The Museum’s 2012 One-Day Contemporary Art Series at the White-Ellery House continues with Shep Abbott’s installation It’s All About Dogtown!

The historic property will be open that day as part of 17th Century Saturdays, an Escapes North program and is free and open to the public.The White-Ellery House is located at 245 Washington Street in Gloucester at the Route 128 Grant Circle Rotary.

Shep Abbott has a passion for Dogtown and looks forward to sharing it with visitors in his installation at the White-Ellery House. Large-scale cutout animals and a mural of the deserted village of Dogtown will highlight his display. Historic images from the Cape Ann Museum’s archives will also be exhibited along with a slide show of snapshots taken in Dogtown by several generations of Gloucester and Rockport families. 

The White-Ellery House is one of a handful of surviving First Period buildings in Massachusetts that retains a substantial portion of its original interior fabric. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Sites because of its design, materials, and workmanship, and its plank frame construction. The house was built in 1710 for the Reverend John White, Gloucester’s first settled minister, on the original Town Green. It exhibits an elegance and refinement commensurate with White’s esteemed position in the community. The second owner of the house was James Stevens, who kept it as a tavern until 1740, at which time it was sold to the Ellery family. In 1947, when plans were unveiled showing Route 128 traversing the Town Green, the house was taken by the City of Gloucester by eminent domain, turned over to the Cape Ann Historical Association, and moved safely out of the path of the highway.