Prides Crossing is a neighborhood of the city of Beverly, Massachusetts in the North Shore region. It is bordered to the east by Beverly Farms, and to the west by the Beverly Cove areas of Beverly.
History edit
The name is associated with John Pride – supposedly a nephew of Thomas Pride – who was granted land in the area in 1636.[1] In the late 1800s and early 1900s grand mansions were built as summer "cottages' for wealthy business magnates. Henry Clay Frick,[2] who made his fortune in steel (Carnegie Steel) was among the best known of these summer residents. He built "Eagle Rock",[3] located between Hale Street and the Atlantic Ocean. Edward Carelton Swift,[4] at one time the owner of the largest meat packing operation in the U.S. built a mansion, "Swiftmoor"[5] on Paine Avenue in Prides Crossing. Eleonora "Eleo" Sears, a flamboyant female socialite and world class tennis player, owned a residence that still exists where Paine Avenue and West Beach meet.
Wealthy residents were known to travel to Prides Crossing in their private railroad cars, disembarking at the Prides Crossing station, located on Hale Street across from the entrance gates to Paine Avenue. (Some, including Frick and Moore, had private sidings for their cars.[6][7]) MBTA Commuter Rail service to the station lasted until 2020; the structure was converted to commercial use decades prior.
Notable former residents edit
- Frederick Ayer, industrialist[8]
- Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II, French-American military officer
- Henry Clay Frick, steel magnate[6]
- Alice Roosevelt Longworth, writer and socialite
- Loring family:[9]: 34
- Augustus Peabody Loring Jr. (1885–1951), legal writer[10]
- Charles Greely Loring III (1881–1966), architect based in Boston, son of the Civil War general
- Charles Greely Loring Jr. (1828–1902), Union Army general during the Civil War, later director of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts
- Charles Greely Loring Sr. (1794–1867), lawyer and politician based in Boston, father of the Civil War general
- Katharine Peabody Loring (1849–1943), historian[11]
- William Loring (1851–1930), Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court justice[12]
- William Henry Moore, judge and financier[7]
- Norman Prince, co-founder of the Lafayette Escadrille
- Richard D. Sears, tennis player[13]
- Edwin C. Swift, industrialist
References edit
- ^ Historical markers erected by Massachusetts Bay Colony Tercentenary Commission. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 1930. p. 10 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919) Archived 2014-05-06 at the Wayback Machine. Frick Art & Historical Center. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- ^ Residence of H.C. Frick, Prides Crossing near Beverly, Mass. Primaryresearch.org. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- ^ "Funeral of Edwin C. Swift" (PDF). New York Times. 9 April 1906. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- ^ Swiftmoor, estate of Edwin C. Swift, Prides Crossing, Beverly, Mass.. Primaryresearch.org. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- ^ a b "How the Fricks Traveled: The Westmoreland". The Frick Pittsburgh. January 9, 2020.
- ^ a b Pulsifer, Holly. "A Glimpse of Life Well-Lived". Drivers Digest.
- ^ "Frederick Ayer dies in Georgia at 95" (PDF). New York Times. 15 March 1918. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- ^ Beverly Historical Society (2010). Images of America: Beverly Revisited. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738573588.
- ^ "Memoir of Augustus Peabody Loring, Jr". Transactions of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Vol. 42. Colonial Society of Massachusetts. February 1952. p. 7.
- ^ McAllister, Jim (October 4, 2010). "Essex County Chronicles: Train service turned coastal farms into playground for the wealthy". Salem News. Retrieved March 10, 2021.
- ^ "One train stop to be restored". Boston Globe. January 15, 1927. p. 10 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Richard Sears Archived 2011-08-07 at the Wayback Machine. International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
- Wright, John Hardy (2000). Images of America, Beverly (Paperback ed.)Charlestown S.C. Arcadia. ISBN 0-7524-0814-3