What to see, do in downtown Newburyport

The Old Jail, on Auburn Street, is a forbidding granite structure built in 1824. It is privately owned.

Bartlet Mall is the city's common green; its focal point is the swan fountain in the middle of the Frog Pond. On its High Street border is the Superior Courthouse, designed by Charles Bullfinch and built in 1805. Across Pond Street from the mall is the Old Hill Burying Ground, Newburyport's oldest cemetery.

The YWCA is on Market Street, around the corner from Central Congregational

Church. The clock in the steeple of the church, at Pleasant and Titcomb streets, was once known as "Old Betsy," named after the parishioner who donated it. She lived in Salisbury and set her watch by the clock.

The church overlooks Brown Square, laid out in 1802 by merchant Moses Brown, who built a three-story brick townhouse _ now the Garrison Inn _ overlooking the square.

City Hall overlooks Brown Square from the north. The Newburyport post office is across Green Street from Brown Square, at the corne Pleasant Street.

Farther down Pleasant Street is the Unitarian Church, another Bullfinch-designed building, built in 1801.

Market Square is the historic hub of Newburyport and the Merrimack River waterfront provided the city's early economic lifeline. The waterfront is now the site of 2 1/2-acre Market Landing Park, which opened in 1984. The Firehouse Center in Market Square was built in 1823 as a market building and meeting hall. It was used as the city's central fire station from the Civil War era to 1979 and has been renovated into a performing and visual arts center and a restaurant.

The granite Custom House, at 25 Water St., was designed by Robert Mills, architect of the Washington Monument, and built in 1835. In now houses a maritime museum. Not far from the Custom House is the Sam Sargent Gallery, home of the Newburyport Art Association.

Up State Street from Market Square are two former mansions. The Tracy House at 94 State St., built in 1771, is now the Public Library. Across the street, the Dalton House, at 95 State St., was built in 1746 and was the home of Tristram Dalton, the first U.S. senator from Massachusetts. It is now a private club. Around the corner, at 98 High St., is the Cushing House, built in 1808 and now a museum owned and operated by the Historical Society of Old Newbury.

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