Haverhill, Massachusetts

[AlyssaCPascal]

Haverhill (pronounced HAY-vrull or HAY-va-rull) is a small city in Essex County, Massachusetts. The population is 67,787 as of the 2020 US Census. Haverhill
is one of several major industrial cities (others of note include Lawrence, Lowell, Nashua and Manchester) to spring up along the Merrimack River in the 1800s during the industrial revolution, utilizing water power from the Merrimack to power their mills. Haverhill’s primary industry was shoemaking, earning it the nickname “the Queen Slipper City.” Like many other industrial cities in the northeastern United States, Haverhill hit a period of sharp decline in the early 20th century that it never fully recovered from (although Haverhill is doing a LOT better now than it was 20 years ago).

I was in Haverhill the other day to go to the RMV (that’s what we call the DMV in Massachusetts, because in Massachusetts we have to be “different” so we call
it the “Registry” of Motor Vehicles cause oOoh it sounds British and fancy. (in case you misread the tone, that’s sarcasm by the way)) and I decided to brave the cold to take some photos. My phone died before I could get as many photos as I wanted to, but here are the ones I have:

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures! Haverhill looks a lot denser than I expected; I figured half of it would've been torn down for parking, like so many other cities.

Fun trivia: the Patriots considered building a stadium in Haverhill before staying in Foxboro.

[plinko]

I've never heard of this place and had to look it up. Always fun to see someplace new. Thanks!

[Quabbin]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures! Haverhill looks a lot denser than I expected; I figured half of it would've been torn down for parking, like so many other cities.

Fun trivia: the Patriots considered building a stadium in Haverhill before staying in Foxboro.

Half of it was torn down for parking; Alyssa took pictures of the other half after finishing up at the Registry.

[Doady]

Shame about the parking, but it still looks like a welcoming place. With enough investment in transit, they can slowly redevelop those parking lots and rebuild their downtown.

Here in Canada, there was another small city, Brantford, that recently destroyed a large part of its historic downtown, which made no sense to me.

[geomorph]

Originally Posted by AlyssaCPascal

This mural looks very complicated, I bet the entire history of the area was attempted to be portrayed in it.