CAPE ANN, Mass. — August 14, 2014 — O.K., you think you know Cape Ann, the North Shore peninsula that has been faintly patronized as Cape Cod’s little sister.
It’s there as you remember it: the granite coast, the sea spume, the panoramic view at the working port in Gloucester, the improbably picturesque harbor at Rockport and the antiquing and fried-clam indulgences of Essex. And of course, there’s the celebrated harbor excursion past Ten Pound Island, and the Singing Beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Also, omnipresent, is the bewitching light that obsessed Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, Fitz Henry Lane and Gordon Parks.
But it’s time to rethink what you already know. Cape Ann, Massachusetts, has become the little vacationland that could, furthering a renaissance for a community built around its 400-year-old principal port, Gloucester, now facing maritime-industry decline. As the cape is seeking to maintain a sustainable base of seafaring, manufacturing and tourism, it is focusing on its longtime reputation as a bastion of culture and a growing center for inventive cuisine.
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