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Ten years after settling the town of Newbury in the 1630s, the town voted to move the entire settlement from the Parker River to the banks of the Merrimack River. In 1764, the port was so prosperous that it broke off from the rest of the rural community to become the city of Newburyport. May… Continue reading When Newburyport Was Sliced in Half
In 1950, Republican senator Joseph R. McCarthy gained a large national following as he began using his chairmanship of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to hunt for Communists in government. He baselessly charged that hundreds of Communists had infiltrated the State Department and that homosexuals working in foreign policy could be blackmailed by the… Continue reading “This Is No Time For Men To Keep Silent”
In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I'm sharing a letter to the editor of the Atlanta Journal from my father, David Aubren Harris, in support of President Truman's civil rights initiatives. Although my dad was a lifelong Mississippi resident, he served as a radio engineer on a B17 during WWII, and after returning, became… Continue reading My Father’s Letter
By Gordon Harris Thomas and Martha Lake Harris were among the early Puritan settlers of Rowley, MA, and relocated to neighboring Ipswich in 1652. Within a century, there were dozens of Harrises living in Ipswich. Their grandson Sgt. John Harris transported accused witches to Salem in 1692. The Harrises were carpenters by trade, and Ipswich… Continue reading How I Came to Ipswich
As the end of Windows 10 support approached in October 2025, I began experimenting with various distributions (versions) of the Linux operating system as a free and open-source replacement. One of the complaints about Windows is that the desktop environment (DE) changes with each new version, with no options. For example, when Microsoft introduced Windows… Continue reading A Comparison of Linux KDE Plasma Distros
Share this post With Microsoft pushing everyone to scrap their perfectly good Windows 10 computers for their new AI-powered Windows 11 systems, why not move to something familiar that is free and equally good or better? Replacing Windows with Linux is a great choice for keeping your older computer alive and on the web, and… Continue reading Install Linux Kubuntu on your “unsupported” Windows 10 computer.
Full-extension 100-lb. drawer slides The client has an 1829 house with a small kitchen and asked me to create a base cabinet with shelves above it in a corner. The back wall is about 35 " and the walls are not plumb or quite square to each other, but with careful measurements, I was able… Continue reading Cabinet With Sculpted Shelves
In January 2024, the new owner of this 40-year-old contemporary house asked if I could install balusters and risers that would complement the open-design stairs, which are beautiful but inherently unsafe. This was a fun winter project! The stairs before the risers and balusters were added View of the new balusters and risers from the… Continue reading Balusters For an Existing Stairway
The owner of the First Period Jonathan Lummus house in Ipswich aske me to make railings similar to the Parson Barnard house in Andover.
This old house began as a one-room blacksmith's shop. The post and beam construction and low ceilings indicate that it may date to the 18th Century.
Gordon Harris 