Haverhill Historical Society Historic District

Perched on a rise above Water Street and the Merrimack River in Haverhill, this small district preserves part of a farm once held by the Saltonstall and Duncan families for more than 250 years. The largest building is the Duncan House, also called Buttonwoods, a two-story Federal double house traditionally dated to 1814, with brick end walls, a fanlighted entry and a Shingle style rear ell added in the 1880s. Nearby stand a gambrel-roofed house that began in the early 18th century and a mid-19th-century shoe shop moved to the site in 1957. The farm was subdivided in the late 19th century, leaving the house lot. In 1903 the Duncans donated the property to the Haverhill Historical Society, which added exhibition halls in the twentieth century, including Ayer-Elliott Hall and Tenney Hall. The district counts twenty contributing resources and four noncontributing ones, and it continues to serve as a museum.