"The Walking Tour" is a small pamphlet originally published by the Historical Commission of Ipswich. It was revised by the Ipswich Visitor's Center and is sold by them. The pamphlet has short descriptions of about 30 of the old homes in Ipswich. It is keyed to the map. I would like to thank the Ipswich Visitor's Center for their kind permission to use their map and pamphlet as the basis for this online presentation of their Walking Tour.
Photographs come from several sources. Herbert Cole has provided some. Harold D. Bowen did a series of articles entitled tales of olde ipswich for the Ipswich paper years ago. Some of the photos are from these articles. Also, where appropriate, I have the articles linked from the Walking Tour. Bruce Lord, Harold's nephew, has been sending these to me and given permission to use them. Another source of photos are the books of Susan Boice Howard. And yet another source is Thomas Franklin Waters' Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony ©1905.
For more information please see History of Ipswich, Essex, and Hamilton by Joseph B. Felt ©1834.
I am always open to suggestions for improvements and corrections.
Also, you can sign my guestbook at my History Of Ipswich page.
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Ipswich is a very special town to all of us who by chance or heritage happen to live here. We hope your walking tour will make you feel that our history is a part of your history.
To begin your tour, click on any house symbol. Then use the links at the bottom of each page to walk through historic Ipswich or to bring you back to the map to go to houses at random.
I hope that you enjoy your tour and can make the trip to Ipswich in the future to see these wonderful old homes and more. You may contact the Ipswich Historical Society via the Ipswich feedback page. Also, be sure to visit the Ipswich site.