Rockport, Massachusetts
A Short History of Rockport
From a granite quarry district that shipped stone up and down the coast, to a town that voted itself dry for a century and a half, to the red fish shack the town bought outright, Rockport has a long habit of settling its own affairs by vote.
Sandy Bay, and 1840
The village at the tip of Cape Ann was long called Sandy Bay, and for two centuries it was part of Gloucester. As the quarries and the fishing village grew their own identity, its residents wanted to run their own affairs, and in 1840 Rockport was incorporated as a separate town. From the start it governed itself the way it still does: at a Town Meeting where the residents in the room hold the vote.
The Town Granite Built
By the early 1800s the first granite quarries had opened, and by the 1830s Rockport granite was being shipped to cities and towns all along the east coast. The Rockport Granite Company operated from 1865 until it dissolved in 1933, and the trade shaped the town: quarry workers struck for better conditions in 1899, 1902, 1908, and 1916, eventually winning a nine-hour work day and time-and-a-half for overtime. The flooded quarry pits at Halibut Point are still there to see.
The Dry Town
In 1856 a group of about 200 Rockport women, led by Hannah Jumper, carried out what the town remembers as its revolt against rum, and afterward Rockport banned alcohol outright. It stayed a dry town for nearly a century and a half. Restaurants could not serve until residents voted to allow it in 2005, and stores could not sell beer and wine until 2019. Whichever side of it you land on, the arc is a civics lesson: what the town decided at the ballot and on the Town Meeting floor, the town could also undo the same way.
Motif No. 1
The red fishing shack on Bradley Wharf, known as Motif Number 1, is one of the most painted buildings in America and one of Cape Ann’s most famous sights. In 1945 the town itself bought it as a memorial to residents who had served in the armed forces. When the Blizzard of 1978 destroyed the original, Rockport rebuilt it. A town that buys and rebuilds its own landmark is a town that has decided the landmark belongs to everyone.
The Community Preservation Vote
In 2002, at open Town Meeting, Rockporters voted to add a 3 percent surcharge to their own property tax bills under the state’s Community Preservation Act. The money goes to open space, historic preservation, and affordable housing, and not a dollar of it is spent without another vote from the floor. It is the clearest modern example of the pattern that runs through this whole history: in Rockport, the residents in the room decide, and they have decided to tax themselves to protect the place.
Sources: Wikipedia, Rockport, Massachusetts (with cited sources); U.S. Census Bureau; Community Preservation Coalition.