Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1281965
106 MOST OF CAPE ANN IS A TOURISM HOTSPOT, especially in the summer. But there's at least one little corner that retains a residential village feel: Annisquam, a neighborhood in Gloucester. "We're a very picturesque community and also a small one," says Steve Harris, president of the Annisquam Village Hall Association. ere are small streets, almost no parking lots, only one restaurant, and one store. "It's not a place that we can pack a lot of tourists in." It's even small geographically, a tiny, rocky spit of land surrounded by "ocean, river, and cove," says lifelong resident Gerry Herbert. She says she loves walking the narrow streets, and granite steps, and past historical buildings that she "knew as a child 80 years ago [that] are cared for and cherished by their current owners." Because it's so small and relatively out-of- the-way (it's a peninsula), Annisquam, from an Algonquian term meaning "top of the rock," feels a world away from the rest of the city to which it belongs. Despite being part of Gloucester, it still feels like a place unto itself. "What I love most about Annisquam is its sense of village. Everyone looks after each other, regardless of age or persuasion," Annisquam, Gloucester says Dave Tearce, another lifelong resident. "is is a place to come back to. Residents have known each other for 70 years or more through several generations of families." Although it's not a tourist area, Harris says those who do want to spend an afternoon in Annisquam might enjoy exploring some of Lobster cove, row boats, and the Historical Society in Annisquam Village Hall "TOP OF THE ROCK" what the Annisquam Village Hall Association has to offer, including the Village Library and the Historical Society, housed in an old fire- house, as well as a consignment shop called e Exchange, followed by dinner at Talise, a restaurant that opened earlier this year on Lobster Cove. PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOE FERRARO N O R T H S H O R E N E I G H B O R H O O D S