“I’ve got some people here painting the other side of the house,” my Airbnb host messaged me for a road trip to New Bedford, Massachusetts. “The guys are really great/talented artists, lots of good vibes.”
Indeed, when Aaren, my travel partner, and I turned down County Street to find our home for two nights—a one-bedroom apartment in an 1855 Victorian building once apparently rented by Herman Melville’s sister—three painters were busily engaged. updating the exterior of the house with cream, orange, blue and warm gray colors.
Today, the entire city, about 60 miles from Boston, appears to be getting a fresh coat of paint. Signs of rejuvenation are everywhere, from a park honoring abolitionists to new murals on old buildings.
Once the richest city in the world per capita and a powerhouse of whaling and textile production, New Bedford fell into decline in the mid and late 20th century, with a high crime rate, high unemployment, urban scourge and bad jokes. (“New Bedford: The Armpit of Cape Cod, Perhaps the Nation”). If they stopped at all, many travelers would stay alone for a meal or visit the New Bedford Whaling Museum, before continuing by ferry to Martha’s Vineyard or taking Interstate 195 to Cape Cod.
Yes, New Bedford continues to draw heavily on its maritime past: not only did we stay at the charming Whalehouse and visit the Whaling Museum, we also ate at the Whaler’s Tavern and visited a restored mansion built on whale money. But there is also attention for the present. Old textile factories are being redesigned, new restaurants are thriving, and exhibitions and parks are expanding to better tell the city’s long history of promoting equality. Museums, downtown artist studios and play spaces speak of investment in the creative class. Looking ahead, the first train service from Boston since the late 1950s is expected to start next year. (The planned route is not without complaints.)
Thanks to health care and commercial fishing and other maritime industries, New Bedford remains a working city. It doesn’t rely on tourism, but everywhere we went we met proud, invested residents – from the volunteer teacher at the Whaling Museum to the curator at the New Bedford Free Public Library to waitstaff at restaurants.
“There’s no pretense of Cape Cod in town because we’re not really Cape Cod. We’re the south coast,” says Allie Copeland, the curator, adding that New Bedford “has a really cool vibe now†
A creative economy
Our first evening, after a stop at the Quahog Republic Whaler’s Tavern for a golden beer and a Mai Tai, Aaren and I met Bev Ehrich and Carl Freedman eating outside on one of the cobbled streets of the city. The couple had recently moved from Providence, RI, to the nearby village of Little Compton. They had come to dinner with another couple at Union Flats, a seafood restaurant that opened its doors this winter. The four friends raved about the monkfish and mackerel (later we inhaled seared scallops, fresh and cooked to perfection), as well as the city’s jazz and other cultural attractions.
“The only reason we came here when we lived in Providence was to take the ferry,” says Ms. Ehrich, 69, a retired college administrator. “Now we come for fantastic restaurants, museums and music.”
In 2017, Margo Saulnier began her role as a creative strategist for the City of New Bedford, tasked with executing an arts and culture program. Since then, the city and partners have used grants and other funds to host free events, recruit local artists, and help create public murals and more.
“The more we invest in our creative economy and our local talent in arts and culture, the better it is for everyone,” said Ms. Saulnier. “And that includes people who live here and people who come here.”
For the people who visit, New Bedford can be relatively cheap. The art collection of the New Bedford Free Public Library features work by contemporary artists such as Adrian R. Tió, as well as old favorites of Ralph Fasanella, Albert Bierstadt and John James Audubon. In the Cape Verdean restaurant Izzy’s, a delicious breakfast with cachupa rafugado, scrambled eggs and linguiça costs $13. The “See NB in Three” pass, $18 for adults, grants admission to the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center, New Bedford Art Museum, and the Rotch-Jones-Duff House & Garden Museum – whose rose beds alone are worth the cost to be.
A complex past
The collapse of the whale population in the late 1800s came when huge textile factories were built, changing the cityscape. But as manufacturing grew in importance in the South and abroad in the mid-20th century, these factories closed and New Bedford languished. The situation worsened in the 1990s after the local fishery collapsed.
“For 50 or 60 years nothing has happened because the textile mills have been closed,” said Mr Freedman, 71 and a lawyer, at Union Flats, speaking of New Bedford and other old factory towns in New England. “Those energy-hungry industries will never fill these large buildings again. And that is why reinventing these buildings is the future.”
I spent the next morning walking around a redesigned mill in the South End neighborhood of the city. Built in 1903 and expanded in 1910, Kilburn Mill is a complex of three buildings that is now home to shops, gyms, music performances and the bright, plant-filled Dough Company restaurant, which sells a delicious “Green Giant” egg sandwich ($ 8) – one with greens, pickled onions and goat cheese.
Breakfast fed us as we visited the downtown museums and strolled the streets. In one block alone, I discovered a toy store, a used record store, and a witch’s shop called Sanctum Folklorica. The highlight of the day was the Whaling Museum (adults, $18), dedicated to the relentless industry that transformed New Bedford and the world. Through a rich collection – whale skeletons hanging from the ceilings, an explorable replica of a whaler, art collections and more – we learned not only the history of whaling, but also the biology and behavior of the creatures, the threats they face. and conservation efforts.
The museum also looks at the people who power the industry, starting with local Native Americans and the sailors who came from all over the world, including Cape Verde, the Azores, and mainland Portugal, and settled here. (Through culinary and other cultural influences, their presence remains strongly felt.)
An extensive exhibit in the museum and nearby park is dedicated to Captain Paul Cuffe, a Quaker who was born locally in 1759 to a Native American mother and African father. At a time when many Africans and African Americans were subservient, Cuffe ran blockades during the War and later became a wealthy shipowner and captain, using his influence to petition the state for the right for landowners of color to vote, and to establish one of the country’s first integrated schools.
Throughout the city, we learned of New Bedford’s ties to Quakerism, which helped the city become a stronghold for abolitionism, establish a station on the Underground Railroad, and establish a recruiting agency for one of the first African American regiments in the civil war.
This fall, the New Bedford Historical Society plans to partner with the city to unveil a park dedicated to the area’s abolitionist movement. Built on an unoccupied corner lot, Abolition Row Park will contain a statue of Frederick Douglass, a gazebo and communal garden space.
“What we’ve been conscious of – and what we’re funding – are the certain stories that haven’t been told, or haven’t been told to the masses,” Ms Saulnier said. “There is a renewed sense of celebrating that past†
On the Harborwalk
Our last evening, we cycled south to the Harborwalk, a walking and cycling path over the hurricane barrier that protects New Bedford Harbor. Built in the 1960s, the massive sea wall rises 6 meters above the Acushnet River, offering views of lighthouses, ships and passing ferries. Just past a set of its massive barriers is Cisco Brewers Kitchen & Bar, a 3.5-acre outdoor restaurant and bar space that opened last June that welcomes dogs, children and beer lovers with picnic tables, live music and a dock for splashing about in the water. go guests. Aaren ordered food to share and two fuzzy IPAs, and we sat down to enjoy the scene.
Further south is the city’s East Beach and Fort Taber Park, a 50-acre green space and military museum, but those would have to wait for another visit. We ate our fried mussels, listened to one last song, and got back on our bikes in the cool ocean breeze.
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