Un itinéraire de voyage à travers des villages côtiers entre baies et criques rocheuses, ponctuées d’estuaires fluviaux, de lagunes et de marées, de plages de sable à des ports naturels. Un parcours en contact étroit avec l’Océan, entre une nature imprégnée de quatre cents ans d’histoire, dans l’estuaire au nord de Boston, entre palourdes, cormorans, marées et « country art ».
Stunning views overlooking the Atlantic
Along the road leading north from the capital of Massachusetts, in the United States, there are stunning views overlooking the Atlantic, for Rudyard Kipling the coast of the Captains Courageous. The heritage of this region consists of history, culture, and economy.
Salem, known worldwide as the only place of witch hunts in the 1600s in America and, in the 1800s, the first American port to establish commercial relations with China.
Gloucester, the first fishing port established in America and the protagonist of the Maximus Poems by the great American poet Charles Olson, as well as the setting of a true story, narrated in 1997 by Sebastian Junger in the book The Perfect Storm later adapted into a film in 2000.
Beverly, hometown of writer John Updike, and Manchester-by-the-Sea, which became the namesake dramatic film by Kenneth Lonergan, earning Casey Affleck the Oscar for Best Actor. This eastern coast just a few miles north of Boston was one of the first vacation destinations for affluent American families, visited by princes and presidents.
Essex
Among the twenty coastal villages, Essex – 53 km from Boston – with its nearly four hundred years of history, is a world unto itself, full of charm, nature, centuries-old traditions, suitable for those seeking the magic of slowness and the pulse of tradition off the tourist paths. It lies between the brackish lagoons surrounding the Essex River, which flows into the sea at Essex Bay along with the nearby Castle Neck River and numerous streams, Walker Creek, Hardys Creek and Soginese Creek, forming a splendid estuary. The mainland rests on the water; a couple of small hills characterize the landscape. Here, where the town meets the river, is the Essex River Cultural District, geographically sensitive and compact, a meander among ancient cemeteries, historic shipyards and marinas, small restaurants, and antique shops.
Shipbuilding Museum
From its shoreline, views open onto the Burnham’s Shipyard shipyard, the Essex Historical Society, and the Shipbuilding Museum, which houses an important collection of maritime antiquities, the backbone of Essex’s rich history. Then the view stretches over the Essex River with its boundaries of brackish lagoons, beyond the horizon towards Hog Island and the vast Crane Beach. Patches of parks dot the small streets with benches designed to relax and enjoy the views. It is a dynamic and active fabric between river history that invites exploration and hands-on experience of this treasure so jealously preserved.
Essex Shipbuilding Museum
The shipbuilding tradition is still alive: the Essex Shipbuilding Museum tells the extraordinary story of a small New England village that built more two-masted wooden fishing schooners than anywhere else in the world. The museum is located in the old Essex Central School House from 1835, adjacent to land reserved in 1668 for a shipyard, an integral part of the village’s historical personality. There are over 7000 rare artifacts, photographs, tools, documents, models, including the schooner Evelina M. Goulart. Many objects have been found in attics, basements, and sheds in Essex.
Essex starts with clams and clam fishing: a real industry. This mix of brackish waters between river and ocean is one of the most fertile grounds for clams. The industrial revolution did not bring any facilitation to fishing: if you want good clams, you have to put your hands in the mud and work with a rake! There is still no clean and easy version that can be advertised and packaged.
Fried or steamed clams
Essex has made fresh catch its hallmark and it is no coincidence that its fried clams were invented right here in 1916 by Woodman’s. One of the best fried clam dishes with a view of the lagoon and birdwatching is J.T. Farnham’s. Fried or steamed, each place serves them according to its own recipe. The annual Essex ClamFest in October celebrates their fame combining art and crafts, music and entertainment, completing the festival with the Clam Chowder Tasting, where local restaurateurs compete to crown the best clam chowder in Cape Ann.
America’s Antique Capital
Essex is also considered America’s Antique Capital with over thirty antique shops within 2 km: it is a paradise for collectors and interior decorators; art, furniture, accessories find space in old buildings, one near the other. Many of these are just a short walk from places to eat: you browse one or two shops, then refresh yourself with a sip of local beer and a snack. Ripple, Shea’s Riverside, Riversbend and C.K. Pearl all have outdoor seating overlooking the Essex River. The view of the water and the lagoons is unparalleled: fantastic panoramas mark a meal of fresh fish, shellfish, and an eclectic mix of New England dishes, alternating with the tides while waiting for a spectacular sunset. These places reconnect us to nature and the many bird species that frequent the brackish lagoons.
Along the Essex River
There are various ways to explore the Essex River: for example, gliding over the water on a kayak tour led by an expert local who also points out the locations of many Hollywood films shot here. You can paddleboard in the mosaic of the estuary, through salt marsh meadows, tidal inlets, and Great Marsh estuaries. ERBA is an organization experienced in guided river kayak trips for all skill levels. Explore the protected waters of the Essex River watershed and the northern Massachusetts coast, offering great environmental diversity with miles of estuaries, islets, wildlife, beaches, and dunes. You can swim or spot a hawk, a heron, an egret. In these waters, striped bass is a favorite prey on local fishing charters.
Alternatively, you can opt for a good hour and a half narrated boat tour while passing farms, lagoon farms, and historic shipyards. You can see lobster, clams, fish being caught. You discover islands, barrier beaches, sand dunes, winding rivers, and wildlife. Essex River Cruises & Charters regularly offers various narrated trips, seven days a week, from May through the end of October within the tidal estuary, in a protected bay.
Fall Foliage
Among the various excursions, the autumn ones Fall Foliage Cider & Donut Cruises approach Hog Island to admire the magnificent red spruce forest. You can see the color change of the foliage in bright yellows and oranges, while sipping hot cider and apple donuts from Russell Orchard in Ipswich. It is a great opportunity to celebrate the spectacular fall foliage of New England. In this seemingly silent nature, there is an exceptional wildlife liveliness. Egrets are very common birds, a type of smaller heron with dark legs that stay in freshwater and saltwater lagoons to find fish food, as well as the osprey, often called the sea and river hawk. The swan, a large and graceful creature with wide wingspan; the blue heron which helps control the insect population and can swim even in deep water.
And the cormorant often perched on the coast with its wide wings open like Batman, to dry its feathers which are so little oily and make them light for diving to fish. Seals – harbor seal – are not missing either, spending half their time on the shore and the other half in the water. The nature reserve Stavros Reservation protects over 20 hectares of saltwater marshland in Essex, of which Whites Hill is a coastal promontory offering an uninterrupted view of Crane Beach, the Crane Wildlife Refuge, and Halibut Point. The top of Whites Hill is an excellent place to observe herons and raptors in the vast salt marsh, especially with a telescope. Many herons use the Essex marshes to feed during their journey to and from their nesting colonies on distant islands. The hill also attracts songbirds in migration.
Colonial Farm: Cogswell’s Grant
A beautiful colonial-era farm is the Cogswell’s Grant farm, still a functioning farm and historic house museum today, as well as the summer home of Bertram K. and Nina Fletcher Little, important collectors of American decorative arts in the mid-20th century. Cogswell’s Grant is a 66-acre coastal farm located along the banks of the Essex River, just two miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. Being one of the largest remaining landholdings in the town of Essex, born as a 17th-century land grant, and with existing landscape features on the property dating back to each of its ownership periods, it is an extremely significant historic agricultural landscape.
This house became perfect for the Little’s extensive collection of “country art” while also offering an idyllic retreat surrounded by the countryside where the couple could relax and entertain guests. Studying and restoring the interior finishes of the house was an important part of the restoration process. The woodwork and finishes had all been painted white by the late 19th century, and there were Victorian-era wallpapers throughout the house.
Over the years, Cogswell’s Grant became a special retreat for the Littles and their three children, Jack, Warren, and Selina. Their life on the farm was documented with a series of scrapbooks containing photos and notes of farm activities and gatherings, favorite animals, special events, and vintage cars collected by Jack. It was also a center of study and research, as the Littles had a wide circle of friends, fellow collectors, dealers, and scholars with whom they enthusiastically shared their collections and exchanged information.
Cogswell’s Grant was more than just a summer home for the Little family and a splendid historic setting for their ever-growing collections, it was also a family farm, operated by caretakers year-round who produced food products for the Littles’ consumption. Cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens were raised, milk and eggs were sold. Vegetables and fruit came from a large garden behind the house, then were preserved to supply the Little family with farm products year-round. The caretakers made deliveries of preserves, frozen meats, and fresh eggs throughout the winter to the Littles’ house in Brookline, Massachusetts and the Littles took pride in telling guests at their table that everything had been produced on their Essex farm.
In 1998 Cogswell’s Grant opened to the public and became the only place in the United States where such an important and pioneering collection of American folk art could be seen in the domestic setting for which it was assembled. The objects are arranged as during the Littles’ domestic life in a comfortable and natural way, as in the original house. Cogswell’s Grant is still a farm, honoring almost four centuries of that tradition, and keeping an important part of the Little family’s life alive. Since the property opened to the public, collectors, scholars, and decorative arts enthusiasts have flocked to the museum, enjoying the rarity and quality of the collection, and beginning a new chapter for the house, experiencing firsthand the Littles’ passion for collecting and sharing their collections.
©Thema New Worlds
