Oakland Street
MACRIS NWB.AQ · area form, 1980
The stretch of Oakland Street between High Street and Merrimac Street marked the western boundary of Newburyport when the town was established in 1764, and was then called North Street. In 1799 the auctioneer James Kettell advertised house lots on the new street, aimed at working people of modest means.
Settlement came decades later with the shipbuilding industry on Merrimac Street. By the mid-1800s most active shipyards lay between Jefferson and Oakland Streets, and Eben Manson's yard stood at the foot of Oakland Street. Yard owners lived on Merrimac Street and their workers built on the side streets. In 1851 the street's residents were nearly all shipyard families, and in 1872 ship carpenters, blacksmiths and ship joiners lived there.
Most houses were built for one family, such as 20 Oakland Street, which keeps Greek Revival details. Others are gable-front Greek Revival two-family houses, among them 25–27 and 31–33, alongside plainer Victorian houses. The Bridges family, ship plankers, owned 30 and 32 in 1884. The link to shipbuilding lasted into the early 1900s.
Summarized from the Massachusetts Historical Commission's area form. See the MACRIS record ↗
