Google Street View of the building as it looks today.

The building that once housed the Granite Shore Hotel still stands at the corner of Main and School Streets in downtown Rockport. I read that part of this building was originally the home of the Rev. Ebenezer Cleaveland, who arrived here in 1752 as Sandy Bay’s first permanent minister. I’m not exactly sure when the building became a hotel. An 1872 map shows the house as belonging to J.R. Gott, who I believe was Jabez R. Gott, a deacon of the Congregational Church and the original cashier of the Rockport National Bank from its founding in 1851 until close to the time of his death in 1876.

By the time of an 1889 map, the building had become the Granite Shore. (I see it variously referred to as the “Granite Shore Hotel” and the “Granite Shore Inn.”) An 1898 building inspection report said that the hotel was ordered to install portable fire escapes, with which it complied. 

A 1904 article in the Boston Evening Transcript said this about the hotel:

A feature about the Granite Shore Hotel at Rockport, Mass., is the fact that all its guests are so pleased with the place at the close of each season that they never hesitate to recommend the hotel in the most enthusiastic terms, which goes to prove that it is conducted on a very high plane of excellence. The hotel is described as one of the best and most comfortable “Village Inns” on Cape Ann, and is located conveniently to one of the best beaches on the coast. For particulars address F.H. Pratt at that place.

Various people served as the hotel’s proprietors over the years. A 1903 listing showed William Adams as the hotel’s proprietor. That 1904 article above listed F.H. Pratt, who also managed The Linwood hotel in Pigeon Cove. A 1906 advertisement listed Herbert A. Dunklee as the proprietor. In 1909, it was run by Mrs. Helen G. Turner.

A 1905 book showed rooms available at the Granite Shore for $2 a night. By 1919, the rates were $3 a day or between $15 and $18 a week.

I don’t know when the hotel closed. The last reference I could find to it was a 1942 listing in a business directory.

Another view of the hotel can be seen in this postcard from 1920. The part of the building directly on the corner of Main and School housed the Post Office.

This postcard is undated. The same image appears on other postcards, one of which I’ve seen with a 1907 postmark. This card was published by Frank W. Swallow of Exeter, N.H. I have seen the same photograph on postcards published by The Rotograph Co. of New York City.