Gloucester City Hall

Whether you travel to Gloucester by land or by sea, it is pretty hard to miss City Hall. It overlooks the harbor and is one of the most oft-painted buildings in our part of the world and for good reason, it is a distinctive-looking, attractive structure. When I first started working with artist Robert Gruppé, I noticed that he had a charming technique of elevating City Hall in his paintings and giving it a magnificent prominence on the skyline that reminds you of castles and cathedrals in Old Masters paintings of European cities. It is a wonderful structure to do that.

Unfortunately City Hall has seen its share of neglect and was, in fact, closed for nearly a year so the roof and roof supports could be reinforced but it is open once again and busy as always. The street I live on dead-ends two blocks up, directly in front of City Hall. It is an everyday part of my life, as it is for many Gloucester residents, and I always enjoy it. The clock on the tower tells the correct time, in winter a blue light flashes from the tower when there is a snow emergency, and for a long time, there was a web cam pointed toward the harbor mounted in one of the turrets. It isn't working these days which is too bad.

City Hall also has a resident who is growing in fame and popularity. A Peregrine Falcon who has lived in the tower for several years now. The photo at left (and the one at right above) was taken by bird-lover Jim Barber of Gloucester whose message board, For the Birds, attracts birders across the country. His photographs of City Hall's most magnificent resident can be seen on his board. As many times as I have looked up and seen the falcon, sometimes with a friend, soaring around the turrets, I never fail to stop and take a breath. It is a glorious sight.

But the most famous feature of City Hall is inside in the stairwell leading up to the second and third floors. There, stenciled on the walls, are the names --- five thousand of them --- of Gloucester Fishermen lost at sea. The photo at right by Gloucester photographer Nubar Alexanian is one of my favorites because the light shining through the windows seems to form a cross over the names of all the lost fishermen. The list begins in 1716 with Jeremiah Allen, though in truth Gloucestermen had been going to sea for nearly a hundred years before the list began. When I was working at the City hall Sculpture Show in 1997 my desk was directly at the top of the stairs on the second floor where the names spread out before me. I spent many hours, when visitors were few, reading those names and trying to imagine their lives --- and the ends of their lives. These days I have a special attachment to that place because Mark's book F/V Black Sheep ends in that stairwell and, since the first time I read his book, I have been achingly aware that his book came close to not being written --- and his name came close to being on that wall.

Along the Inner Harbor by Robert Gruppé

So today when I go out to do my errands I will pass City Hall several times. I have to go to the library and the post office both of which adjoin it. I'll look for the falcon. I'll think about the names on the wall --- and the name not on the wall.

Thanks for reading.