The Cape Ann Museum had a different name when it was founded in 1875—the Cape Ann Scientific and Literary Association—but its mission has been the same from the beginning: to preserve and share the culture and history of the area. Now, as the museum heads into its 150th year, its leadership is celebrating its growth and successes, while working to expand its legacy.
The museum is in the midst of a renovation project that will transform the downtown campus. Rooms formerly used for storage will become exhibit space, sightlines will be opened up and staircases moved to make it easier for visitors to find their way, and a new gallery dedicated to art from the 20th and 21st centuries will be added.
“We’ve always envisaged the renovations as a gift to the community,” says museum director Oliver Barker. “It will be a completely revamped facility.”
Though the museum began in 1875, it wasn’t until the 1920s that it got its first permanent headquarters, the Captain Elias Davis House, an historic home in downtown Gloucester built in 1806. As the museum’s collections grew, the institution built a gallery adjacent to the original house. In the 1940s, the organization’s president dedicated himself to acquiring paintings by Gloucester artist Fitz Henry Lane; today the museum has the country’s largest collection of Lane’s works.
More space was added over the years. Today the downtown museum consists of five interlinked buildings, ranging from the Davis house, to new spaces constructed during renovations in 2014. The latest renovations will target a section of the museum that was once a telecommunications building, and has not been refurbished since the early 1990s.
The downtown campus will be closed for this work until spring of 2026. In the meantime, the museum is centering its program at the Cape Ann Museum Green property, an annex that opened in 2020. An exhibit highlighting Gloucester’s acclaimed C.B. Fisk organ company opens in April and will include daily lunchtime organ concerts. A new “Coffee and Conversations” series lets visitors get an up-close look at an object from the museum and learn about its significance.
Throughout the warmer months, visitors will be welcome to enjoy the property’s sprawling lawn, its outdoor sculptures, and the recreated Wampanoag wetu constructed on the site in 2023.
The combination of expanding programming at the Cape Ann Green and reimagining the downtown museum will help keep the institution vital for another 150 years – or more – Barker says.
“It’s a pretty exciting moment for the museum,” he says. “It’s a wonderful way of setting the Cape Ann Museum up for the next chapter.”