History

The Motif No.1 Day Festival celebrates Rockport across the arts! M1D honors the fishing shack, artist’s studio, and tourist attraction that started it all: an old building right on one of Rockport’s historic wharves, a building painted so often by artists at the turn of the last century that it was given the nickname Motif No.1.

Take a step back in time and enjoy a spring day on the farm. Enjoy traditional New England music, sheep-shearing, and wagon rides and cheer on your favorite teams of the Essex Base Ball Association as they play using 1860s rules. At these fun, historically accurate games, players pitch underhand, a ball bounced once and caught is an out, and no gloves are allowed.

Did you know that all of Essex County is considered a very special place? Essex County is a National Heritage Area, which are regions known for having a lot of important natural, historic and cultural resources. With so many different things to do, see and explore, National Heritage Areas are pretty cool places to live! At Essex Heritage, we want to help people who live in Essex County get outside and discover new sites close to home, something we like to call…Exploring Your Own Backyard!

The Library will be showing, First Man, the biographical drama based on Neil Armstrong’s journey to the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. During the 1960’s Space Race, NASA test pilot Neil Armstrong faces numerous challenges in his personal and professional life as he strives to prove that he is willing to risk everything to achieve one of the greatest accomplishments in human history: the first lunar landing. This movie stars Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy and Kyle Chandler.