Allyn Cox Reservation
Sweeping Views & Salt Marsh Habitat
Stunning views of a breathtaking New England salt marsh, with an open field, bordered by hedgerow on the edge of a tidal estuary in the Great Marsh ecosystem. The property is also home to Greenbelt’s headquarters.
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Location, Directions & Parking
- 82 Eastern Avenue, Essex, MA 01929 (opens in Google Maps)
Nature enthusiasts, dog walkers, painters, and birders visit year-round to take in the sweeping views of salt marshes, open fields, and vital wildlife habitats. Green in the spring and summer, as the days grow shorter the marsh turns an amber color best appreciated in the autumn sunlight.
Indigenous people known as the Pawtucket or Agawam lived and farmed here prior to English colonization in the 1600s. They found everything they needed in the salt marsh, the river, and the woods. The river headland called Clamhouse Landing is an eroding shell heap begun by Indigenous clam diggers 2,500 years ago or more. A grove of red cedar trees has recently grown up through the midden, with shell shatter brought up among the roots and emerging from the trail.
The people dug clams throughout Essex Bay, transported them by dugout canoe, and processed them in places like this on the Chebacco (Essex) River. Chebacco (Jebaccho, roughly “separate area between” the Annisquam and Ipswich river systems on either side) was named for a principal Pawtucket village, located where the Essex River drains Chebacco Lake.
The people used lap anvils and hammer stones to break open clams to extract the meat, or opened them with special clam knives made of local stone. They would spread the meats on the rocks to sun-dry, to store for winter stews or to trade inland. For inland trading partners, reconstituted clam meats were a delicacy. The people also dug marine clays from the banks of the river for their pottery, and tempered the clay with ground shell.
The property was settled by 1648 as a colonial salt marsh farm and for more than 350 years was a dairy farm and apple orchard. Noted muralist Allyn Cox purchased the property as a summer home and used an 1863 barn as his studio. In 1974, Cox donated the property to Greenbelt. Greenbelt headquarters is located here and serves throughout the year as a venue for many Greenbelt events such as the annual Art in the Barn exhibition.
Dogwood, cherry, pear and apple blossoms make for a fragrant spring while hickory, sumac and goldenrod create a golden aura in autumn.
Shorebirds feed on the mud flats, and osprey, herons, egrets and kingfishers dine richly in the salt marsh. The old hayfields surrounding the house and barns are home to bobolinks, meadowlarks, and bluebirds.
Greenbelt has two honey bee hives at Cox Reservation which we keep for educational purposes and for honey.
Launch a canoe/kayak on the Essex River at Clam House Landing, 0.3 miles from the parking area. Drive down to the Landing, drop off your boat and gear, and return your car to the parking area. Be mindful of the tides.
The property was donated to Greenbelt by noted muralist Allyn Cox, whose work graces the U.S. Capitol Building. In 1940, Cox bought our current property as his summer home and made the barn into an art studio. He donated the property to Greenbelt in 1974.
The original circa 1785 farmhouse and 1863 barn became Greenbelt’s heaquarters in 1974. The farmhouse was renovated in 2007 into a green building with solar power, and was awarded gold-level LEED certification.
Charging stations are available for electric vehicles.
The Allyn Cox Reservation, a salt marsh farm for most of its 350-year history, was the summer home of noted muralist Allyn Cox from 1940 to 1974. He adapted this barn for use as an art studio, adding large north-facing windows for natural light. His unique ladder, stretcher boards and palettes still hang inside.
Allyn Cox was born into a family of artists in New York City in 1896. His father was an illustrator and his mother a painter. He studied at the National Academy of Design and also the American Academy in Rome.
Cox became a nationally known muralist, whose work graces Grant’s Tomb in New York and the U.S. Capitol building in Washington. In 1953, he was hired to complete the frieze in the Capitol Rotunda, which had been originally started by Constantino Brumidi and left unfinished since the 1880s.
His murals and decorative paintings can be found in private residences, churches, and other buildings throughout the country.
The Capitol’s House wing holds three corridors called the “Cox Corridors,” displaying wall and ceiling murals Cox created, depicting many scenes from American history. These scenes include the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Lincoln’s second inauguration, and the Rotunda’s use as a hospital during the Civil War.
He served as president of the National Society of Mural Painters from 1942 to 1946 and again from 1960 to 1963.
In 1974, Allyn Cox donated the farmhouse, studio barn, surrounding salt marsh and open fields to Greenbelt, which now serve as the organization’s headquarters.
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Land Acknowledgment
The properties that Greenbelt conserves are on the ancestral lands of the Pennacook and the Pawtucket, bands of Abenaki-speaking people. Join us in honoring the elders who lived here before, the Indigenous descendants today and the generations to come. Learn more…