Museum We are Haverhill: Changing Faces of Haverhill’s Neighborhoods

Haverhill’s history is the intersection of person and place. Whether we live or work in the city, we all have stories about the impact our neighborhoods and city have on our lives as well as our impact on them.

Haverhill has seen an evolution of residents, from the earliest inhabitants—the Penacook Native Americans—to the myriad immigrants who arrived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Haverhill saw dramatic population growth as thousands flocked to the city in search of employment at one of the hundreds of shoe factories. Vast dense neighborhoods, known as Mt. Washington and the Acre, were erected fanning out from the industrial core of the city.

Today both Mt. Washington and the Acre continue to be densely populated, housing a quarter of the city’s population. Just as they were a century ago, these neighborhoods are the threads that bind thousands to Haverhill’s downtown center. Over the years, the faces of the neighborhoods have changed as various peoples arrive, move out, and mingle. People from around the globe, including Ireland, Italy, Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, have all called these neighborhoods home. These are the faces, stories, and words of those living in the neighborhoods today. They are Haverhill.

Produced in Collaboration by Historic New England, Buttonwoods Museum, MassDevelopment, and HC Media

Contemporary photos by Markham Starr.

Historical photos courtesy of the Trustees of the Haverhill Public Library, Special Collections Department.