Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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124 Originally from a seafaring family (like many of the town's early residents), Captain John Newmarch Cushing took up residence in the Federal-style house in 1818, just 10 years after it was built, sharing the home with the widow of the original owner. In 1823, he bought the entire house, and the Cushing family—at one point including Caleb Cushing, mayor of Newburyport, U.S. congressman, attorney gen- eral, and U.S. ambassador to China—lived on the property until 1955, when Margaret Cush- ing (niece of Caleb Cushing) passed away at the age of 100. During their time in the house, the Cushings brought their international knowl- edge of plants and gardening trends to bear. e result was a lush garden that eventually expanded to outgrow its postage stamp–sized property. However, accommodating their plant penchant in intimately-populated Newbury- port took a little creative maneuvering. e answer to this conundrum was to purchase the neighboring property, which gained the garden-fixated Cushings a corridor of land. at house, minus the adjoining land, was then sold, and an inconveniently sited car- riage house was moved, together with its cart path, to make room for plantings. at modest sliver of land allowed the Cushings to lay out an expanded plan including a robust orchard, in addition to a formal configuration of beds, planted on a slight angle to follow the skewed property line. e resulting garden was so seductive that it fascinated decades of residents and eventually sparked a restoration project, spearheaded in 1998. Not many gardens can boast the level of stewardship lavished on the plantings around the Cushing Place. And there are not many op- portunities to experience a garden with similar- ly deep roots. Although the plantings have seen their fair share of hard times, the cherry, apple, pear, and plum trees have survived throughout the decades, and still bear fruit that is used to make scrumptious jams. In particular, two orig- inal blood peach trees continue to produce fruit with a pallid exterior but red, juicy flesh within. is unique fruit was such a boasting point for the Cushings that they demanded the return of the peach pits from any fruit purchased to ensure their monopoly on the oddity. For other parts of the garden, research- ers have scoured documents and unearthed receipts to discover and replicate what was