Rockport’s Inner Harbor (Motif No. 1)

Motif No. 1 is perched on wooden pilings on Bradley’s pier in Rockport’s Inner Harbor. The structure is perpendicular to T Wharf, and sheltered by the Bearskin Neck Breakwater. Bearskin Neck is the heart of Rockport’s tourist industry. The original fishing shack in the Inner Harbor was built between 1884 and 1885 and used to store fishermen’s gear and catch.¹ In the early 1900s, the shack became the focus of landscape painting students under the tutelage of artist Lester Hornby, who named the structure “Motif No. 1.”² The name has stuck while the building has changed hands. In the 1930s, John Buckley used Motif No. 1 as an artist’s studio before he sold it to the town of Rockport in 1945 as a monument to residents in the Armed Services.³

The building is the centerpiece of Motif No. 1 Day, a festival held annually on the third Saturday of May that celebrates the landmark as a symbol of maritime New England.^{4 5} Since the 1900s, Motif No. 1 has appeared in popular culture, from an advertisement for Winston’s cigarettes to Finding Nemo.⁶ The structure is integral to Rockport’s cultural identity and is a shared focal point in the history of diverse user groups in Rockport’s Inner Harbor, from fishermen to tourists and artists.⁷

Motif No. 1 collapsed into the harbor during the Blizzard of 1978, but the Town constructed an exact replica later in the same year.⁸ The building, and its neighbors on Bearskin Neck, will be flooded by a mere one foot of sea level rise; as a result, it will likely become a repetitive loss structure due to storm-induced high velocity wave action in the near future, and taxpayers will have to take on the costs to relocate or repair the building.^{9 10}

During the Great Storm, the incomplete Bearskin Neck breakwater, and the larger incomplete Sandy Bay Breakwater from Andrew’s Point to Straitsmouth Island, will not adequately shelter the businesses and ships moored in the Inner Harbor, which are the heart of Rockport’s commercial district.^{11 12 13} The piers themselves may become dislodged and become dangerous projectiles in high winds.