Amesbury and Salisbury Mills Village Historic District

Amesbury's historic core is a compact, 15-acre industrial and commercial district centered on Market Square and the Powow River, which drops 75 feet in a series of waterfalls just north of the square. Of 76 buildings, 60 contribute to its character. Nine red-brick textile mills, seven of them forming the Millyard, date from 1825 to 1875; the earliest was built over a millrace, and an 1872 mill was the first in town powered by steam. Around the square stand brick commercial blocks in Italianate and Renaissance Revival styles, a Neoclassical post office of 1905 designed by James Knox Taylor, a Baptist church of 1873, and houses from the Federal, Greek Revival and mansard periods. The consistent height, scale and brick construction give the area a unified appearance. The textile industry ended in 1912, and many mills are now vacant or in small-scale industrial use. The area also holds high potential for historic archaeological remains.