The Home of Immigrant Workers

As industrialization swept through Ipswich in the late 1800s, Irish immigrants rented this house as home and workplace.

Catherine Tracy, a young Irishwoman, sailed from Liverpool, England, to Boston in 1847. Thirty-three years later she and her daughter, Mary, lived in one side of this house on Elm Street.

Catherine Tracy Lynch was a 55-year-old widow; Mary was 25 and single. Cathe1ine took in laundry, Mary worked in a hosiery mill and together they made ends meet.

The house was old now, far from fashionable, and situated in a busy industrial district. It was divided down the middle into two apartments, and the Lynches rented this side.