Long Beach starts in Gloucester and ends in Rockport, and the Long Beach Pavilion was once a popular stop for tourists traveling from one town to the other — provided they were traveling by foot, because Thatcher Road had not yet been constructed. The electric trolley from Gloucester to Long Beach was built in the late 1800s and the trolley company constructed this pavilion in 1895. Within it were a restaurant, dance hall, bowling alley and vaudeville theater.
I have found references to this pavilion through 1915 but cannot find any record of what came of it. It suffered a bad fire in 1909, according to a news report, but apparently was salvaged and continued to operate. If anyone knows the fate of this lovely building, please let me know.
This postcard was postmarked in August 1911. It was published by Edwin C. McIntire, Gloucester.
Vintage Rockport 
My Father-In-Law bought this hotel in the early 60’s and ran it for about 3 years before it burnt down at the same time as some other hotels in the area. My wife used to work there in the summers. This is the first photo of the hotel that she has ever seen. Thanks!
Nice work with the historic photos! I have built and shown some “movies” of historic houses and locations at the Community House in Rockport to a packed house of Senior Citizens and they couldn’t get enough! I show the photos with music to make it seem like a silent movie. I just built another one about Pigeon Cove and this should please the folks from Pigeon Cove who feel they are under-appreciated with all attention going to Rockport. This work takes a huge amount of time and your “Vintagerockport” Post cards have filled in some gaps in my searches at the Rockport Library. I now have three movies “In the Can”
Again, Thanks!
Gil McCarthy
Gil: Let us know when the next movie is showing. I’d love to see it.
Robert, the “Pigeon Cove” movie (shown at no charge) will start at 7pm on November 17 at the Rockport Community House (our Senior Center). The last show was SRO as we had to add seats and benches from other rooms. We didn’t really push this show with advertising. It seemed that this looking back at the past really resonated with our Seniors and their children. Whole families showed up and wanted more after almost 2 hours.
I used a laptop to run the program (Microsoft Movie Maker) and it was projected with a less than new overhead unit. We bought a new one after seeing the huge crowd of very happy people.
The audience participated without any nudging. I would ask if anyone knew the names of the people or places up on the screen and they roared the names out. Many times this became spontaneous as a familiar face hit the screen. “There’s Bob!” They wanted more pictures of people from their past for the next show. I have a whole section with people from the past.
I will e-mail Diane Bertolino, the Director of the senior center to include you in the reserved seating list. No more surprise crowds at the door. You might want to send her an e-mail asking for the reserved seat for Nov 17. Her e-mail is “Diane Bertolino”
Thanks for being there for me with an occasional photo that I just couldn’t find anywhere
else. You will see a couple of “VintageRockport” photos up on the screen when you come!
Gil
Hello there. I’m working on a book that includes a chapter about dancing halls at trolley parks. Long Beach shows up as a park on my 1900 street railway map, and the accompanying trolley guide says: “Another branch to Long Beach affords a popular trip. Here are found, in addition to sea bathing on a beautiful sandy beach, a pavilion and dancing hall, bowling alleys and other popular attractions.”. I’ve found two mentions of the Pavilion in the Boston Globe: one is an ad for a business opportunity in 1891 that offers the chance to rent showcases to sell “fancy goods and confectionaries” at the Pavilion, and the other is from 1917 advertising the Pavilion’s lobster dinners with seating for 300.
If your father-in-law owned the property as a hotel, do you have any idea when it was remodeled into a hotel? Thanks for any info!
Actually, I just came across another source (Cape Ann in Stereo Views from the Images of America series) that seems to indicate there was both a Pavilion and a Pavilion Hotel in Gloucester, although it’s rather confusing!
http://books.google.com/books?id=Pw7O7800qRYC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=cape+ann+long+beach+pavilion&source=bl&ots=aY3B5hn071&sig=ONkLZBBYB6ohJbMg7gZ6s26Gg9c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=yCLXUvCMF4rMsQTA9ICwAw&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=cape%20ann%20long%20beach%20pavilion&f=false
Ruth, I asked my wife, Gerry, and she said her father owned it for about 5 years from 1959 to 1964. She said the hotel was in the same place as the current motel that faces toward Rockport. It had a ballroom for dancing, a restaurant, ice cream parlor and two floors of rooms for the guests. I hope that helps!
Gil McCarthy
Thanks for the info. After a bit more poking around online, I think I have it straight now. The Pavilion in the image above either included lodging or came to include lodging later and was indeed the hotel your father-in-law owned. There was also a Pavilion Hotel (later the Surfside) on Pavilion Beach in Gloucester that burned in 1914. I found the current motel on Long Beach at the location you described and it matches the Long Beach Park icon on my 1900 railway map almost exactly.
This is why writing my book is going to take forever; every time I think I can zip off some simple little aside it turns into a few more days of research. But I sure am having fun with it!
Keep at it. That is a very nice job you are doing!
Gil
Dear Gil,
My family purchased the house across the street from the hotel in 1952. Our family cottage was moved from your side of the street where it was the hotel’s care keeper’s cottage. My mother, Teresa Russell, used to run kids’ dances at the hotel. I was born in 1962 and my first memory is driving up to Gloucester to see the ruins of the 1965 fire. I wonder if you knew my parents. Thanks!
I forgot to tell you that the shows are “Then and Now” efforts with current photos of everything still available.
I am also a Director on the Board at the Rockport Council on Aging.
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BTW, there’s another old photo of The Pavilion without the trolley car in the way in the photo tour at the Cape Ann Motor Inn’s site: http://www.capeannmotorinn.com/phototour.html
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For those of you who were following this discussion, my dance history book (which includes a chapter on trolley parks and their dance halls) is now out: Twirling Jennies: A History of Social Dance (and other mischief) in the City of Spindles 1820–1920. You can check it out at http://www.twirlingjennies.com or at Amazon.com.
Thanks everyone for your help!