Gloucester Daily Times
Thursday November 17, 2005
Front page: http://www.gloucestertimes.com/

News
Rocky Neck artists hope designation will help preserve tradition

By Richard Gaines
Staff writer


The isolated but fast-changing enclave of Rocky Neck home to artists, marine industry,
restaurants and homes has earned designation as among the 10 most "endangered historic
resources" in Massachusetts

Announcement of the selection came last month from the private, nonprofit Preservation
Massachusetts, as Rocky Neck residents worked to preserve an endangered icon, the
Paint Factory.

But the designation by PreservationMass, which resulted from research by Marcia Hart, a
resident of the Neck's Fremont Street, looks past the Paint Factory and sees market forces
eroding the essence of the entirety of Rocky Neck.

A little history

At first, in the 17th century before the construction of the causeway, it was known as Peter
Mud's Neck. Its culture was basic — it was a sheep pasture. But soon after the coming in
1848 of the causeway, houses began popping up — there were 22, and 143 residents in
1859, according to the city archives.

Since then, the number of homes has barely doubled.

The art colony, one of the oldest in the United States, grew around Fitz Henry Lane, who
painted Rocky Neck from Ten Pound Island.

John Mullen, former president of the Rocky Neck Art Colony, said some artist/residents
insist "there is some kind of document in the Smithsonian" establishing that Rocky Neck was
the first.

Mullen said he is somewhat skeptical of that claim, but he readily concedes there is none
about "the cache" Rocky Neck earned in the art world as it drew serious painters through
the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century. It drew them to small galleries
along the narrow shelf between the industrial bookends — Tarr & Wonson's Paint Factory
to the south, and the marine industrial railway on the inner harbor to the north.

Mullen drives a vehicle with New York plates that read "RCKYNECK" and happily reports
they mean something in Manhattan.

Longing for tradition

But he and other leaders of the art colony worry that Rocky Neck's claim to the cache might
be slipping — hence the appeal to PreservationMass.

"We want to see it go back to its artistic tradition," said Mullen, a provost at Dowling
College on Long Island, N.Y, who arrived here four years ago with his wife, Connie, and
plans to make Rocky Neck his home.

Hart's application to PreservationMass said along with Lane, Rocky Neck also boasted a
Who's Who of important artists. The list includes Winslow Homer, Childe Hassam, Edward
Hopper, Milton Avery, Therese Bernstein, Stuart Davis and Emile Gruppe.

"Today," wrote Hart, "that history and presence faces new and very serious challenges.
Prime among these is the loss of studio and gallery space to condominium development and
rising rents.

"In just the last four years," Hart said, "there has been a net loss of five gallery/studio spaces
in Rocky Neck."

Amanda Nash, another Rocky Neck resident, preservationist and transplanted New
Yorker, said the pressure on artists to pay higher rents for galleries is compounded by the
Neck's lower profile of late, which means fewer paintings sold.

"There aren't enough people coming around. We don't have enough business," she said.
Compounding the problem, she added, "people like me (a non-artist) buy houses."

Importance of designation

The artists Gordon and Judith Steele Goetemann have been coming to Rocky Neck since
the 1950s — first as summer additions to the art colony. Since 1990, they have been artists
in year-round residence.

Gordon said he recalled a real estate transaction, the sale of the now-defunct West Wharf in
the 1990s, led to a major setback for the art colony.

"Seventeen people lost gallery space, a number left and never came back," he said.

To counter the exodus, seARTS and the Massachusetts Cultural Council funded an artists-in-
residence program through the Rocky Neck Art Colony. It provides studio space for visiting
artists and much needed income to Gloucester Marine Railways.

Hart's application to PreservationMass says the colony "is setting the groundwork for a
major capital campaign to raise funds necessary to develop new spaces and preserve
existing sites while also maintaining the historic character of the area."

Mullen said the art colony has become more aggressive in asserting its presence, as an off-
the-beaten trail attraction in the Gloucester mix.

He said they began this past season with a show featuring nudes in the Bryan Gallery on
Rocky Neck Avenue. The week after Thanksgiving, they will open the "Rocky Neck Goes
to Town" show in the old Parrelli Optical building on Main Street.

The town, he explained, is Gloucester, tacit recognition that Rocky Neck is "seen as a
separate" place. "It doesn't close up as an art colony" once the summer visitors leave,
Mullen said.

PreservationMass honors the winners of their 2005 competition for "most endangered
historic resources" in a fundraising event Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Trinity Church in Boston.
More than two-dozen advocates of Rocky Neck have made reservations. Tickets ($50 for
members, $60 for the general public) may be purchased at the event.

Erin Kelly of PreservationMass said it was unusual but not unprecedented for the
organization to take up the cause of an entire neighborhood. She said while the organization
is private, its impact can be measured.

Its 1993 designation of Union Station in Worcester contributed to its preservation, she said.

"Now," she said, "it's been restored and is thriving."

Paint Factory update

Under pressure from the city's Historical Commission, the Paint Factory's owner-developer,
Vahid Nickpour, has retained George Metzger, an architect experienced in preservation, to
create updated plans for its conversion into a single-family home.

Commission chairwoman Maggie Rosa said yesterday she was hoping the new blueprints
would be presented before the group at its Nov. 30 meeting. And J. Dennis Morgan, consultant to Nickpour, yesterday said he believed Metzger would deliver.

"He has some stuff for us to look at on Friday," Morgan said. "And he's pretty good."

The development could find itself hung up indefinitely without city support. It builds on a
concept for modernizing the Paint Factory that won most of its local and state permits and
support of the Army Corps of Engineers. But it was seen as altering the authenticity of the
complex into a "too different" look for its neighbors and the commission.

Endangered list

The 10-most-endangered list, selected by the private, nonprofit Preservation Massachusetts,
includes:

Rocky Neck, Gloucester
Auburn High School

First John P. Coburn house, Beacon Hill, Boston

Bradford College campus

Jabez Lewis farmhouse, Jamaica Plain, Boston

Samuel Harrison house, Pittsfield

Civilian Conservation Corps camp, Upton

The Town Hall, Wenham

Butters Farm, Wilmington

Fairhaven Mills No. 4, New Bedford