Essex National Heritage Area

Essex National Heritage Area
Essex National Heritage Area
	Aerial view of Salem Willows in Salem, Massachusetts. Also pictured are Marblehead, Massachusetts and its harbor.
Type	Historical
Location	Essex County, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°39′47.8″N 70°57′30.2″W / 42.663278°N 70.958389°WCoordinates: 42°39′47.8″N 70°57′30.2″W / 42.663278°N 70.958389°W
Area	828 square miles (2,140 km2)
Founded	1996
Visitors	2.7 million (yearly)
Governing body	Essex National Heritage Commission
	Location of Essex National Heritage Area in Massachusetts

The Essex National Heritage Area is a National Heritage Area composed of all of Essex County, Massachusetts. It is overseen by the Essex National Heritage Commission (ENHC), a non-profit organization based in Salem, Massachusetts.^[1]

Overview[]

The heritage area covers all of Essex County, including 34 cities and towns, 9,968 sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 26 National Historic Landmarks, 9 state parks, and 2 National Park Service units.^[1]

Along with 2.7 million annual visitors, roughly 743,159 residents live in the region, which is in the Greater Boston metropolitan area.^[1]

The Friendship of Salem sails as an ambassador for the Essex National Heritage Area and is part of the Salem Maritime National Historic Site.

The heritage area includes the Merrimack Valley cities of Lawrence, Haverhill, and Amesbury, Massachusetts, which were important industrial and trade centers in the 18th and 19th centuries and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in North America (along with nearby Lowell, Massachusetts), as well as the coastal cities of Newburyport, Gloucester, Marblehead and Salem, Massachusetts, also important locations in early American trade and history.