Hammond Castle

"THE
HAMMOND
MUSEUM

(open June 1 - October 1 on weekday mornings only; tours under guide at 9, 10, and 11; admission 50¢),

a stone castle in medieval style in the Magnolia section [of Gloucester], overlooks the sea. It contains a picture gallery, rare old furniture, wood carvings, and sculpture collected and arranged by John Hays Hammond, Jr."

WPA GUIDE TO MASSACHUSETTS
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1937

"In Gloucester, Massachusetts, a couple of miles before the 'Down to the Sea in Ships' statue and the fish-stick factory that uses the statue as a trademark, on a quiet country road lies Hammond Castle.…The castle itself was hardly visible since it sat on a lower bank between the ocean and the trees. It had been built between 1926 and 1929 by inventor John Hays Hammond, Jr., as a home for both his new bride and his medieval art collection."

John Dandola, WIND OF TIME
Compass Point Mysteries
Glen Ridge, New Jersey, 2000

"My ambition is to leave a modest, but beautiful, museum.…I want only an authentic atmosphere, some furniture, and genuine architectural pieces -- doors, windows, etc. In cold restrained New England, a place with the romantic beauty of the Italian and French past may prove the inspiration of many poor artists and students to come. It will give them something that I have been fortunate enough to know and enjoy. I also gives me satisfaction to think that I may be able to produce something of lasting worth."

John Hays Hammond, Jr.
in a 1924 letter to his father