Georgetown, Massachusetts

Georgetown is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts. Originally settled in 1639 as a part of the town of Rowley by the Reverend Ezekiel Rogers, the town at the time stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Merrimack River, south of Newbury and north of Ipswich. Several farmers, finding suitable meadowlands in the western half of the settlement, began settling along the Penn Brook by the middle of the 17th century, creating Rowley’s West Parish.

The village, which became known as New Rowley, grew for many years, with small mills and eventually a shoe company opening up in the town. By 1838, the town was sufficiently large enough for its own incorporation, and was renamed Georgetown. Small industry continued, and today the town is mostly residential in nature, a distant suburb of Boston’s North Shore.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 13.2 square miles, of which 12.9 square miles is land and 0.31 square miles is water. Georgetown is located on the edge of the hills and coastal plain of northeastern Massachusetts. It has many streams and brooks, as well as two major ponds, Rock Pond and Pentucket Pond. The town has several areas of protected land, including the Georgetown-Rowley State Forest to the south, the Crane Pond Wildlife Management Area to the north, the Lufkins Brook Area to the west and a small portion of the Boxford State Forest in the southwest.