Author: Joey Ciaramitaro

Sefatia informs us-

Place: Gloucester House Restaurant

The Annisquam Exchange, 32 Leonard St., is open for the season. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday; and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Annisquam Exchange, a nonprofit organization, offers antiques, collectibles, linens, cards and gifts. For more information call 978-281-0358 or email info.annisquamexchange@gmail.com.

Photos- EJ Lafavour

Joey,

We just posted this on the Blue Shutters blog (http://www.blueshuttersbeachblog.blogspot.com) and thought the GMG community might be interested in the Gloucester history lesson unfolding at our B&B this week….

The four of us took over the Blue Shutters in early 2007, but it feels like we’ve been here forever. Our roots may have been down 128 a few exits — in Burlington, Woburn and Stoneham — but Gloucester has always part of lives. It’s where we came on a summer Saturday for a few hours of Good Harbor Beach fun, on a Friday night for some dancing at Little Earls and on a Sunday afternoon for dinner out with Mom and Dad.
But our Gloucester history seems insignificant when compared with the group staying here at the Blue Shutters this week. It’s a gathering of the direct descendants of Capt. Elias Davis and James Mansfield, described by one of the organizers –Rev. Graham M. Patterson –as "late 18th and 19th century contemporaries who figure prominently in Gloucester’s seafaring history."
Graham is here to host a memorial gathering for his mother, Marion Mansfield, who he describes as "the last of her generation of Mansfields." According to Graham, their "forbearer James Mansfield (1765-1842) established a ship’s chandlery on Front Street in 1792. From there he built one of the largest fleets of fishing schooners in mid-19th century Gloucester. On the 1852 Walling Map, the Mansfield Wharf is the largest on the western end of the harbor. He built a four-story, double Federal house at No. 26 and No. 28 Front Street in 1832, the year my great-great grandmother Abigail Somes Davis married Alfred Mansfield, Sr."
He goes on to talk about his great-great grandmother Abigail Somes Davis Mansfield (1811-1900), who "befriended Fitz Lane (1804-1865) from the days of her childhood, purchased his paintings, and left them to my cousin Alfred Mansfield Brooks." Graham tells us that one of his ancestors owned the California, which is featured in one of Fitz Henry Lane’s most celebrated paintings at the Cape Ann Museum. A great uncle left the museum a cache of Fitz Henry Lane drawings in the 1940s, and since the very opening of the Cape Ann Museum, some of the many Mansfield family fine arts objects donated to the Cape Ann Museum have been housed there.
Nearly a dozen Mansfield cousins — from Paris, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire and here in Massachusetts — are attending this reunion, touring both the Cape Ann Museum and Cape Ann itself with Linn Parisi, serving as tour guide, following the journal entries of Graham’s grandmother, Adelaide Mansfield, which she made during her trips to Gloucester between 1915 and 1948.
We feel very fortunate to have this group with us this week — while we hope we’re contributing to Gloucester’s future with our work here at the Blue Shutters, we also think it’s important to celebrate the unique history of this city and surrounding towns. And you can’t get much historical than this Mansfield clan. We hope you agree — if you do, give this group a wave if you see them on the streets of Cape Ann these next few days.

Tony & Patty Sapienza, Ed & AnnMarie Comer

Blue Shutters Beachside Inn

DOWN THE FORTgloucester, massachusetts

gloucester, massachusetts

No Pretty Prayer explores the gritty character of an old seaside neighborhood in the oldest seaport in America. Known locally as the Fort, the enclave has long served as the working heart of Gloucester, Massachusetts’ marine industrial economy and as home to the city’s Sicilian community. The film examines how this mix of industry and culture has fused the character of this place and its people over the past one hundred years. With the threat of urban gentrification as a haunting backdrop, the film invites viewers to contemplate what it means to sustain cherished roots to a humble place that the broader world threatens to erase and forget in time.

Next Screenings: 2011 St. Peter’s  Fiesta

Cape Ann Community Cinema http://capeannecinema.com

Seven screenings throughout Fiesta

Sista Felicia Forwards This Pic From Tonights Performance-

http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com

You heard it on the Gloucester Daily Times Twitter Feed first!

Hi Joey,

I wanted to reach out to you and let you know that Folgers®, with the help of celebrity judge Kara DioGuardi, named the winner of the Folgers® Jingle Contest yesterday. The Grand Prize winner is Courtney R. and she is from Gloucester, MA so we thought the local affiliation may appeal to you. She has won $25,000, a mentoring session with Kara and the chance to appear in a Folgers commercial.

http://www.goodmorninggloucester.com