Beverly Community History

Oldest Continuous Use Waterfront Landing?

This is a brief summary of an article in the Salem Evening News, August 7, 1996.

Allen B. Hovey is a Rockport resident who has spent years researching Beverly's history. According to Hovey, Beverly can lay claim to having the oldest public boat landing in continuous use in the country.

The Ferry Way-the spot where the first settlers crossed from Salem-dates back to 1636. It is located on land not far from the new Beverly-Salem bridge on the Beverly Harbor.

"It goes back almost to the beginnings of the country," Hovey said. He has checked around and "I don't find anything that gets close to that."

The ferry Way was once a 682 foot strip of public land along the Beverly Harbor, that over the years fell into private ownership.

Before the building of the Essex Bridge in 1788 to link Beverly and Salem, a ferry service established in 1636 shuttled passengers back and forth between the two communities for 152 years.

Hovey would like to see the County Commissioners restore the original boundaries of the Ferry Way public landing.

Excerpted from an article in the Salem Evening News, 7 August, 1996, written by JoAnne Menesale.

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