This page displays the First Period and Georgian houses in Rockport, Massachusetts. Text is primarily from inventories provided by the Rockport Historical Commission in the 1980s, and are online through the Massachusetts Historical Commission site (MACRIS). Photos are from Google street images, Rockport Assessors site, and various realtor sites. Houses are displayed alphabetically in order of street name, and some house numbers may have changed. Dates of construction may be based on local tradition and should not be considered reliable unless verified. On the houses shown below, click on the RCP link to view the house at the MACRIS site, and click on the INV link to download a PDF file about the house, produced by the Rockport Historical Commission.
To request or add information to this page, please contact Gordon Harris at historicipswich@gmail.com. Visit the About page to request additional research, including a deed and history search, a PDF report and creation of a page about your house on this site.
RCP.20 Old Castle, Castle Ln Rockport c 1715. Owned by the Sandy Bay Historical Society. The Oxford Tree Ring Laboratory issued a dendrochronology report on this house: When first built, the Old Castle consisted of hall and parlor disposed on either side of a central chimney with two chambers and an attic above. The felling date of the timbers in the house of 1712 neatly coincides with the construction date suggested by the deed history. In 1792, Benjamin Wheeler, Jr. conveyed to western half to his son, John Dane “in consideration of twenty-five pounds expended and laid out in building a back leanter (or long kitchen room) the whole length of my dwelling house”. Thus the construction date of the lean-to can be pinpointed much more exactly than is usually the case.
RCP.23 Woodbury, Andrew Jr. House 69 Curtis St. Rockport c 1754
The oldest part of the plank-framed gambrel-roofed cottage on Gott St. was built in 1702. The rooms left of the chimney were added in the 18th Century. The interior retains significant period woodwork. The house has been handed down through the generations and has never been sold. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
RCP.59 Butnam, John House 7 Granite St Rockport c 1760
RCP.12 Old Garrison House 188 Granite St Rockport c 1711. The Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory issued the following findings: “Felling Dates: Summer 1709, Spring 1711. This building is constructed principally of tamarack or eastern larch logs. However, the two boxed-heart chimney girts in the first floor ceiling are of slow-grown white oak, as well as the left-hand girt. All three timbers retained complete sapwood. The right-hand girt was also likely to be of oak, but this was concealed.”
17th & 18th Century historic houses of the Massachusetts North Shore 