Northshore Magazine

December 2014

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/410828

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 33 of 283

Date of settlement: 1626 Date of incorporation: 1855 Area: 16.8 sq. miles Population: 51,251 ZIP code: 01960 Median household income: $54,829 Public schools: Brown Elementary, Burke Elementary, Carroll Elementary, Center Elementary, McCarthy Elementary, South Elementary, Welch Elementary, West Elementary, Higgins Middle School, Veterans Memorial High School Notable residents: Business executive Jack Welch; MLB player Jeff Allison; Olympic swimmer Samantha Arsenault; early American astronomer, mathematician, and navigator Nathaniel Bowditch; Salem witch hysteria victims Giles Corey, Martha Corey, and John Proctor; Peabody's namesake, businessman and philanthropist George Peabody 32 nshoremag.com December 2014 Peabody ne are new residential apartments, new businesses coming in, and plans for a boutique hotel. "We think that we're ex- periencing a revitalization of our down- town," Bettencourt says. The city's businesses and residents appreciate the work that's been done on Main Street, says Joan Morrissey, co-pres- ident of the Peabody Downtown Associa- tion, especially the way it has attracted more pedestrians and stoked interest in living closer to Main Street. "We love the revitalization project," Morrissey says. "It's showing outsiders what a great community it is and how much better, potentially, it can be." Making changes to Main Street's aesthetics and infrastructure isn't the MEDIAN 4 Dudley Circle, 3 bd., 1 ba., 1,200 sq.ft., 0.32 acre Price: $329,900 Agent: Joe Bean Real Estate HIGH END 9 Moulton Rd., 5 bd., 3.5 ba., 3,780 sq. ft., 0.51 acre Price: $619,900 Agent: Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Real Estate The Details only way that the city is trying to attract more businesses to downtown. Accord- ing to Deanne M. Healey, president and CEO of the Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce, the city has a loan program for small businesses and also hired its first business liaison, who guides people through the process of opening a busi- ness in the city. Healey says she always follows up with new business owners to ask about how the start-up process went for them. "We have received an overwhelming response about how easy it is to open a business in Peabody," she says. "Busi- nesses are an integral part of the city." Of course, it's perfectly fi ting that business- es are finding such a critical foothold in a city that's named for George Peabody, a giant of finance and the father of mod- ern philanthropy, whose businesses and benefactions would eventually evolve into institutions like J. P. Morgan, Lon- don's Peabody Trust, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Peabody museums at Harvard and Yale. While Peabody busies itself with changing its downtown for the better, there are things that the city doesn't want to change. Among them is the pride it has in its ethnic and cultural diversity. "We were, at one point, the leather capital of the world," Bettencourt says. "Many immigrants came from Europe because of the jobs in the leather industry. That's how the city was built." Those immigrants put down roots in Peabody, and today their heritage is still strong. In fact, Peabody hosts an International Festival each year, and this year's—which was relocated to be closer to Main Street—was the biggest one in its 31-year history, boasting more than 100 booths celebrating the city's Greek, Portuguese, Jewish, Italian, Brazilian, Dominican, Polish, and other ethnic groups. That diversity is just one of the many aspects of Peabody that make it such a vibrant place to live. "It's a subur- ban community with all the amenities of a big city," says Healey.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

view archives of Northshore Magazine - December 2014