Why is the “Ridge” important to Newburyport, MA? The Newburyport Daily News has been asking this question, and an excellent question it appears to be.

The “Ridge” is the area on High Street, in the “South End” of the city that runs roughly from State Street to a little beyond Lime Street, down towards the Newbury line, that is on the upper side of the roadway. That’s the geography.

High Street itself has been called, “one of the most scenic streets in all of New England,” by the “Michelin Guide to New England.”

And to quote the High Street website, “The wholly intact nature of the setting allows the High Street of today to impart the same sense of spaciousness, beauty and dignity that it did 100 years ago.”

The Ridge has beautiful and stately mansions (not McMansions but real to goodness, the real thing, mansions.) And what adds to their beauty, their sense of mystery, their stateliness is LAND. In some cases many, many acres of land.

And this of course was true of the Wheelwright House, the back of which Mr. Todd Fremont-Smith is proposing a suburban subdivision. (See all kinds of previous posts. Just put in Wheelwright into the “search” box at the top of the main page of the Newburyport Political Blog, and you will find gobs of stuff.)

Now not to get too grandiose here, but to get grandiose here, think of “Versailles.” Yes, I’m talking about the Versailles in France, a la King Louis XIV. Yes, I realize this is a bit of hyperbole, and that any mansion on High Street, Newburyport, MA is not quite the same thing, but bear with me here, Ok?

Now, no matter how stunning, how beautiful, how tasteful, would anyone want a subdivision built at the back of Versailles? No.

No, because it would be tacky and lack class, and just plain not a good idea.

The same principle applies to any land in back of the High Street mansions on the Ridge in Newburyport, MA.

To build a subdivision of any kind back there would be tacky and lack class.

Now, my one gander at Mr. Todd Fremont-Smith at the last Public Hearing concerning his project to build a subdivision in the back of the Wheelwright property, the young man in question did not strike me as “lacking class” or being “tacky.” Nor did he strike me as lacking a conscience. (This bloggett obviously finds Mr. Fremont-Smith’s proposal completely unconscionable.)

And if Mr. Fremont-Smith goes ahead with his proposed subdivision — “tacky and without class,” what a lousy legacy to be left with. My.

And I would imagine that if he ever thought that the project would gander so much negative publicity, that he might never have taken the project on at all. And I’m afraid for Mr. Fremont-Smith, that things, bad publicity-wise, are just beginning to really rev up. Vroooom, vroooom.

So one and all, this bloggett does not wish the Ridge a tacky and without class legacy. And I know many (vast understatement) out there in Web Land do not wish this for Newburyport, MA either.

Happy New Year…

Mary Eaton
Newburyport