Stage Fort Park is a park at Stage Head in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east of t ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, part of the

Essex National Heritage Area The Essex National Heritage Area is a National Heritage Area composed of all of Essex County, Massachusetts. It is overseen by the Essex National Heritage Commission (ENHC), a non-profit organization based in Salem, Massachusetts. The commission ...

. It contains two beaches, a large playground, picnic benches, two baseball fields, a basketball court, a dog park and plenty of room for any weekend activities. The park includes Gloucester's Visitor and Welcome Center and

Stage Fort Stage Fort was a fort that existed from 1635 to 1898 on Stage Head in what is now Stage Fort Park in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Stage Head was named for a fishing "stage" dating back to the original settlement by the Dorchester Adventurers Co ...

, a reconstructed Civil War fort on a site fortified since 1635. A seasonal restaurant in the park, The Cupboard of Gloucester, selling a wide variety of food and ice cream including fried clams and sandwiches. The most prominent geological feature is a large rock, some sixty feet high and two hundred wide. It was said to be an ancient ritual stone used by Native Americans. Stage Head was named for a fishing "stage" dating back to the original settlement by the Dorchester Adventurers Company circa 1624. It was the most likely original site of Roger Conant's "

Great House A great house is a large house or mansion with luxurious appointments and great retinues of indoor and outdoor staff. The term is used mainly historically, especially of properties at the turn of the 20th century, i.e., the late Victorian or ...

", which was moved to Salem circa 1628. The area was first fortified in 1635 with the

and garrisoned intermittently from then until the Spanish–American War. The fort was reconstructed in 1930. The works were also known variously as Fort Gloucester, Eastern Point Fort, Fort Conant, other names, and other variants of these names. An 1862 painting by

Fitz Henry Lane Fitz Henry Lane (born Nathaniel Rogers Lane, also known as Fitz Hugh Lane) (December 19, 1804 – August 14, 1865) was an American painter and printmaker of a style that would later be called Luminism, for its use of pervasive light. Biography ...

, ''

Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor ''Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor'' is a mid 19th century painting by American artist Fitz Henry Lane. The painting is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. Done in oil on canvas, the work depicts the Stage For ...

'', depicts the park area and the fort from further north in the harbor. The painting is in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...

View of Stage Fort Park facing inland from the beach wall

Stage Fort across Gloucester Harbor MET DT5586

References

Parks in Essex County, Massachusetts Gloucester, Massachusetts {{EssexCountyMA-geo-stub