Beverly Center Business District

Beverly's central business district occupies about 46 acres on a level point of land between the Bass River and Beverly Harbor. Cabot Street forms its spine, with sixteen side streets holding 105 properties, among them 88 contributing structures, a monument, a burial ground and the Common. Buildings range from the 1770 First Parish Church, remodeled in Greek Revival form in 1835, to the 1913 Public Library designed by Cass Gilbert. Federal mansions built for merchants John and Andrew Cabot, Victorian commercial blocks, churches, a school and Colonial Revival houses around Monument Square show how the area changed over time. The district grew most strongly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the railroad arrived in 1839 and a successful shoe industry emerged, moving the town's focus from the waterfront to Cabot Street. It reflects Beverly's evolution from a maritime and agricultural town into a small industrial city, and it holds possible archaeological potential.