Annisquam Harbor Light Station is a historic lighthouse located on Wigwam Point in the Annisquam neighborhood of Gloucester, Massachusetts. It can be viewed from nearby Wingaersheek Beach, Gloucester. It lies on the Annisquam River and is one of the four oldest lighthouses surrounding the Gloucester peninsula, along with Eastern Point Light, Ten Pound Island Light, and Thacher Island Light.
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Annisquam is a waterfront village in the city of Gloucester in Essex County on the North Shore of Massachusetts, United States. It is a few miles across Cape Ann from downtown Gloucester.
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The Annisquam River is a tidal, salt-water estuary in the Annisquam neighborhood of Gloucester, Massachusetts, connecting Annisquam Harbor on the north to Gloucester Harbor on the south. The segment between Gloucester Harbor and the Newburyport/Rockport Line bridge is also known as the Blynman Canal.
The estuary is about 4.5 miles long, navigable, and open to the ocean at both ends. Its surface area is 1.9 square miles. The name "Annisquam" comes from an Algonquian term meaning "top of the rock, containing <wanashque>, "on top of", and <-ompsk>, "rock". The first European settlement in Annisquam was established in 1631. The river was dredged by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in 1965 to create a channel some 8 feet deep, and 60 to 200 feet wide. Annisquam Harbor Light stands on the east, Cape Ann, side of the north entrance to the river.
There are only three fixed crossings of the river: Massachusetts Route 128, the Rockport Branch of the MBTA Newburyport/Rockport Line, and Western Avenue.
There are strong tidal currents in the river, and unusually the current flows in opposite directions at the two ends.
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The Annisquam Bridge is a historic bridge in Annisquam, Massachusetts, a village within the city of Gloucester. The bridge was built in 1861 to replace an earlier 1847 bridge that crossed Lobster Cove. It is a wooden pile bridge, a type of which only two others were found in New England as part of a c. 1979 survey. The bridge is 440 feet long and 30 feet wide, and had a drawbridge section in the center that was moved by a hand-cranked winch. The bridge has repeatedly been the subject of safety closings and restorative work over the course of the 20th century, and was completely rebuilt in 1946–7, removing the draw. Despite this, it was closed to vehicular traffic in 1968, and pedestrian traffic in 1987. The bridge has since been rehabilitated, and is open to pedestrian traffic.
The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
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The Edward Harraden House is a historic house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It was built on land purchased by Edward Harraden in 1656, who is presumed to have built the house not long afterward. It was one of the early houses in the development of Annisquam village. It is a 2+1⁄2-story seven-bay colonial with an off-center central chimney. The oldest portion of the house is the second through fourth bays from the left; the interior sections to the right of the chimney was added sometime before 1765. The house was afterward further extended by one bay on each side. The only clear evidence of its First Period origins is in the attic, or is covered over by the walls.
The house was built c. 1660 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
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Wingaersheek Beach is a 0.6-mile long beach located on the Annisquam River in West Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States.
According to the USGS the name is a corruption of the earlier Dutch name "Wyngaerts Hoeck", which was derived from "Wyngaerton". The name was described by Professor Trumbull as "not Indian" and stated by Professor E. N. Horsford to be "an undoubted corruption of the German name, "Wyngaerts Hoeck", which occurs on many maps between 1630 and 1670, especially in Ogilby's "America"." The beach was alternatively called Coffins Beach for Peter Coffin whose farm was located alongside this beach."
The popularity of Wingaersheek Beach, as well as the nearby Good Harbor Beach, has resulted in traffic jams in the area. The town of Gloucester forbids dogs entirely from all Gloucester beaches from May 1 to September 30. Since January 2015, a local law came into place that allows unleashed dogs on Wingaersheek Beach only on odd numbered days and Good Harbor Beach only on even numbered days.