In September 1606, Samuel de Champlain visited Cape Ann and entered Gloucester Harbor, naming it Le Beauport (The Good Harbor). He and his men discovered "fine grapes just ripe, Brazilian peas, pumpkins, squashes, and very good roots." The natives they encountered traded these and other items in exchange for "little trifles." Following de Champlain's lead, Captain John Smith arrived in 1614, and his positive reports led to a settlement in 1623 by a group of English from the Dorchester Company. These settlers, working fishermen, landed at Half Moon Beach and established their settlement nearby, setting up fish treatment stages in what is now Stage Fort Park. They worked on fishing and trading industries, farmed, and built ships using the oak forests on Cape Ann. Named after the English town where many settlers originated, Gloucester became a maritime center.

Mulhaupt painted two historical murals depicting these events for the second-floor auditorium in the former Central Grammar School, now senior housing, across from City Hall. His figures are idealized, heroic, and upright, with dramatic use of shadow, flatness of paint application, and muted colors contributing to their solidity. The use of grays in the backgrounds enhances the richness of the oranges and yellows without making them bright. The foliage and figures appear frozen in two historical moments, with the borders stylized and muted, isolating the scenes like illustrations in a book on Gloucester history. Both murals are highly stylized in pose and costume, with a large plaque in Stage Fort Park memorializing the 1623 landing and settlement.