Harbortown Cultural District

The Harbortown Cultural District is the hub of Gloucester’s downtown and the center of the oldest seaport in New England. The harbor and its work have inspired all manner of creative artists, iconoclasts and activists for centuries and continue to draw locals and visitors. Harbortown boasts a staggering array of cultural assets, businesses, and year-round creative arts and entertainment activities. Dozens of festivals celebrate the city’s diverse ethnic heritage, fishing traditions, literary giants, and contemporary arts and culture. Harbortown counts more than 35 restaurants, many of which host live music at night and feature changing art exhibits. The Cape Ann Museum is lauded as one of the finest small museums in the country. Harbortown also features the HarborWalk, an interactive public path featuring stories and images of the district’s annual St. Peter’s Fiesta, heroic fisherman Howard Blackburn, artists such as Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper, poets Charles Olson and T.S. Eliot, writers Sebastian Junger and Virginia Lee Burton, along with inventors and waterfront workers. The Walk loops by a working waterfront, past sea captain mansions, pocket parks, the seven gabled Fitz Henry Lane house, and the museums. The Harbortown Cultural District is one of seven state-designated Cultural Districts within the Essex National Heritage Area. Find all of them here.