Lower Main Street
Residents disagree on the ideal approach to managing our Main Street. Over the past several months people have proposed modifications and interventions to improve conditions along this scenic road. Ranging from introducing a one-way street system to traffic lights to speed bumps and bike lanes these suggestions have elicited impassioned responses. Hundreds showed up at public meeting and conversations on social media erupted with earnest arguments.
I sense an unexpected undercurrent of unity underlying the often contentious conversations about Main Street. If we follow the river's lead we may find a commonality. The Merrimack river churns and gurgles through our community, captivating so many of us, whether those who walk its edge for exercise, the commuters who choose the scenic route to the rush of the highway, or those whose livelihoods rely on the river itself.
It is good to slow down along this river. It is good to observe the often swirling and sometimes seemingly still waters. There’s an invitation here for connection. Connection to the people long before us who recognized and marveled at this beauty. People who were here before the Europeans. People who sustained themselves on the fruits of the sea and the fertile lands of the valley. People who recognized the power of the form and built boats and vessels to sail its waters. People who appreciated the importance of communion with the earth and through a sunset or the towering pines along the shore shrugging off the snow on a shimmering winter morning settled along its edges to live and thrive and write.
Just decades ago the river oozed with odorous waters. Homes along the edges sold for peanuts, the robust boat building and timber yards nearly all gone. Before the implementaiton of the clean water act the river received waste from communities up and down its shores leading to habitat destruction and impoverishment of view. But as the river current ebbs and flows so too the waxing and waning of investment along its shores. Soon the town wide energy of revitalization took hold here. Without the formal apparatus of preservation districts or national register listings these homes persisted in their integrity of origin. With minimal additional construction, the street retains the core of its character, the aspect of its curves and bends which harkens us to pause, the view of the river itself. These sightlines to the Merrimac make our Main Street.
Amesbury’s scenic roads bind us together: Main Street, Lions Mouth Road, Whitehall, Pleasant Valley. These treasured vistas unite us in a common celebration of the open and wild and beautiful places that we proudly share with our out-of-town friends and relatives when they visit. They are the roads we drive, or cycle, or walk to clear our heads or settle our minds and remind ourselves how lucky we are to call Amesbury home.
The tension around what we should do to improve our main street stems I believe from a common fear of loss. These scenic byways are our shared treasure tread by our indigenous ancestors and cemented by our ancestors who settled thereafter. They are replete with the strain and tension of who this land belongs to and who has the right to travel them.
Let now be a moment when we come together to see that the struggle and tension is based on a desire to continue to flourish in the company of this river. Let’s find a way to continue to provide universal access to this one of our oldest roads respecting each other’s right to pass to and fro along the street East to West and West to East and to do so safely and slowly so we can all enjoy the view.
(Bits of Beauty is written by Meghan Fahey, Head of Archives, Amesbury Public Library. All images unless otherwise noted are from the APL Local History Collection, use credit line if sharing images: Courtesy Amesbury Public Library Local History Collection.)
