Granite and the Sea September 2024
"Granite and the Sea: Exploring the History, Nature, and Arts of Cape Ann's Rocky Coast" was the subject of the Jonathan Bayliss Society's annual conference on September 6-8, 2024. One of many themes running through Bayliss's wide-ranging GLOUCESTERMAN novels is the granite foundation of Gloucester and Rockport, adjacent communities on the Atlantic seaboard.
Multidisciplinary events included talks on Cape Ann's granite quarries and their workers, the area's geology and ecology, and art and literature inspired by Cape Ann's granite shores as well as readings from a wide range of authors, guided tours, walks with spectacular views, and stories and music relating to Cape Ann's unique history and geography.
On Friday afternoon, Monica Lawton led a walk exploring the shore of Pigeon Cove, the north village of Rockport, with sweeping views of its working harbor and seascape, including its granite breakwater and the start of the Atlantic Path. Next was a gathering at Breakwater Avenue's Pigeon Cove Circle for an entertaining evening of "Quarry Stories." Martha Fox, Rosalie Hughes, Monica Lawton, Chris Leahy, Peter Littlefield, Theo MacGregor, Susanna Natti, Gerard Roy, and George Sibley looked back, through readings from a variety of sources, on the profound impact of the granite-quarry industry on lives and landscapes at the tip of Cape Ann. The evening concluded with a talk and slideshow by Leslie Bartlett, “Cape Ann Women in the Quarries.”
Above: From the Alexander R. Cheves Photograph Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library & Archives
Saturday began at Halibut Point State Park's Visitor Center with a reading by Lisa Hahn from the chapter "Rock Dance" in Bayliss's novel Gloucestertide and talks by Susanna Natti ("The Paving Cutters"), Linda Brayton ("My Finnish Quarryman Heritage"), and Martin Ray ("Capt. Poland and the Granite Sloop Albert Baldwin").
After a tour of the Babson Quarry by Halibut Point's Mark Murray-Brown and a picnic lunch, Chris Leahy spoke about "Treasure Islands: The Natural Wealth of Cape Ann's Granitic Islands" and Robert Buchwaldt on "A Landscape That Inspires: The Geologic History of New England Written in Stones"; then Leahy and Buchwaldt led a walking tour of the geological and natural history features of the park.
On Saturday afternoon, attendees were invited by Leslie Bartlett to an open house of the Sandy Bay Historical Society of granite-industry exhibits, including historic documents detailing the history of Rockport's ill-fated "Harbor of Refuge" breakwater.
Saturday ended at Pigeon Cove Circle with dinner, silent auction, and entertainment by Michael O'Leary. Michael, who describes himself as a "singer, song-searcher, and tunesmith," had been delving into the history of the quarries and dory fishing on Cape Ann and treated the audience to songs based on a variety of poems by and about quarry workers and fishermen, set to original music. He closed with “Remember the Stone,” his poem inspired by a story about Cape Ann's granite historian Barbara Erkkila when she was a girl.
On Sunday morning Monica Lawton led a walking tour, under a cloudless blue sky, from Rockport's Granite Pier to Flat Ledge Quarry, passing below the historic Keystone Bridge.
In the afternoon, the conference moved to the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, where attendees were introduced to the Museum's granite gallery (Monica Lawton) and the story of Maria Bray, the lighthouse keeper's wife (Suellen Wedmore), followed by a slideshow by Paul St. Germain from his book Cape Ann Granite, a talk by Rebecca Reynolds on “Granite Appeal: How the Rock of Ages Inspired Artists,” and Gary Grieve-Carlson on "‘it is elements men stand in the midst of’: Jonathan Bayliss and Charles Olson.”
The weather continued to smile, permitting the planned sail on the schooner Ardelle, with commentary by Chris Leahy and Capt. Harold Burnham, which closed out our very well attended sixth annual conference.
The conference was supported in part by grants from the Gloucester and Rockport Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency, and from the Bruce J. Anderson Foundation. Conference partners were Cape Ann Museum, Friends of Halibut Point, Gloucester Writers Center, Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Pigeon Cove Circle, Rockport Public Library, Sandy Bay Historical Society, and Sawyer Free Library. Sawyer Free Library provided this list of resources for those who would like to learn more about Cape Ann's connection with granite and the sea.