Rowley

Rowley is a quintessential New England small town, a quaint coastal village steeped in 18th-century history and decorated with native birch, oak and red maple trees. The gazebo in the center of Rowley’s Town Common looks like it was plucked off the set of Gilmore Girls, a picturesque green and white structure surrounded by brightly colored colonial homes, coffee shops, antique stores, bed & breakfasts and a public library. “It’s one of those sleepy towns that shuts down at 8:00 every evening,” says Christopher Breen, Realtor with Bentley’s Real Estate. “It’s close to the beach and plenty of little restaurants and supermarkets, and it's surrounded by hiking trails.”

Rowley occupies 19 square miles of Essex County along the Atlantic Coast. The Plum Island Sound branches inland from the coast like an intricate nervous system, creating a biologically diverse web of salt marshes, tidal creeks and coastal woodlands known as the Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected ecosystem covering the eastern half of the community. Most of Rowley’s housing market lies close to the Newburyport Turnpike, which cuts a vertical line through the center of town and provides direct access to Interstate 95. Rowley’s rural tree-lined roads wind past stone walls, white fences and hand-crafted mailboxes at the end of long gravel driveways, providing access to the town's classic colonial, ranch and Cape Cod homes. Newer residential enclaves can be found on the small cul-de-sacs that split off the busier roads, where residents enjoy a quiet private street with a more suburban feel. The homes in Rowley sell quickly – typically within the first four weeks – and are priced from $600,000 to $950,000. “Inventory is really low, and many of the listings are located within the new developments still being built around Rowley Country Club,” says Breen.

The town of Rowley is surrounded by parks, trails and golf clubs, providing ample opportunity for residents to get outside. Eiras Park is a well-maintained community park near the fire station, offering playground equipment and ball fields for children throughout the neighborhood. Across the street, Hunsley Hills Park provides miles of wooded trails for hiking, bird watching, and cross-country running, or residents can follow the smell of saltwater into the Rough Meadows Wildlife Sanctuary, where they’ll find miles of well-marked trails and elevated boardwalks to enjoy the sunrise or search for native plants and animals. Golf courses at Rowley Country Club, Ipswich Country Club and Ould Newbury Golf Club are open to members and the general public, and the covered boat slips at Riverfront Marina allow access into the area’s vast network of waterways via the Parker River. On rainy days, residents explore the archives at the Rowley Historical Society for evidence of their ancestors or make the 40-minute drive into Boston via Interstate 93.

Rowley’s Town Common serves as the geographical and cultural center of the town, where the city regularly comes together for farmers markets, art fairs and open-air concerts. Main Street is home to several small boutiques and retail stores, and the shopping plaza at Rowley Marketplace features a Market Basket Supermarket, CVS Pharmacy and TJ Maxx department store. For breakfast, residents choose between the Village Pancake House – a quaint little restaurant inside an Early American Colonial house built in 1660 – and Agawam Diner, a nostalgic 1950s railcar where patrons eat comfort food at the counter or in the classic red-leather booths. Dinner is served at American BBQ Smokehouse, a down-home traditional southern restaurant with hearty wood-smoked meats. Wash it down with a beer from Anonymous Brewing, a craft brewery and tasting room in a converted auto repair shop. On weekends, residents can take the train into Boston, a 50-minute ride from the Rowley Rail Station to the North Station outside Boston’s nightlife district.

Students in Rowley begin their education at Pine Grove Elementary, a C-plus-rated school on Niche with a student-teacher ratio of 12-to-1. From there, students move to Triton Regional Middle School, a C-plus-rated school on Niche with above-average academic programs, and Triton Regional High School, a B-minus-rated school on Niche with an average SAT score of 1220 where graduates regularly go on to attend prestigious local universities like Northeastern University and Boston College.

Written By

Jack Hale

Photography Contributed By

Amanda Beattie

Video By

Daniel Willingham