Place Information
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Peabody is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 48,129. Peabody is located on the North Shore. History
First called Brooksby Village, the area was settled about 1633 within Salem, which had been founded in 1626 and incorporated in 1629. In 1752, Brooksby was set off from Salem and incorporated as part of Danvers. Then in 1855, the community broke away from Danvers to become the town of South Danvers. The name was changed in 1868 to Peabody after George Peabody, a noted philanthropist. It would be incorporated as a city in 1916. Giles Corey, the only person pressed to death by stones in the Salem witch hysteria of 1692, had his farm and was buried here beside his wife next to Crystal Lake. Albert DeSalvo, known to the world as "The Boston Strangler" is also buried in Peabody at Puritan Lawn Cemetery. Beginning as a farming community, the town's streams attracted mills which operated by water power. In particular, Peabody was a major center of New England's leather industry, and tanneries remained a linchpin of the city's economy into the second half of the 20th century. The tanneries have since closed, but the city remains known locally as the Leather City or Tanner City, and its high school sports teams are nicknamed the Tanners. The loss of the tanneries was a blow to Peabody's economy, but the city has made up for the erosion of its industrial base, at least in part, through other forms of economic development. The Northshore Mall, one of the region's largest malls, opened in 1958, and is now the city's largest taxpayer. Centennial Park, an industrial park in the center of the city, has attracted several medical and technology companies. Meanwhile, West Peabody, which was mostly farmland as recently as the 1980s, has been developed into an affluent residential district. Research Tips
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