{"nrhp_refnum":"76001967","name":"Rocks Village Historic District","other_names":["Holt's Rocks","East Parish of Haverhill"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"NE of Haverhill at Merrimack River","address_restricted":false,"city":"Haverhill","county":"Essex County","state":"MA","lat":42.809345500000035,"lon":-71.00242017879253,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-12-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Art","Transportation","Literature","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district of 25 buildings plus Rock's Bridge on the Merrimack River in northeastern Haverhill, Massachusetts, along Wharf Lane, River Road and East Main Street. The village began as a ferry crossing in 1640 and is mostly 18th and 19th century.","why_significant":"The district is significant as a virtually unchanged pre-industrial community of the 18th and 19th centuries. It is also tied to mural painter Rufus Porter and poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Its houses show fine architectural features, including Samuel McIntire influence and Porter murals.","narrative":"Rocks Village is a small riverside community in northeastern Haverhill, Massachusetts, where 25 buildings line Wharf Lane, River Road and East Main Street beside the Merrimack River. It began as a ferry crossing in 1640, and a covered bridge to West Newbury followed in 1795; the present steel bridge dates from 1905. Fifteen buildings are from the eighteenth century, eight from the nineteenth and two from the twentieth. Residents ran ferries and built an economy on farming, shipbuilding, fishing and making shoes and horncombs. Notable buildings include the Ingersoll House, showing the influence of Samuel McIntire, and the Ingalls or Countess House, which holds murals by Rufus Porter and inspired a Whittier poem. The John Swett House has an unusual angled chimney, and the 1840 Hand Tub House is now a museum. The district was listed as a nearly unchanged pre-industrial village with literary and artistic associations.","period_of_significance":"1700-1899","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Primarily residential; the Hand Tub House is now a museum. Largely unaltered since the nineteenth century apart from two twentieth-century houses, and protected by a local historic district commission established in 1975.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:55.045254-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/98/7946/63794698/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/76001967.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001967/62cdf813e7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001967/62cdf813e7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rocks_Village_Fire_Station,_Haverhill_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rocks_Village_Fire_Station,_Haverhill_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794698","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_Village_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7355567"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/essex-county/rocks-village-historic-district-76001967/"}