Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/51643
ne Georgetown destination Wonder Small residents, Georgetown is nonetheless a bustling village With fewer than 10,000 with big-town offerings. By Tamsin Venn in the rural yet humming enclave of Georgetown, the fire department's noon whistle sounds daily. You can sit on a stool at the local hangout, Jimmy K's, for lunch and see your friends. You can haul your junk to Mello's, and they'll take it. You don't have to go the mall to get your nails done—instead, go to LeBa's Nails on Cen- tral Street—or shop for a discount wed- ding dress (for that, there's Tulle Bridal Designer Outlet on West Main Street). Then there's Crosby's market, which provides "on the go" homemade soups and salads, plus wine and beer tastings. This small New England village was incorporated in 1883, when those living in the West Parish broke away from Rowley and established their own town. Farming, shoemaking, and sawmills all helped Geor- getown grow and prosper. It's a town full of handsome 19th-century wood clapboard houses lining back roads with names like Elm, Maple, Winter, Brook, and Pingree Farm. Georgetown is easily accessible; Routes 97 and 133 cut through east/west and north/south on the way to Andover, Box- ford, Haverhill, Rowley, or Newbury. It's a short hop to I-495 or I-95 to Boston or New Hampshire. Push the walk button at the traffic light on Main and Central Streets, and people zooming by on their way to somewhere else happily stop for you. "Georgetown is finally recognized as a diamond in the rough," says Steve Horne, a 25-year resident. "The rural setting [that is] a half hour to most anywhere—Boston, 36 nshoremag.com January/February 2012 Town and Country Clockwise from top, downtown Georgetown; a bench outside Little's Block of Shoppes; Little's; and Pentucket Pond. Portsmouth, the beaches, the malls—and a couple of hours or less to the mountains has made it a gem for rural living." One of the great things about Georget- own is that townspeople pitch in to make the town tick. The "Bob committee" runs Camp Denison (the majority of members happens to be named Bob, hence its name) with a host of 25 enthusiastic volunteers. "Without the volunteers, Camp Denison would not exist," says Bob Gorton, who has lived here for nearly 50 years. Camp Denison on Baldpate Pond, established in 1931 as an inner city camp, includes the Great Lodge where Amelia Earhart once scanned the skies from its rooftop and Aldo Leopold developed nature programs. In Georgetown, retirees stick around to take their grandchildren to sports practice and volunteer to keep the town going. Adding to the hometown feel is the fact Georgetown has its own schools, as well as its own electric company, so you won't lose power for very long during an outage. "[Georgetown] has grown from a fairly insular town to one that is very open, hip, and fun," says Donna Capodelupo, news editor for the Georgetown Record. Funky old stores, like Meader's General Store, which sells both antiques and penny candy, wouldn't survive Main Street America in most towns, but this town appreciates photographs by robert boyd