All Hail Stacy Boulevard

Some of this ground has been covered in previous GMG posts (shout out to Manny and Catherine especially), but I thought it might be worth a reminder for you perhaps as you sit awaiting bridge access.  Look around you and think about the past and how this beautiful esplanade came to be.  It’s just under 100 years old, as we know it today.

As stated here: The half-mile of clean arc of Stacy Boulevard from the Tavern to Kent Circle along Gloucester Bay has struck travelers as rivalling the Via Caracciolo on the Bay of Naples, and as colorful when it’s lined above the tide from one end to the other with the canopied booths of vendors offering their wares during the mid-August Gloucester Waterfront Festival. The esplanade was conceived by George Stacy when that flamboyant hotel man became park commissioner in 1908, brought to reality on the inspiration of the three hundredth anniversary celebration in 1923, and restored in 1988. To make way for it, Gloucester (which has always had a partiality for moving heavy things around) relocated up in the back streets the houses that crowded the harbor side of Western Avenue. Fill was dumped; a new seawall was made; trees were planted; the esplanade was laid out; the benches were bolted down; and three years before his death in 1928, Mr. Stacy saw his boulevard done, his promise kept.  (I like the part about how Gloucester has a penchant for moving heaving things around!)

These are from the Gloucester Daily Times August 6 1921 and give us a little bit of an idea of how far this concept has progressed over the years. The Boulevard undergoes nearly constant repair, updating and improvement and is a testament to the City’s dedication to presenting itself as a beautiful historic seaport. So, turn off your engine while you wait for the bridge to open and look around you.