The Merrimack Building is on the far corner of State and Middle Streets. Like the other downtown buildings, the first floor contains shops and offices. On the second and third floors, apartments have been created that highlight the existing structural features of the building - fireplaces, brick walls, exposed beams, and hoisting wheels. At one time, the building was a warehouse, and these large wooden wheels were used to lift heavy hogsheads of molasses, rum, dried fish, sails, and even coffins. As you cross Middle Street, look at the variety of brick detailing over the windows of its buildings. At the next corner across the Square, look at the delicate cast-iron cresting (railing) atop the building at the far corner of Inn Street, This was added in the late 19th century as a way of upgrading the building.

Market Square has always been a center of activity for Newburyporters. Even before 1635, a spot near the river's edge called Watts Cellar was used by fishermen to store their catch. A meeting house was built here in 1725, but was torn down when a new one was built on Pleasant Street in 1801 - the Unitarian Church you saw a few blocks back. The land here was then laid out as a market place for farm and dairy products, and many artisans maintained shops here. The rows of brick commercial buildings you see now are virtually unique in America, since they were all built at one time, after the Great Fire. This is truly one of the earliest examples of urban renewal in America, and one of the first attempts to make an attractive urban environment with a completely unified downtown setting.

Cross Liberty Street and continue around the corner onto Water Street.