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Ocean View, Extreme End of Cape Ann, Pigeon Cove, Mass.
Boston: J. H. Bufford’s Lith., [ca. 1870]. Lithograph, 20.25” x 30.25” plus margins. CONDITION: Very good, old folds and a .5” chip to upper-right edge, recently backed with Japanese tissue. A scarce and elaborate plat map for a seaside resort development at Pigeon Cove in Rockport, Mass. Located on the eastern extremity of Cape Ann, Pigeon Cove began attracting vacationers from the Boston area during the 1840s. Once the train reached the area in 1862, summer boarding homes soon gave way to seasonal hotels. Spearheading the development of Ocean View were the two men listed at the center-left of this map—George Babson of Pigeon Cove (1835–1895) and Eben Phillips of Boston (1808–1875), the latter owning much property there. The map shows the various subdivisions of Ocean View, including occupied lots and those set aside for various purposes, as well as numbered lots for sale. Among the lots occupied or in use are those of Pigeon Cove House, Mrs. M. D. Babson Summer Boarding House, Rev. E. H. Chapin of New York, two observatories, and the town school. Also identified on the plan are commercial entities surrounding Pigeon Cove Harbor, such as E. Eames & Co. and Marchent & Co. A vignette entitled “View from Phillips Avenue, near Dick’s Dream” shows a couple riding horseback against a sunset backdrop of vessels plying the waters. Text in the upper-left corner extolls Ocean View’s various beauties, its mineral springs—“differing entirely from others, and pronounced by leading physicians to contain great medicinal properties”—and the “laying out of the lots, which are very large” and “beautifully shaded with a native growth of Walnut, Oak, and Pine trees…” In the lower-left corner are fifteen glowing testimonials from summer residents, visitors from Boston and New York, the editor of the New Orleans Picayune, and publications such as Springfield Republican, Boston Transcript, etc. Commended here are Ocean View’s “wild and romantic” scenery; the “grateful odor of the forest mingled with the briny exhalations from the ocean”; “rocks in magnific multitudes,” and so on. Poet William Cullen Bryant observes: “Full of pleasant paths running in every direction, the woods here look like a beautiful rural temple.” One rapturous visitor cites a few lines of poetry: “Blended there / In wild reality, when life is old, / And many a scene forgot, the heart will hold / Its memory of this.” Ocean View is here advertised as accessible from Boston by little over an hour’s rail ride via the Eastern Railroad; at the time of this map’s production four trains traveled from Boston to Ocean View each way daily. OCLC records just two holdings of what appears to be the same edition of this map, at the Peabody Essex Museum and the Leventhal Center at the Boston Public Library. We locate a third example, held by the town of Rockport. Another edition, with tinting and more vignettes, was published as well. A rare and quite handsome promotional map for this North Shore resort development. REFERENCES: Ray, Martin. “Ocean View” at Notes from Halibut Point online; pictured at Digital Commonwealth Massachusetts of Rockport Town Hall.
Item #7643
Price: $2,500.00
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