Happy to update this post thanks to some great information from some readers!
So, it sounds like this building is being raised so that work can be done on its foundation and that it will remain in its current location! I’m glad…because we walk, run, ride bikes by it often and I would certainly miss it! So, a more fitting title would be, “Up, Up, and Going to Stay.”
Thank you also to Bill Hubbard for sending a fantastic photo of the Straitsmouth US Life Station from the early 1900s…around 1906. Be sure to scan all the way down to see said photo!
This always fascinates me. If I’m correct, this is a part of the old Coast Guard Station in Rockport. I’m not sure where it is headed….maybe a FOB can fill me in? 
Good Morning Gloucester 
Bring it to SCarolina. I love buildings like these.
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Looks to be across from Straitsmouth island. Perhaps it will stay on that cement pad as a historical site?
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It’s my understanding that it will remain there — was ‘moved’/ raised in order to put in a secure foundation = protection from tides/storms . . . Hope this one doesn’t blow it off it’s stilts!
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It is indeed right across from Straitsmouth Island….at Gap Head. I’ve always been intrigued by that Coast Guard Station. What I wouldn’t love to live there!! Thanks for the info. I’d love to think it is staying.
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Yikes with this wind it could blow away!
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yes this is a private home on Marmion Way now separate from the home on the coast guard station site. The owner is an architect and is raising the little house up 7′ and putting another story on top.
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Slowly, one house at a time, ruining the quaint beauty of Cape Ann. I left for twelve years, and the difference is huge.
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Hi, I am the owner and architect of this house in Rockport. The house was factory built in Maine in 2004, so other than being built next to the glorious former “Duluth style” Coast Guard station (circa 1889 I believe), there’s nothing historic about this house. In fact it was built by the previous owners on the site of a former rusted steel coast guard observation tower that must have been several hundred feet high. We are raising the house to meet FEMA’s new flood plain regulations (flood elevation was raised 6′ in our corner of Gap Cove!), and the ground floor will remain wide open, with retractable screens that will make what we think will be a wonderful screen porch next summer! It might have saved us some money to just bulldoze the whole thing and start from scratch, but what a huge waste that would have been!! The house will be lowered by about 4′ after the new concrete piers and beams are complete, hopefully before Thanksgiving.
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Thanks for commenting, William! I love your home! We live up on Smith Road and I’ve been coveting it for quite some time. I was sad to think it was being hauled away and was happy to hear that it was staying. It sounds like it will be spectacular when it is completed. Congratulations to you (as both the architect and the owner)! We desperately need a second story on our tiny home. Location, location. It is certainly worth having a tiny home to live where we live…but bigger would certainly be nice.
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Our house will still be tiny compared to other older houses in the neighborhood, just taller thanks to FEMA! But obstacles like that come with design opportunities such as our future ground floor screened porch!
Speaking of opportunities, have you considered adding a 2nd floor to your house and making that the living rooms w/ potential ocean views?! We’re doing this for a tiny house on Clark Ave in Rockport, w/ a roof deck above that, not unlike a contemporary version of the “widow’s walks” of old.
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I have always imagined that our hypothetical 2nd story would involve losing a bedroom downstairs to enlarge the living room and make the 1st story much more open. I envisioned the second story as 2 bedrooms, a master bath, and some much needed storage/closet space. The open upstairs sounds wonderful though. Hmmm. More to dream about. Sadly, the bank account is cooperating with our lofty plans. Sigh.
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At least dreams are free!
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