My View of Life on the Dock
History
2017 GMG post about Salt Island for sale, again, includes a historic timeline and links to prior ‘for sale’ stories
Save Our Shores – Salt Island coalition including Essex County Greenbelt commenced October 2017 here
2019 sorted deeds
Gloucester public schools have stellar community partners and locales
Mass Audubon Eastern Point Wildlife Sanctuary
Two+ centuries of naturalists in Gloucester is quite a legacy. Here’s a partial list from Robbins to Cramer and Smith to Smith–there have been notable champions most every decade.
organizations such as Gloucester Civic and Garden Club, Essex County Greenbelt, Mass Audubon, Ocean Alliance, Martime Gloucester, UMASS Marine Station…
Salt Island, Good Harbor Beach, Gloucester, MA, is for sale. Unimproved and undeveloped, Salt Island is a natural monument, a beacon. For generations,the Island seemed as free as the air and sea, the beaches and shore. All were welcome at the right tide– daily the beach and island are connected. There’s an innate understanding that visitors need to respect the natural property much as they would when visiting a national park. Yet Salt Island is owned privately; it’s simply left wild and public.
Yearly taxes were paid by the family. The City provided yearly services; for instance lifeguards to help stranded visitors, unaware of the tides.
Is it possible to compensate the owner in the most advantageous way (some combination of sale, waiving estate taxes, credit for donation) to clear up any future ownership confusion and protect the means of public access, minus vague qualifiers (“left open as resources allow”) or increasing any necessary costs? Land steward organizations sometimes sell property or limit access, laws and environment change, funds for care deplete. Is there a common sense path that considers Salt Island as Good Harbor Beach– it’s attached daily– and accorded the same balance of care that the beach has legally maintained since the 1920s?
above – Lifeguards have a summer suggestion in the VIDEO link For Sale in Mass: A $750K Island Packed With History. “This small island in Gloucester, Massachusetts has hosted a major salt theft, a lobstering hermit and a Hollywood production.” by Rob Michaelson for NECN NBC Boston
above- photos of Good Harbor Beach lifeguards moving a signature chair after a morning conditioning training session that involved swimming and running the length of Good Harbor Beach, twice. Foggy drizzle, low tide connection to Salt Island
below– link to Coalition Aims to Buy Salt Island: Greenbelt Negotiating Bid for Save Our Shores, by Ray Lamont Gloucester Daily Times
infinite moods of Salt Island
GMG post about Salt Island includes a historic timeline and links to prior ‘for sale’ stories published by Cape Ann Beacon and Boston Globe
Read Gail McCarthy article “Local group buys, plans art residency for sculptors’ estate” from the Gloucester Daily Times.
American artist Paul Manship (1885–1966) was internationally renowned since the 1920s. He maintained multiple homes and studios: two in the Unites States (New York and Gloucester, MA); Paris; London; and three in Italy. This very special purchase–the only one in the world of a Manship property– Starfield, in the Lanesville section of Gloucester, MA, was made possible by the incredible generosity of the Manship heirs, YOU- Gloucester and MA residents (City of Gloucester & the Commonwealth of MA monies were allocated to this initiative), foundations, businesses and private donations. Congratulations to Rebecca Reynolds and all involved. Early supporters included: the City of Gloucester; Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund (MassDevelopment in collaboration with the Massachusetts Cultural Council); the Boston Foundation; Essex County Community Foundation; McDonagh Family Foundation; Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation; National Trust for Historic Preservation; Massachusetts Cultural Council; New England Biolabs Foundation; and Essex National Heritage.
Read more about the funding here
Now that the property is purchased, there will be ongoing fundraising to maintain the property and its mission.
Follow this link to see rare, original art by Paul Manship, John Manship and Margaret Cassidy that was recently made available FOR SALE to help raise money for this endeavor. Join to support the cause by donating on line through the website, Manship Artists Residency and Studios (MARS). Eventually the historic property will be open to the public and community, and will support working artists.
There are more than 15,000 historic house museums across the county, and just a few that were artists’ home and studios. One of the most influential is the Pollock-Krasner house in East Hampton, Long Island, established in 1988. A welcome recent addition is the Winslow Homer property in Portland, ME. Here’s hoping the Manship estate is a member on this Historic Artists’ Homes & Studios (HAHS) map soon. Currently, the Massachusetts sites include Daniel Chester French’s Chesterwood in Stockbridge, and the Frelinghuysen Morris home in Lenox.
Good Morning Gloucester 