Historic Beverly

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Historic Beverly Historic Beverly is devoted to collecting the objects and documents that illustrate Beverly history.

👻 Have you heard the legend of the Isle of the Puritans?Imagine standing along the North Shore on a foggy autumn evening...
10/20/2026

👻 Have you heard the legend of the Isle of the Puritans?

Imagine standing along the North Shore on a foggy autumn evening when, somewhere out at sea, you hear the distant ringing of church bells. Then, through the mist, the sails of a ghostly ship appear, only to vanish as quickly as they came.

During the nineteenth century, stories circulated along the Massachusetts coast about a mysterious spectral island said to appear through the mist. Fishermen and coastal residents reportedly heard solemn bells ringing from somewhere out at sea, strange hymns rising above the sounds of violent storms, and saw ghostly ships appearing and disappearing along the horizon.

But who, or what, was said to inhabit this mysterious island? And what did it have to do with the Salem witch trials of 1692?

The legend was so well known that an account appeared in Harper's Magazine in 1857, preserving a particularly haunting piece of North Shore folklore.

Want to know more? Join us for Wicked Beverly: Witches & Monsters on the North Shore as we uncover the stories, legends, and mysterious happenings that have fascinated North Shore residents for centuries!

📅 Friday, October 30
🕕 6 PM and 8 PM
🎟️ $5 for Historic Beverly members, $10 for non-members

🔗 Reserve your spot: https://historicbeverly.net/event/wicked-beverly-witches-monsters-on-the-north-shore-walking-tour-3/

💋 LOOKING FOR A GOOD TIME WITH A HISTORIC OBJECT? ♥We’re not saying you should get emotionally attached to a 200-year-ol...
10/19/2026

💋 LOOKING FOR A GOOD TIME WITH A HISTORIC OBJECT? ♥

We’re not saying you should get emotionally attached to a 200-year-old object…

But we are saying that Object Speed Dating can get pretty intimate. 😉

Join us for a delightfully hands-on Member Morning at Hale Farm, where you’ll have the chance to get up close and personal with 10 mystery objects from the Historic Beverly collection.

You’ll examine them.
Ask questions.
Make guesses.
Try to figure out who used them and what they were used for.
And then comes the big reveal. 👀

Some objects may sweep you off your feet. Others may leave you wondering, “What exactly am I looking at?”

Either way, you’ll leave with a better understanding of how historians use objects to uncover the stories of the past.

📍 Hale Farm
📅October 24
🕰 9:30am
🎟️ Free for Historic Beverly members only
📋Register here: https://historicbeverly.net/event/member-mornings-object-speed-dating-at-hale-farm/

🆕Not an HB member? Join the collection-loving club here: https://historicbeverly.net/product/historic-beverly-membership/

🎃 Looking for something a little different to do this Halloween?Why settle for one spooky experience when you can have T...
10/17/2026

🎃 Looking for something a little different to do this Halloween?

Why settle for one spooky experience when you can have TWO?

Join Historic Beverly on Halloween night for a double feature exploring the darker, stranger, and more fascinating sides of Beverly's history!

First, we'll gather at the historic Hale Farm for Spooky Tales at Hale, exploring unsettling stories from Beverly's past in a house that has witnessed more than three centuries of history.

Then, we'll venture into the darkness for a Candlelight Walking Tour of Abbott Street Cemetery, one of Beverly's oldest burial grounds. Among the weathered gravestones are stories of Revolutionary War soldiers, forgotten lives, and the fascinating ways our ancestors understood death and remembrance.

There's something especially atmospheric about walking through a centuries-old cemetery by candlelight on Halloween night!

Whether you're a history lover, fascinated by the macabre, or just looking for a memorable way to celebrate Halloween, we've got your evening covered.

📅 Saturday, October 31 (Halloween!)
🕗 8:00–10:30 PM
📍 Hale Farm, 39 Hale Street, Beverly (we will then be walking together to Abbott St. Cemetery)
🎟️ $10 for Historic Beverly members, $20 for non-members (includes BOTH programs!)

🔗 Reserve your spot: https://historicbeverly.net/event/double-feature-spooky-tales-at-hale-candlelight-walking-tour-of-the-ancient-burial-ground/

🧙‍♀️ Beverly has always been a little wicked...From accused witches and restless spirits to mysterious sea serpents and ...
10/16/2026

🧙‍♀️ Beverly has always been a little wicked...

From accused witches and restless spirits to mysterious sea serpents and UFO sightings, Beverly has nearly 400 years of strange, unsettling, and sometimes downright bizarre stories to tell.

But which of these tales are rooted in historical fact, and which have grown a little more mysterious with each retelling?

Join us for Wicked Beverly: Witches & Monsters on the North Shore as we wander through downtown Beverly after dark, uncovering the people, places, and legends behind some of the North Shore's strangest stories.

Whether you're a believer, a skeptic, or just love a good ghost story, there's something wicked waiting for you!

📅 Friday, October 30
🕕 6 PM and 8 PM
📍 Downtown Beverly
🎟️ $5 for Historic Beverly members, $10 for non-members

Our 8 PM tour is almost sold out, so don't wait too long to grab your tickets!

🔗 https://historicbeverly.net/event/wicked-beverly-witches-monsters-on-the-north-shore-walking-tour-3/

👻 FRIGHTFUL FRIDAY: The Boogeyman of BeverlyWhat happens when things start going bump in the night... and nobody can exp...
10/16/2026

👻 FRIGHTFUL FRIDAY: The Boogeyman of Beverly

What happens when things start going bump in the night... and nobody can explain why?

In 1965, the Barsanti family purchased a sprawling 32-room mansion on Woodbury Street in Beverly. Known as "The Birches," the estate had once belonged to Abraham C. Ratshesky, a prominent Boston businessman who served as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia from 1930 to 1932.

But according to one member of the family, the house came with something they hadn't bargained for.

Doors reportedly opened on their own, including a kitchen door that had been securely locked. Furniture and other objects mysteriously changed positions, and the family's dog seemed particularly reluctant to enter the kitchen.

Then there were the stranger occurrences.

A shadowy figure was reportedly seen leaping from a balcony, unexplained laughter echoed through the house at night, and even a piece of rabbit fur inexplicably appeared somewhere it didn't belong.

The strange happenings were recounted by Steve Barsanti to author Robert Ellis Cahill, who included the story in his collection of New England hauntings. The disturbances seemed less like a traditional ghost story and more like the mischievous activity often associated with a poltergeist.

But what was really happening at The Birches?

The mansion no longer stands, and a newer home now occupies the property at 37 Woodbury Street. Whatever caused the strange occurrences, the stories have outlived the house itself.

Was it a haunting, an elaborate series of coincidences, or something else entirely?

Perhaps some mysteries are best left unsolved. 👻

📷: 37 Woodbury St, courtesy of MACRIS https://mhc-macris.net/details?mhcid=bev.209&fbclid=iwy2xjawvayn1lehrua2flbqixmabwzg9ma2jyawqrmw90uxhgog5xag1my3jyadlzcnrjbmfwcf9pza81mtq3nze1njkymjgwnjeaar4ocyc4chjol7anzoj5objk6phmm293brpzo82hvq_me8jq_ityjn-kyo6ixg_aem_kap4ek0e5yllemcwu4vcia

🕵️ CAN YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS? 🕵️We’re putting your detective skills to the test at Object Speed Dating: A Member Mor...
10/15/2026

🕵️ CAN YOU FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS? 🕵️

We’re putting your detective skills to the test at Object Speed Dating: A Member Morning at Hale Farm!

We’ll place 10 mystery objects around Hale Farm. Each one comes with just a few clues.

That’s it.

No Google. No labels. No helpful museum guide whispering the answer in your ear.
You’ll work in small groups to investigate each object and decide:

🔍 What is it?
👤 Who used it?
📖 What story does it tell?
❓ What questions does it make you ask?
Then—THE REVEAL! 🎉

We’ll tell you what these objects actually are, who used them, and the stories they can help us uncover. You might be surprised by how much you can learn from something as ordinary as an object.

Think of it as speed dating for history nerds but you don't have to be a history nerd. Curiosity is the only requirement.

Ready to meet your mystery match?

📍 Hale Farm
📅October 24
🕰 9:30am
🎟️ Free for Historic Beverly members only
📋Register here: https://historicbeverly.net/event/member-mornings-object-speed-dating-at-hale-farm/

🆕Not an HB member? Join the collection-loving club here: https://historicbeverly.net/product/historic-beverly-membership/

Surf City: A Disaster to RememberHistory is full of unexpected twists, dramatic events, and stories that deserve to be r...
10/14/2026

Surf City: A Disaster to Remember

History is full of unexpected twists, dramatic events, and stories that deserve to be remembered. Take a look at this fascinating blog post by James F. Lee exploring the story behind the Surf City Disaster.

What happened, and what can we learn from looking back? Dive into the story and discover a piece of the past worth revisiting.

🔗 Read the full blog post: https://www.jamesflee.com/blog/surf-city-disaster

“In death the friend the kind companion lies,And in one death what various comfort dies.”These words, written by Phillis...
10/14/2026

“In death the friend the kind companion lies,
And in one death what various comfort dies.”

These words, written by Phillis Wheatley, one of the most remarkable poets of the eighteenth century, are carved into a gravestone in Beverly's Abbott Street Cemetery.

The man buried beneath them was Ezra Trask Foster, a Revolutionary War minuteman who marched to Concord on April 19, 1775, alongside Captain Larkin Thorndike. He survived the Revolution but died of consumption at just 37 years old.

Rather than simply marking his death, his gravestone offers a deeply personal expression of grief. The lines from Wheatley's poetry mourn not only the loss of a life, but the friendship, companionship, and comfort that disappeared with it. Additional verses, written by an unidentified poet, reflect on mortality and the enduring power of virtue.

Wheatley herself had been enslaved in Boston, where she learned to read and write and became an internationally recognized poet. Her words appearing on a Beverly gravestone offer a fascinating glimpse into the reach of her poetry and the changing ways eighteenth-century New Englanders expressed loss and remembrance.

Who was this man, and why were these particular words chosen to commemorate him?

Join us for our Candlelight Walking Tour of Abbott Street Cemetery as we uncover the stories behind the stones and the people whose memories they preserve.

📅: Thursday, October 22, 2026
🕰: 6:30 P.M.
📍: Abbott Street Cemetery, Beverly, MA
🔗: https://historicbeverly.net/event/candlelight-walking-tour-of-the-ancient-burial-ground/
📷: Abbott St. Cemetery circa 1915
📷: Ezra Trask Foster's stone, courtesy of findagrave

👻 LAST CHANCE TO INVESTIGATE!Think you've got what it takes to spend the night investigating some of Beverly's oldest hi...
10/13/2026

👻 LAST CHANCE TO INVESTIGATE!

Think you've got what it takes to spend the night investigating some of Beverly's oldest historic homes?

This weekend, October 16–18, join Shari DeBenedetti from Ghost Hunters for three nights of paranormal investigations at the Balch House, Hale House, and Cabot House!

Explore these centuries-old buildings after dark, learn about their histories, and use professional paranormal investigation equipment to investigate reports of unexplained activity. Who knows what you might encounter?

And here's the deal: You can join us for a single investigation for $60, or experience all THREE nights for just $150, saving $30!

📅 Friday, October 16: Balch House
📅 Saturday, October 17: Hale House
📅 Sunday, October 18: Cabot House

⚠️ Space is limited, and some sessions are already sold out! Advance registration is required. Ages 18+.

Don't miss your chance to explore Beverly's history in a whole new (and possibly haunted) way!

🔗 Reserve your spot before it's too late: https://historicbeverly.net/event/series-ticket-three-night-paranormal-investigation/

🎁 Shop Local. Give Beverly History. 🎁The holidays are right around the corner and if you’re looking for gifts that are a...
10/13/2026

🎁 Shop Local. Give Beverly History. 🎁

The holidays are right around the corner and if you’re looking for gifts that are a little more Beverly, stop by the Historic Beverly shop! ❤️

We’ve got plenty of fun ways to share your love of our city, including Entering Beverly merchandise celebrating the places, stories, and character that make Beverly home. And yes… an assortment of Shoebert stickers are available too! 🦭

Whether you’re shopping for the history lover, the proud Beverly resident, the local celebrity fan, or that person who already has everything, our shop has something they won’t find just anywhere.

🎄 Come shop with us on site and pick up a little piece of Beverly history for everyone on your holiday list!

📍 Visit us at Historic Beverly 117 Cabot Street
🛍️ Browse more from the Historic Beverly Shop: https://historicbeverly.net/shop/

Give a gift with a story. Give Beverly. ❤️

Address

117 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA
01915

Opening Hours

Wednesday 9:30am - 4pm
Thursday 12pm - 8pm
Friday 9:30am - 4pm
Saturday 9:30am - 4pm

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