
Explore living archives, state-of-the-art storytelling, and pioneering exhibitions. Experience dynamic installations and performances by world-class artists breaking new creative ground. Expand your knowledge with hands-on learning opportunities from top innovators and makers. Get excited.
Historic New England will evolve its downtown Haverhill location to unprecedented visitor and exhibition spaces and partner to develop residential, innovation, hospitality, and dining facilities. The Haverhill Center will support an improved streetscape, including expanded public art, lighting, signage, and green space.
This cultural district will serve as community catalyst, strengthening local and regional businesses, arts, environmental, and social institutions and significantly drawing new visitors and revenue to the area.
“We envision collaborating with the community to develop sustainable, more livable, resilient, and dramatically improved amenities, anticipating that the impact of the downtown cultural district will reverberate internationally.”
—Vin Cipolla, president and CEO, Historic New England
EXPLORE THE COLLECTIONS
Historic New England’s collection includes more than 125,000 objects and over 1.5 million archival documents. From teddy bears to tattoo flash, there’s something for everyone! To understand the breadth of the collection and the many stories it contains, you can explore a small sample below.
The prosperity following the American Revolution sparked a building boom as New Englanders constructed new homes, signaling their confidence in the future. The wall finish of choice for the interior of these houses was wallpaper. French wallpapers were especially desirable. Wallpaper was often recycled for use on bandboxes, example top right, which were used as containers for men’s neck bands in the eighteenth century and later for women’s hats and accessories.
Historic New England Haverhill Center is located in one of the largest former shoe factories in Haverhill. In 1900, 40% of the country’s shoes were manufactured in Massachusetts and Haverhill—“the Queen Slipper City”—was the third largest shoe manufacturing city in the United States. Adapting to changes in fashion and with the advance of organized labor, the Haverhill shoe industry continued to flourish. In 1941, a profile of Haverhill boasted the city as the largest manufacturer of women’s shoes in the US, with over fifty shoe factories in the city, along with other associated businesses in wooden-heel manufacturing and leather tanning. Queen Slipper City
Artist Sierra Autumn Henries creates contemporary jewelry inspired by her Chaubunagungamaug Nipmuc heritage for powerful patterns and traditional materials. “Many native cultures across the world, including my own, had and have been using birch bark for countless generations, and I feel honored to carry on that tradition.” –Sierra Autumn Henries 
Massachusetts banned tattoos in 1962 when a hepatitis break-out in New York was linked to tattoo needles. The ban didn’t stop people from getting tattoos; the whole business went underground, giving tattoos the aura of cool. Tattooing has been used by Indigenous Americans for thousands of years and for different cultural meanings—tribal identity, life milestones, and healing.Banned in Boston
Cyrus Bruce, free man, formerly enslaved, was known for his dapper appearance when he worked at Langdon House in Portsmouth, NH in 1783, yet when artist Richard Haynes embarked on painting his portrait in 2018, no image of Bruce existed. Haynes created this interpretive portrait of Bruce in an artist's residency and exhibition, A Life in Color: Two Cultural Makers, Centuries Apart at Historic New England’s Langdon House. “I have the opportunity to capture the image, the portrait of an unknown man and through this, together, we are going to be cultural keepers and makers. We are going to share the black heritage, the forgotten history, through art.” –Richard Haynes Jr.Between Two Worlds
Learn more about how Richard Haynes creates a portrait
These photographs are part of a series of images depicting the construction of the trestle for Boston’s Beacon Hill tunnel and the impact on its Lindall Place neighborhood in 1911. In the top photograph, brick masons work in front of a Lindall Place building as people sitting on a stoop look on. Boston opened the nation’s first subway in 1897.
Vermont-born sculptor Hiram Powers moved to Florence in 1837 to solidify his training. His studio there attracted a loyal clientele of travelers from New England, among them Nathaniel Hawthorne, who rhapsodized when he saw this bust: “A light seems to shine from the interior of the marble and beam forth from the features.” The figure is Psyche, a Greek goddess personifying the human soul. The sculpture is on view at Historic New England’s Codman Estate in Lincoln, Massachusetts.Soul Inspired
Haverhill Center preserves objects of everyday life like this 1974 crock-pot. The crock-pot slow cooker gained popularity in the mid-twentieth century as a time-saving technology. The inspiration for the modern crock-pot invention actually dates to a nineteenth century Lithuania town, where villagers slowly cooked a traditional Jewish stew called cholent in the town bakery’s hot ovens cooling overnight, to have dinner ready for the Sabbath.
The Paul Revere Pottery sprung from a literary club for Jewish and Italian immigrant girls of high school age, the Saturday Evening Girls Club, started by librarian Edith Guerrier, her partner, Edith Brown, an artist, and philanthropist Helen Storrow. Guerrier and Brown established the pottery business so that the girls could earn income. The items produced in the Paul Revere Pottery were in the arts and crafts movement-inspired pottery tradition characterized by simple shapes with boldly colored glazes and stylized images of nature.Girl Entrepreneurs
The evolution of New England furniture design tells the story of craftsmanship and innovation. It also tells the story of the human condition. Mahogany furniture, like the bombe chest featured left, was the height of fashion in the eighteenth century. Yet, mahogany was harvested under wretched conditions by enslaved people in the West Indies and Central America and today, it is emblematic of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
“…Adieu, New-England's smiling meads, Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) was the first Black, the first enslaved person, and only the second woman in America to publish a book. Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was first published in London in 1773. It was published twice more in England before the end of the century, and in seven editions in America. It brought its author great fame and her freedom. Through her poetry, Wheatley addressed the terrible wrong imposed on her fellow Africans by their enslavement. This copy belonged to Abigail Quincy (1745-1798) who inscribed her name in it in 1774. It was found in Historic New England’s Quincy House, Quincy, Massachusetts.
Adieu, th' flow'ry plain:
I leave thine op'ning charms, O spring,
And tempt the roaring main..” –Phillis Wheatley, “Farewell to America”
ENGAGE WITH US
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You can help shape the vision for the Haverhill Center. Join us at community events around the city that showcase exciting stories, creative activities, and compelling traditions. Please come see us to learn more about our vision for the Haverhill Center and become part of the story.
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Historic New England Haverhill Center
Historic New England is the largest cultural real estate presence in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Our campus is conveniently located approximately 35 miles north of Boston in Haverhill’s historic downtown and easily accessible by Amtrak, MBTA Commuter Rail, and three major highways.
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To learn more about the Haverhill vision and how your philanthropy can have a transformational impact, please contact Elliot Isen, Haverhill campaign officer, at [email protected]
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ABOUT HISTORIC NEW ENGLAND
Historic New England, founded in 1910 as The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, is the largest and most comprehensive independent preservation organization in the United States, welcoming hundreds of thousands of visitors each year to 38 exceptional museums and landscapes, including several coastal farms.
Historic New England operates the Haverhill Center and has the world’s largest collection of New England artifacts comprising more than 125,000 decorative arts and objects and 1.5 million archival documents, including photographs, architectural drawings, manuscripts, and ephemera. Engaging education programs for youths, adults, and preservation professionals and award-winning exhibitions and publications are offered in person and virtually.
The Historic New England Preservation Easement program is a national leader and protects 121 privately owned historic properties through the region.