Your own town
📍 Newburyport
5 chapters on a 3D map of Newburyport, about 75 minutes in all. Students explore it with Scout, find a true story at each place, then use what they learned.
Chapter 1 plays in your browser on a computer.
Before the Ships · Molodemak · Old Will Stood His Ground
Standards: 3.T1.2 · 3.T2.3d · 3.T1.1
The First Settlers Land · The Stone Manor
Standards: 3.T1.2 · 3.T5.3 · 3.T5.4 · 3.T1.1
Clipper City Shipyards · The West Indies Trade · The Cushing House · The Young Printer
Standards: 3.T5.5a · 3.T5.5b · 3.T5.5c · 3.T5.4
The Great Fire · New Neighbors Arrive · The Mills · The Street That Fought Back
Standards: 3.T1.2 · 3.T1.1
The House That Threw Things · The Preacher Underneath · Dexter’s Museum
Standards: 3.T1.1 · RI.3.1
Word for word what students read, with the sources we checked them against.
5,000 years ago
In 1977, diggers on this waterfront turned up stone tools five thousand years old. The people who made them lived here long before anyone wrote things down. Much later, the Pawtucket people lived here. They spoke Abenaki, and they spent their summers at this river mouth. People lived here for a very long time before it was called Newburyport.
Sources: newbury1635.org · govinfo.gov · capeannhistory.org
1635
In May 1635, a group of English settlers stepped off their boats. They landed on the bank of the river we now call the Parker River. The year before, they had sailed from England on a ship called the Mary and John. They spent the winter in Ipswich, then rowed up the coast to Newbury. First, they listened to a sermon by their minister, Thomas Parker. A sermon is a talk given at church. They built homes around the Lower Green and named the town Newbury. The busy harbor part of town grew and grew. In 1764, it became its own town, Newburyport. In 1851, it became a city.
Sources: newburyma.gov · newbury1635.org · newburyma.gov · en.wikipedia.org · historicipswich.net · salemwitchmuseum.com · ppreservationist.com · en.wikipedia.org · customhousemaritimemuseum.org · newburyportma.gov · customhousemaritimemuseum.org
1853
Newburyport has always been a town of shipbuilders. Long ago, the woods gave plenty of lumber for ships. By the 1770s, this was the center of shipbuilding in New England. In 1772 alone, 90 ships were launched here! Later, shipyards along the river below Merrimac Street built clipper ships. A clipper ship is a fast sailing ship. In 1853, a yard at the foot of Ashland Street built one named Dreadnought. In 1859, it raced from New York to Ireland in less than ten days. That set a record! That is why Newburyport is called the Clipper City.
Sources: customhousemaritimemuseum.org · customhousemaritimemuseum.org · customhousemaritimemuseum.org · customhousemaritimemuseum.org · historynewburyport.com · historynewburyport.com · newburyportnews.com · customhousemaritimemuseum.org · customhousemaritimemuseum.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org