NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Registration Form This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. 1. Name of Property Historic name: Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District Other names/site number: N/A Name of related multiple property listing: N/A (Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing ____________________________________________________________________________ 2. Location Street & number: Vicinity of Cherry Street, Gee Avenue, and Revere Street, Gloucester, and North Main Street, Rockport City or town: Gloucester and Rockport State: MA County: Essex Not For Publication: N/A Vicinity: N/A ________________________________________________________ ____________________ 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this nomination ___ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property ___ meets ___ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: ___national ___statewide ___local Applicable National Register Criteria: ___A ___B ___C ___D Signature of certifying official/Title Date ______________________________________________ State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government In my opinion, the property meets does not meet the National Register criteria. Signature of commenting official: Date Title : State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government 1 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District Essex, Massachusetts Name of Property County and State _____________________________________________________________________________ 4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register determined eligible for the National Register determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register other (explain:) _____________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Signature of the Keeper Date of Action ____________________________________________________________________________ 5. Classification Ownership of Property (Check as many boxes as apply.) Private: x Public – Local x Public – State Public – Federal Category of Property (Check only one box.) Building(s) District x Site Structure Object Sections 1-6 page 2 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District Essex, Massachusetts Name of Property County and State Number of Resources within Property (Do not include previously listed resources in the count) Contributing Noncontributing ______5______ ______4______ buildings _____46______ ______0______ sites _____16______ ______1______ structures ______3______ ______0______ objects _____70______ ______5_______ Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register ____0_____ ____________________________________________________________________________ 6. Function or Use Historic Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) DOMESTIC/single dwelling DOMESTIC/secondary structure GOVERNMENT/public works EDUCATION/school RECREATION and CULTURE/marker RECREATION and CULTURE/museum AGRICULTURE/SUBSISTENCE/agricultural field LANDSCAPE/natural feature TRANSPORTATION/road-related Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) DOMESTIC/single dwelling GOVERNMENT/public works RECREATION and CULTURE/marker RECREATION and CULTURE/museum RECREATION and CULTURE/outdoor recreation LANDSCAPE/natural feature LANDSCAPE/unoccupied land TRANSPORTATION/pedestrian-related Sections 1-6 page 3 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District Essex, Massachusetts Name of Property County and State _____________________________________________________________________________ 7. Description Architectural Classification (Enter categories from instructions.) COLONIAL/Postmedieval English/New England Colonial LATE 19TH AND 20TH CENTURY REVIVALS/Colonial Revival Materials: (enter categories from instructions.) Principal exterior materials of the property: Stone, wood, concrete Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance and condition of the property. Describe contributing and noncontributing resources if applicable. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, type, style, method of construction, setting, size, and significant features. Indicate whether the property has historic integrity.) ______________________________________________________________________________ Summary Paragraph The Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District (the district) encompasses 2,057 acres on the Cape Ann peninsula in Essex County in northeastern Massachusetts. The district is bordered by private property on all sides along with Massachusetts Route 127 on the southeast. The district encompasses 70 contributing resources (5 buildings, 16 structures, 46 sites, and 3 objects), and 5 non-contributing resources (4 buildings and 1 structure). Contributing resources consist of buildings, cellar holes and stone walls dating to the late- seventeenth to early-nineteenth-century occupation of Dogtown; historic road traces; the Babson and Goose Cove reservoirs and their associated components; twentieth-century walking trails and carved boulders; a segment of the Boston and Maine (MBTA) railroad track; and multiple archaeological sites. Non- contributing resources consist of buildings and structures associated with the Blackburn Industrial Park and Babson Reservoir complex, and the modern system of walking trails within the district. The Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District retains integrity, and its present appearance conveys its later significance as an inspirational and recreational landscape while preserving the archaeological remains of its earliest English settlement. Section 7 page 4 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District Essex, Massachusetts Name of Property County and State Narrative Description The Dogtown Historic and Archaeological District is in the northeastern part of the city of Gloucester and the western part of the town of Rockport, Essex County, Massachusetts. Gloucester and Rockport are at the northern tip of Cape Ann on Ipswich Bay to the north and Sandy Bay to the east. Both Gloucester and Rockport are seaside residential and industrial communities closely associated with the fishing and granite quarrying industries. The center of Gloucester is south of the district and the center of Rockport is to the east. The Dogtown Landscape (1688-1968, contributing site, Photos 1-43) is an abandoned rural vernacular landscape bounded roughly by Cherry Street and residential development in Gloucester on the west, Old Rockport Road in Gloucester and Rockport on the south, and private residential development in Rockport on the east and north. The 2,057-acre Landscape occupies the approximate center of the northern tip of the Cape Ann peninsula and incorporates natural and cultural resources consisting of cellar holes associated with the core of the Colonial-era Commons Settlement, historic woodlots, pastures, boundary delineation and circulation systems, and modern water supply systems overlaid on a terminal moraine landscape. Collectively, these resources and their setting embody the late-seventeenth to mid-nineteenth century occupation of the area, its abandonment after 1845, and its later recreational and municipal uses. The landscape itself consists of uneven and rocky topography associated with its bedrock and glacial geology. Cape Ann’s granite bedrock is overlain with a dense sheet of glacial till deposited during the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, the last major continental ice sheet. The ice sheet formed in northern Canada about 75,000 years ago and stopped its southern advance on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket about 18,000 years ago (Brown 1997; Knebel et al. 1992; Oldale 1988; Roberts 1996; Waters 1992). As the glacier retreated, it left behind a terminal moraine consisting of unconsolidated, ridge-like accumulations of stone, sand and clay known as glacial till. On “that strange plateau in the very centre (sic) of the Cape” (Babson and Saville 1936:81)