The New International Encyclopædia/Manchester (Massachusetts)

MANCHESTER. A town including several villages in Essex County, Mass., 9 miles northeast of Salem, on Massachusetts Bay and on the Boston and Maine Railroad (Map: Massachusetts, F 2). It is a popular summer resort, one of the leading attractions being a Singing Beach. It has a public library in the Coolidge Memorial Library Building. The town owns and operates its waterworks. Population, in 1890, 1789; in 1900, 2522.

Manchester was settled probably as early as 1630, and was known as ‘Jeffry's Creek’ until 1645, when it was incorporated as a village under its present name. It first became a summer resort about 1845, when Richard H. Dana built a summer cottage here. Consult Lamson, History of the Town of Manchester, 1645-1895 (Manchester, 1895).