Main Street Historic District

Main Street Historic District is a stretch of Haverhill's main corridor, running north uphill from the Merrimack River. It begins at the old town common, now Grand Army of the Republic Park, which holds a band shell, a fountain, a cannon and several war memorials, including the 1879 Hannah Dustin Monument. North of the park stand two churches from the mid-1800s and 1880s, among them the 1847-48 Romanesque Revival church designed by Alpheus Cary Morse, later turned to face Main Street and now an Armenian Apostolic church. The 1909 Beaux-Arts Classical high school was converted to City Hall in the 1970s. Other buildings include the 1883 First Baptist Church with its 140-foot tower, the First Congregational Church of 1859 remodeled in 1916, and the 1953 Wadleigh Home. Large houses built for town leaders now serve commercial uses. The area reflects the common's colonial role as meetinghouse site and training field, and the later growth of Haverhill's civic and religious center.