Heritage Landscape Inventory
Working in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), the Essex National Heritage Commission (ENHC) undertook an inventory of the heritage landscapes or “places of the heart” within the Essex National Heritage Area (ENHA). Unique in purpose, scope and execution, the Heritage Landscape Inventory united local land conservation and historic preservation efforts by providing a framework for engaging local residents in the process of defining and planning for the long term preservation of community character.
Begun in 2004, the 18-month project utilized a survey methodology outlined in DCR’s award winning publication Reading the Land, which defines heritage landscapes as places that are created by human interaction with the natural environment.* Twenty-four of the ENHA’s 34 communities participated in the reconnaissance level inventory. Nearly 300 residents attended local identification meetings and the inventory’s consultant team conducted fieldwork in all participating communities. In all, over 1,300 heritage landscapes were identified, the largest such undertaking in Massachusetts since 1982.
Community Planning Report
Utilizing information gathered from local meetings and fieldwork sessions, the project team prepared individual planning reports for each participating community. The reports focused primarily on the long term preservation of key threatened or endangered heritage landscapes. In addition to a comprehensive list of the community’s heritage landscapes, each report contains an analysis of pertinent planning issues and a series of recommendations, both general and resource specific. Reports were distributed to municipal staff and volunteer boards, local and state elected officials, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Information contained in the reports is intended to raise awareness, be incorporated into other planning processes, and, ultimately, to influence decision making. The resulting documentation and recommendations can be found in these Reconnaissance Reports:
- Amesbury l Map
- Beverly l Map
- Boxford l Map
- Danvers l Map
- Essex l Map
- Gloucester l Map
- Hamilton l Map
- Haverhill l Map
- Ipswich l Map
- Lawrence l Map
- Lynn l Map
- Marblehead l Map
- Methuen l Map
- Nahant l Map
- Newbury l Map
- Newburyport l Map
- North Andover l Map
- Rockport l Map
- Rowley l Map
- Salem l Map
- Salisbury l Map
- Swampscott l Map
- Topsfield l Map
- Wenham l Map
Symposium
The inventory project culminated with The Landscape of Opportunity Symposium, a daylong event attended by over 125 citizen planners, nonprofit and state agency staff, as well as local and state officials. Symposium participants were charged with creating a comprehensive action agenda relating to the preservation and development of six regionally important regional heritage landscape typologies identified through the inventory process: city and town centers, estates and institutional campuses, coastal resources, working farms, transportation routes (scenic roads, highways & former rail corridors), and rivers and ponds. The resulting action agenda now serves as the basis for initiating further dialogue with state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and local officials on ways to meet the challenges faced by resource advocates.
Considered a “work in progress,” readers are requested to augment the current action agenda by submitting ideas for additional resources (web links to pertinent organizations, programs, laws, and published reports). Please summit ideas and comments to Bill Steelman.
* Reading the Land, Massachusetts Heritage Landscapes: A Guide to Identification and Protection won the American Planning Association’s 2004 Planning and Education Award