A Neighborhood History: Amesbury’s School Street

School Street area on an 1854 Clark map. The Ordway School near the center of the map eventually became Amesbury municipal office space and stood until about10 years ago. Sparhawk Street, St. Joseph’s Church, and the current Amesbury police and fire department buildings did not yet exist.

Today’s School Street – only 600 feet long – is dominated on one end by Amesbury municipal buildings, and on the other by St. Joseph’s Church. In between is a mix of residential and professional buildings. But in the 1850s, this street was informally considered the western border of downtown Amesbury and was mostly residences of well known Amesbury families such as Rowell, Ordway, Bagley, and Bailey.

ACM’s tireless volunteer researcher, Mike Harrold, recently completed a detailed history of School Street and nearby streets and buildings. His report, “Evolution of a Neighborhood,” of course includes the history of St. Joseph’s Church and its associated buildings, which still dominate the southern end of the street. He even provides a study of St. Joseph’s convent brick work from 1885, which is strikingly similar to the style used in the 1888 Lambert Hollander building still standing on Oakland Street. Mike suggests the two buildings could have been constructed by the same contractor.

School Street got its name from a small school building that stood back from the east side of the street for 170 years or more, on land donated by the Ordway family. Later in its life it served as municipal offices, surviving until about 10 years ago when it was torn down. Another school building, constructed about 1866 as Amesbury High School, still stands close to the east edge of the street. It too has been repurposed to house Amesbury municipal offices.

It might surprise some to learn that Sparhawk Street, intersecting Main Street and the southern end of School Street, did not exist until 1889. Before that, states Mike’s report, “there was no place for it to go.” When Sparhawk Street was first constructed, a wooden trestle was built to carry it across a marshy area between the St. Joseph’s Church property and Whittier Street. The trestle was eventually replaced with earthen fill that today almost seems to be part of the natural landscape. (Sparhawk Street, by the way, was named after the Sparhawk family, whose home was displaced by the new street.)

As you might expect if you’re familiar with Mike’s work, there’s much more to the School Street story: its prominent residents, the public well near today’s statue of Josiah Bartlett, carriage and shoe factories near School Street, and more. Read his complete report here.

The Ordway School building as it appeared about 2010 when it housed various Amesbury municipal offices.

The wood-frame St. Joseph’s Church built in 1866. It was replaced by today’s larger brick church, which opened in 1876.