1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Manchester (Massachusetts)

MANCHESTER (popularly Manchester-by-the-Sea), a township of Essex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., about 25 m. N.E. of Boston, on Massachusetts Bay. Pop. (1900), 2522; (1905, state census), 2618; (1910), 2673. Area, 7.64 sq. m. It is served by the Boston & Maine railroad, and is connected with neighbouring towns and cities by electric lines. The township, heavily wooded in parts, and with picturesque shores alternating between rocky headlands and sandy beaches, stretches for several miles along the coast between Beverly on the west and Gloucester on the east. It is one of the most beautiful watering-places in America, and is the favourite summer residence of many of the foreign diplomats at Washington. The “singing beach” is a stretch of white sand, which, when trodden upon, emits a curious musical sound. Manchester, originally a part of Salem, was settled about 1630 and was at first known as Jeffrey’s Creek. It was incorporated separately under its present name in 1645.

See Manchester Town Records (2 vols., Salem, 1889–1891), and D. F. Lamson, History of the Town of Manchester, 1645–1895 (Manchester, 1895).