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August 27, 2007

Bronze plaque has adorned Tablet Rock for 100 years

Nate Rice

Memorials are supposed to last the tests of time, and Tablet Rock has done just that.

Tablet Rock, the memorial plaque in the side of the rock overlooking the Parisi Baseball Field in Stage Fort Park, was dedicated 100 years ago last Wednesday, on Aug. 15, 1907.

The 65-square-foot tablet is a testament to Gloucester being the first permanent settlement in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, settled in 1623. While Plymouth was settled three years earlier, it was not considered part of Massachusetts at the time.

“It’s always there, it’s sort of a comforting fact that it’s there,” said Mary McCarl, a volunteer in the Cape Ann Historical Museum Library, about the plaque “It’s a monument to the almost 400-year history of the city.”

At the time, it was believed to be the largest tablet ever cast in the United States. Eric Pape, an artist and a summer resident of Essex County, inscribed the entire tablet. Over the years, the bronze tablet has turned green, but the original maritime-themed carvings surrounding the tablet are still nicely defined. Two anchors, one on each side, are still visible without having to look very hard.

U.S. Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge was the speaker the day the memorial was dedicated. He spoke mainly of the history of the settlers back in 1623. The chief promoter of Tablet Rock, John Hays Hammond, the inventor and engineer who would later build a medieval castle in the 1920s as a home for himself and his wife less than a mile down the coast toward Magnolia, was also on hand to see his efforts pay off. The ambassador from England, James Bryce, as well as ministers from the Russian, Italian, Belgian and Siamese embassies, who had summer homes in Gloucester, also attended the dedication. Hammond’s daughter, selected by the memorial committee, unveiled the memorial.

“Any time we have any visitors that come to Gloucester, we take them to Tablet Rock and the beach,” said Stephanie Buck, librarian and archivist at the Cape Ann Historical Museum.

The city of Gloucester was bustling with excitement that day. The bells of all the churches rang, and a salute in honor of the memorial was fired to start the parade. Hammond was the marshal of the “grand civic, military and trades parade,” which proceeded through the “narrow, crooked streets” of Gloucester, according to a Boston newspaper’s report of the festivities. A fireworks display in the evening capped off a day of celebration.

McCarl, who sometimes gets the urge to climb the massive granite rock, said that the memorial shows, “how interested they were around the year 1900, looking back to commemorate the very much older history of the country.”

“There was a lot of interest and pride,” she said, “and this was a mark of that period.”

McCarl added the Tablet Rock is a “point of civic pride” that recognizes Gloucester as the oldest settlement in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.





What the tablet says

“On this site in 1623, a company of fishermen and farmers from Dorchester, England, under the direction of Rev. John White, founded THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY. From that time the fisheries, the oldest industry in the commonwealth, have been uninterruptedly pursed from this port. Here in 1625, Gov. Roger Conant, by wise diplomacy, averted bloodshed between contending fractions, one led by Myles Standish of Plymouth, the other by Capt Hewes, a notable exemplification of arbitration in the beginnings of New England. Placed by citizens of Gloucester,1907.

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