Beverly Farms – a 2 hour stress-free stroll through the village and woods

Discover this family-friendly and welcoming coastal town

The village name Beverly Farms brings to mind wide open fields with crops growing and livestock grazing, but you’d have to time travel back 200 years to capture that pastural scene. If Mr. Peabody set the Wayback Machine for 100 years you’d find the landscape much changed, with stately shingle-style homes dotting the hilltops along the coast of an exclusive summer colony. Today, it is a neighborhood of Beverly, with a diminutive shopping district featuring locally-owned stores and several excellent restaurants. 

Our walk today will take in the charming village center, pass historic houses and lead to an easy woods carriage path. The loop will take perhaps an hour to and hour an a half, depending on your pace. It begins at the Beverly Farms Train Station where you’ll find easy parking. It remains much as it did when it was built in 1898 and now houses an excellent bagel shop, The Bagel Dudes – check ‘em out for a cup of coffee or a snack before or after your walk. 

Let’s head west from the depot on West Street, the shopping thoroughfare. As we keep on truckin’ on the sidewalk, we”ll follow Route 127 south, look for St. John’s on your left, the lovely granite Episcopalian church built in 1902 in the English Gothic style. It is where John Updike attended services. A few steps west on your right you’ll encounter the Robert Haskell House, a private residence built in 1713 on what was once a 300 acre farm.

We’ll continue along Hale Street/Route 127 and cross the train tracks past Prides Crossing train station after which we’ll turn right on Thissell St. The tiny post office on the right is known for its very own zip code and stout persistence against the odds. We’ll recross the rail tracks and take care for the next ¼ mile as Thissell Street has no sidewalk. Traffic is light and drivers courteous in this area, however. Up a modest hill, ’round the corner, and you’ll encounter Greenwood as you ascend the hill. At the top of the hill you’ll find a woods road straight ahead. This is part of the Beverly Commons Conservation Area and provides a pleasant woods walk. You find a long, rectangular pond on the right and if you’re lucky, you may spot one of its many bull frog residents. If you’re luckier still, you’ll be there in the spring when they are in full ‘croak’!

At the bottom of the woods road bear right on the carriage path and this will take you out to the entrance of Beverly Commons, where you’ll regain paving underfoot on Greenwood Ave. Follow Greenwood to the end, take a right on Hart St. and follow that to Oak Street on the right, returning to your car at the train station.