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Gloucester, Massachusetts Vacation Information and History.

Gloucester is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, in The United States.A popular summer resort, Gloucester includes the villages of Annisquam, Bay View, Lanesville, Magnolia, Riverdale, East Gloucester and West Gloucester. The boundaries of Gloucester originally included the town of Rockport, in an area dubbed "Sandy Bay." That village separated formally on February 27, 1840. In 1873, Gloucester was reincorporated as a city.

Gloucester was founded at Cape Ann by an expedition called the "The Dorchester Company," of men from Dorchester, England, chartered by King James I in 1623. This date allows Gloucester to boast the first settlement in what would become the Massachusetts Bay Colony, as this town's first settlement predates both Salem, MA in 1626, and Boston in 1630. This first company of pioneers made landing at Half Moon Beach, and settled nearby, setting up fishing stages in a field in what is now Stage Fort Park. This settlement's existence is proclaimed today by a memorial tablet, afixed to a 50' boulder in that park.

The life of this first settlement was as harsh as it was short-lived. Around 1626 the place was abandoned, and the people removed themselves to Naumkeag (what is now called Salem, Massachusetts), where more fertile soil for planting was to be found. The meetinghouse was even disassmbled and relocated to the new place of settlement. At some point in the following years - though no record exists - the area was slowly resettled. This led to The town being formally incorporated in 1642. It is at this time that the name "Gloucester" first appears on tax rolls, although in various spellings. The town took its name from the great Cathedral City in South-West England, where it is assumed many of its new occupants originated.

This new permanent settlement focused on the Town Green area, an inlet in the marshes at a bend in the Annisquam River. This area is now the site of Grant Circle, a large traffic-rotary at which MA Route 128 mingles with a major city street (Washington Street/ Rt 127). Here the first permanent settlers built a meeting house and therefore focused the nexus of their settlement on the 'Island' for nearly 100 years. Unlike other ancient coastal towns in New England, development in Gloucester was not focused around the harbor as it is today, rather it was inland that people settled first. This is evidenced by the placement of the Town Green nearly two miles from the harbor-front.

The Town Green is also where the settlers built the first school. By Massachusetts Bay Colony Law, any town boasting 100 families or more had to provide a public schoolhouse. This requirement was met in 1698, with Thomas Riggs standing as the town's first School-Master.

Early industry included subsistence farming and logging. Because of the poor soil and rocky hills, Cape Ann was not well suited for farming on a large scale. Small family farms and livestock provided the bulk of the sustinence to the population. Fishing, for which the town is known today, was limited to close-to-shore, with families subsiding on small catches as opposed to the great bounties yeilded in later years. The fisherman of Gloucester did not yet command the Grand Banks until the mid-18th Century.

Early Gloucestermen cleared great swaths of the forest of Cape Ann for farm and pasture land, using the timber to build structures as far away as Boston. The rocky moors of Gloucester remained clear for two centuries until the forest reclaimed the land in the 20th Century. The inland part of the island became known as the 'Commons' or the 'Common Village.' Here small dwellings lay scattered amongst the boulders and swamps, along roads that meandered through the hills. These dwellings were at times little more than shanties, only one was even two-stories tall. Despite their size, several generations of families were raised in such houses. One feature of the construction of these houses was that under one side of the floor was dug a cellar hole (for the keeping of food), supported by a foundation of layed-stone (without mortar). These cellar holes are stil visible today along the trails throughout the inland part of Gloucester; they, and some walls, are all that remain of the village there.

The town grew, and eventually colonists lived on the opposite side of the Annisquam River. This, in a time of legally mandated church attendance, was a long way to walk - or row - on a sunday morning. In 1718 the settlers on the opposite shore of the river split off from the First Parish community at the Green and formed 'Second Parish.' While still part of the Town of Gloucester, the people of Second, or 'West', Parish now constructed their own Meetinghouse and designated their own place of burial, both of which were in the hills near the marshes behind Wingaersheek Beach. The Meetinghouse is gone now, but deep in the woods on the Second Parish Road trail one can still find the scattered stones of the abandonded Burial Ground.

Other parts of town later followed suit. Third Parish, in Northern Gloucester, was founded in 1728. Fourth Parish split off from First Parish in 1742. Finally, in 1754, the people of Sandy Bay (what would later be called Rockport) split off from First Parish to found Fifth Parish. The Sandy Bay church founding was the last religious re-ordering of the Colonial Period. All of these congregations still exist in some form with the exception of Fourth Parish, the site of whose meetinghouse is now a highway.

The town was an important shipbuilding center, and the first schooner was reputedly built there in 1713. The community developed into an important fishing port, largely due to its proximity to Georges Bank and other fishing banks off the east coast of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Gloucester's most famous (and nationally recognized) seafood business was founded in 1849 -- John Pew & Sons. It became Gorton-Pew Fisheries in 1906, and in 1957 changed its name to Gorton's of Gloucester. The iconic image of the "Gorton's Fisherman", and the products he represents, are known throughout the country and beyond. Besides catching and processing seafood, Gloucester is also a center for fish research.

Seafaring and Fishing have always been, and still are a very dangerous undertaking. In its 350-year-plus history, Gloucester has lost over 10,000 men to the briny depths of the cruel mistress that is the Atlantic Ocean. The names of as many of the lost as are known are painted on a huge mural in the main staircase at City Hall, and also on a new memorial cenotaph on Stacy Boulevard. This list has continued to be added to in recent years, despite increased safety precautions and better working conditions.

The city was appropriately used as the on-location setting for the adaptation of the book The Perfect Storm. Perhaps the most famous story based in Gloucester is Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling, written in 1897, and made into a movie starring Spencer Tracy in 1937. Charles Olson (1910-1970) a poet and teacher at Black Mountain College, composed a 635 page poem known as "The Maximus Poems" which centered around the city of Gloucester.

Gloucester's scenic beauty has inspired artists since the early 19th century, as it does today. Perhaps the first painter of note was native-born Fitz Hugh Lane, whose home still exists on the waterfront, and whose works hang at the Gloucester Historical Association, as well as at museums in Boston and New York. Others attracted here include William Morris Hunt, Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, John Sloan, Maurice Prendergast, Edward Hopper, Emil Gruppe, Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley. Smith Cove is home to the Rocky Neck Art Colony, the oldest art colony in the country.

Source: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.