Cape Ann is already experiencing climate change. These 27 vignettes show how Cape Ann’s critical infrastructure, beloved cultural landscapes and historic downtowns are changing before the storm arrives.

Smith Cove

Gloucester, MA

commercial district, evacuation, heritage, jetties, public safety

Smith Cove is sheltered behind Rocky Neck in Gloucester’s Inner Harbor. The Smith Cove waterfront is developed with heterogenous uses, including residential, commercial, and mixed uses along wharves, piers, and floats. A quarter of the small- to medium-sized fishing vessels are berthed in the East Gloucester and Smith Cove harbors.¹ Tourists visiting Rocky Neck, one of the longest-running artist’s colonies in the United States and a popular summer destination, look out over the Cove.² Additionally, the Gloucester Marine Railway Corporation, one of the country’s oldest operating shipyards, faces the mouth of Smith Cove.³

Tranquil Day’s End on the Harbor. Photograph by Kim Smith, 2017. www.goodmorninggloucester.com/tag/smith-cove/

Rocky Neck and its coastal stabilization structures are already vulnerable to flooding.⁴ Rocky Neck Avenue, the only road on or off the Neck, is entirely vulnerable to flooding due to storm surge, and has already been inundated during nor’easter flooding.

Where the boat leaves from. Photograph by Paul Bilodeau, 2021. www.gloucestertimes.com/multimedia/photos/where-the-boat-leaves-from/image_8253597b-f8e3-5a77-8aff-172519ec694d.html

During western-tracking hurricane events, Rocky Neck will protect Smith Cove from some of the wave impacts, but the tightly clustered piers and boats will become projectiles that smash onto the shore. Rocky Neck Avenue will be entirely cut off from the mainland, posing a serious public safety threat for emergency responders. The repetitive loss structures on Rocky Neck will be destroyed again.⁵ The low-lying parts of East Main Street behind the flooded commercial piers will also be inundated as the storm crashes into the rocky outcroppings behind the road.⁶

City of Gloucester, 2014 Gloucester Municipal Harbor Plan and DPA Master Plan (Gloucester, MA: City of Gloucester, 2014) 29. ↩
“History,” Rocky Neck Art Colony, accessed December 3, 2021. ↩
David R. Borges, Michael Goodman, Katherine J. Kahl, Michael McCarthy and Elise M. Rapoza, North Shore Blue Economy Phase I: Findings and Vision Forward (Gloucester: UMass Amherst Gloucester Marine Station and UMass Dartmouth, September 2021), 41. ↩
Kleinfelder, Coastal Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Adaptation Plan (Gloucester: Kleinfelder, June 29, 2015), 20. ↩
Metropolitan Area Planning Council, City of Gloucester Hazard Mitigation Plan 2020 Update (Gloucester: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 2020), 58. ↩
Metropolitan Area Planning Council, City of Gloucester Hazard Mitigation Plan (Gloucester: Metropolitan Area Planning Council, 2012), 39. ↩