About

About History ~ Newburyport and Mary Baker Eaton

Painting by Mary Baker Eaton, Newburyport, MA

Pathway at Maudslay, painting by and © Mary Baker, private collection, oil on canvas, 48” x 36,” 2006

Inn Street Newburyport MA, courtesy of Mary Baker Eaton

Inn Street, courtesy of Mary Baker Eaton

Mary Baker Eaton is a professional artist, her artist name is Mary Baker, she has been represented by four New York City galleries and is in collections throughout the United States.

Mary moved to Newburyport in 1981, about a decade after the restoration of the city’s historic downtown. By the time she drove down High Street and parked at the real estate office on Green Street, she knew that Newburyport was home, the Tannery was not in existence then and neither was Maudslay State Park. Newburyport was a hidden gem that not very many people knew about. Since 1981 Mary has watched the city dramatically change.

Daily News of Newburyport, Mary Baker Eaton, October 2002

Mary Baker Eaton, Newburyport MA Preservation Award

Historic Preservation Award, Mary Baker Eaton, for the fight to save High Street, 2001

In 1999 Mary joined the fight to save High Street against its destruction by MassHighway (now MassDot), the grassroots activists who saved downtown Newburyport from wholesale destruction were her models and her heroes.

The Boston Globe article on the Newburyport Blog, September 17, 2006, by Kay Lazar

In 2006 Mary Baker Eaton started the Newburyport Blog to get people interested in local politics and historic preservation, it has also chronicled the town’s substantial evolution since that time.

Daily News Article on Map Newburyport MA

The Daily News of Newburyport article on the interactive history map, Feb 4, 2020, by Jack Shay

In 2019 Mary started a mapping project called “Newburyport – Keeping the Story Alive,” which maps Newburyport’s historic stories, houses, and places, with photos, paintings, videos, old maps, history, and anecdotes. This website is an extension of that map. And also the website serves as a vehicle, as Newburyport deals with a present-day global pandemic, to look back and see what an incredibly resilient city we have been, to see how Newburyport has changed over the centuries, and to read about many of Newburyport’s forgotten stories, some with happy endings and some not.

Corner of High and State Street, The Snow Collection, The Museum of Old Newbury

This website would not be possible without the generous help and use of the collection of both of the Museum of Old Newbury and the Newburyport Public Library Archival Center.