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| Japanese Andromeda |
En route to the shoreline, after passing the main quarry there's an intersection of five roads at Halibut Point reminiscent of Five Corners in Rockport, where the State Highway meets Broadway and Main Street. Here a quiet trail leads down to the site of the old power plant.
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The Andromeda blooming |
At the entrance to this trail an ornamental shrub is currently blooming, earlier than almost anything else in the landscape. It's a domesticating touch most likely introduced by the Webster family when they founded the Pitcairn Park recreational venture during the 1950s.
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Cellophane Bees mating |
The Andromeda grows in a relatively warm, sheltered location. It helps sustain one of the earliest of insects to break hibernation, the Cellophane Bee.
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Red Maple flowering |
Nearby, a large Red Maple tree puts forth its exquisite early spring flowers.
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The quarry in
operation, 1913
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The power plant foundation today |
Presumably the power plant was coal fed. Getting the fuel to the site must have been a labor-intensive operation in itself. Louis Rogers, one of the Directors of the Rockport Granite Company, told an interviewer late in life that keeping the quarry free of infiltrating ground water was the biggest expense the business faced.
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The site, elevated railroad bed to the rear, ocean beyond |
The train pictured in Kroll's painting moved salable granite blocks down to the shipping pier at Folly Cove and disposed of useless stone on the Overlook grout pile.
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Stone terracing |
Some of the granite was finely honed into structural features around the power plant. Beside it lies a small quarry now filled with water. Sometimes it is referred to as a "motion", but that term should be reserved for small pits excavated manually by independent operators, often during periods of unemployment from the commercial quarries. These can be found in the woods throughout Cape Ann and supplied local building projects, or paving stones taken to market by ox cart.
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Green Frog and
blooming Watershield,
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I'm amazed--were the photographs of foliage taken in the past week? Are the red maple and the Andromeda and the Watershield blooming in Gloucester, or anyway in Gloucester near the old power plant?! All but one of the photos are so warm they almost radiate--all but the (also beautiful!) medium shot of the site. Here in Cambridge we're only seeing buds. But they're welcome.
ReplyDeleteFascinating history of the region Martin. Thanks for sharing this and the images of the environment. Spring has sprung!
ReplyDeleteAhh.. it's nice to have a bit of history woven together with the your naturalist observations.
ReplyDeleteAnd to you dear bruddah ~ congratulations on 600 ! Now there’s some LanesVillian endurance … GoodWork, best to U & Yours,
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