What you see in the picture is the building that currently houses the Rockport Art Association at 12 Main St. Built in 1787 and known as the Old Tavern, the building was originally a sea captain’s house. Over the years, it served as a tavern, an inn and a stage coach stop. The RAA moved in in 1929.

This card describes the building as the Sandy Bay Club House. The only reference I can find to a Sandy Bay Club around that time is to what is now known as the Sandy Bay Yacht Club. The yacht club was formed in 1885 and did not move to its present location until 1930. Was this the former location of the yacht club? If anyone knows, please help me out.

To the left of the photo, in the location now occupied by the Strisik Gallery, was a pharmacy, the McHenry Drug Co. It appears this pharmacy was short-lived. Based on state documents, it appears that this pharmacy opened for business in 1903, was organized as a corporation in 1907 and then dissolved in 1916.

This is what is called a Real Photo postcard, meaning it was an actual photograph developed onto postcard-sized photographic paper with a postcard back for mailing. The card is postmarked, but the last digit of the postmark date is blurred so that it could be either 1913 or 1918. According to one resource I found, this type of Real Photo card — bearing the Velox brand with diamonds in the corners — was produced only from 1907 to 1914. Thus, the year of the postmark must be 1913.