"The Mint" - A Newburyport Treasure
(and with any luck, soon to be a National Historic Landmark!)
Built around 1808, the unassuming three-story brick building at the foot of the Museum’s garden is surprisingly significant.
Tucked in behind 16-18 Fruit Street, this simple structure was used as an engraving shop to print early Massachusetts currency.
Jacob Perkins,
one of Newburyport’s most inventive minds, created a printing process for early paper currency that significantly reduced counterfeiting practices. It was so successful that the Commonwealth passed a special act mandating that all paper money be printed on Jacob Perkins’s stereotype steel plates. Later his process was used to develop the first national currency.
Perkins owned 16-18 Fruit Street and began his engraving business in his own backyard, constructing the brick building behind his stately Federal home.
In 1825, a local paper noted that "Notwithstanding the hue and cry of hard times, there is more money made in Newburyport today than any other town in the Commonwealth.” The success of this venture, however, was due more to Jacob’s brother Abraham and his business savvy.
As Perkins moved on to new innovations, eventually settling in England, Abraham took over the Mint. He purchased the Fruit Street house and “factory” and established a historical legacy for these structures.
Fruit Street became the town’s first local Historic District in 2007 because of its impressive collection of federal-style homes. By this time, however, the Mint building’s significance was muddled by history. It had been converted into a garage and left to fall into disrepair.
It is noted only as an auxiliary structure in the District’s designation, and although a 2005 survey mentions its historical value, the structure does not have any state or national status of its own.
The Museum of Old Newbury purchased the structure in 2008, understanding it to be an essential part of the local industrial past.
After stabilizing the brick masonry, replacing the roof and converting the second floor into exhibit space, we believe it is finally time to seek the formal recognition that the building deserves.
While public programming is on hold in the face of the pandemic, research continues at the Museum and we hope to use this time to secure a National Historic Landmark designation for the Perkins Mint.
The National Historic Landmark (NHL) program is administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the Department of the Interior.
The program had its beginnings in the 1930s. In 1935 Congress passed the Historic Sites Act to formally designate properties with a national significance. These buildings, structures, objects and sites illustrate exceptional contributions to United States heritage. Over the following decades there were various surveys such as the Historic American Buildings survey (HABS) that focused on properties with cultural and architectural significance The Cushing House was included in HABS in 1936.
When the
National Register of Historic Places
was established in 1966, the National Historic Landmark program was encompassed within it, and rules and procedures for inclusion and designation were formalized.
Massachusetts has 189 NHLs, one of the highest counts in the nation coming in slightly behind New York. Currently, the Cushing House is the only NHL in Newburyport.
The process is a lengthy one and involves extensive review of the nomination form by state and federal agencies. Stay tuned!
(Shown below a daguerreotype of the Mint (circa 1839), including the lower garden, as viewed from State Street.)
