Standing at the end of Rockport’s Town dock, Pollyann Statom glances at the world-famous Motif #1. Her three grandchildren run around, excited at the prospect of a boat trip to Thacher Island to see the only operating twin lighthouses in America. The existing lighthouses, built in 1861, replaced the original twin lights, one of them the last built under British rule in 1771.

But first, a confession. Even though they all live nearby — Pollyann and her husband, John, in Newbury and their daughter, Tracy Stickney, and her three children in Byfield — this was the first visit for all to Thacher Island.

“We’ve never been out to it,’’ Pollyann says. “We’ve looked at it for 70 years.’’

“It’s a ‘bucket list’ thing,’’ adds Stickney.

“It’s like going to Virginia and not seeing all the historical sites,’’ John Statom says.

History wasn’t motivation enough for Tatum, 11, Hawk, 9, or Boden, a shy 6.

“We’re on a scouting mission,’’ their mother, Tracy, explains as the launch arrives. Snapping Boden into a bright-orange life vest, she says: “You can camp there. We’ll probably go just one night.’’

Rockport draws visitors far and wide for its art galleries, restaurants, coastal views, and shops, but of its three major historic sites, which is most popular? Motif #1, a dilapidated, dark-red fishing shack on a Bearskin Neck wharf, arguably Rockport’s trademark, one recognized around the world? The towering Twin Lights on Thacher Island, the last twin lighthouses still operating in the country? Or the Paper House, a one-of-its-kind summer cottage made of rolled up newspapers, and furniture, too?

The Paper House

Unique is the only word to describe the Paper House. Built in 1924 by Elis Stenman, a mechanical engineer by training, it was a summer cottage for his family to live in. Today, his grandniece, Edna Beaudoin, runs it.

I bump into Beaudoin sitting on her deck of the house she lives in, located behind the Paper House. The Paper House has a typical wooden frame, wooden floor, and regular roof, but the walls are made with layers and layers of newspaper, glue, and “lots of varnish,’’ Beaudoin says. In areas where the newspaper has ripped, you can glimpse tidbits of news from years past.

Inside, there’s furniture — a grandfather clock, desk, chair, lamp, bed, even fireplace mantel with a working, brick fireplace — yes, all made of newspaper, half-inch thick “logs.’’

Why a paper house? I ask, a question Beaudoin hears often. She shrugs.

“Who knows what made him do it?’’ she replies.

Off Rockport’s beaten track, the unusual landmark attracts a few thousand visitors from all over the world each year, Beaudoin says.

The Stenman family lived in the Paper House for four to five years, then moved elsewhere, but left it behind, Beaudoin says, as a museum of sorts.

“My grandmother and mother used to give tours for 10 cents,’’ she says. “It was 25 cents when I did it.’’

Today, Beaudoin charges $2, on the honor system. “I thought I’d try and see if it flies. If not, I’d board it up.’’

Yet people keep coming. Recently, her website overseer told her the site has received more than 200,000 hits. At that, her eyebrows raised in genuine surprise. “I think some of those [hits] are mine.’’

Motif #1

Stopping into Brothers’ Brew coffee shop on Main Street to pick up her lunch, Rockport resident Lisa Demiri asks me if I’m visiting the town. After I explained my mission, Demiri voted for Motif #1. I’m not surprised. She works at Tusinski Gallery, not far from the famous shack. But her reason is more personal.

“My dad was a painter and had a gallery for 20 years on Bearskin Neck,’’ she said. “He painted it after it went down.’’

Did I know it’s really Motif #2? she asks. The original fishing shack was destroyed in the Blizzard of ’78, she explains.

“He was really emotional about its demise,’’ she said. “The paintings he did of it afterwards were all dark and stormy.’’

Thacher Island Twin Lights

On Thacher Island for the first time are Christine and Paul MacMillan of Westford.

“We’ve just come from Nova Scotia and saw lighthouses,’’ Paul says. That trip prompted this visit to a similar sight in their own backyard. “We love to travel, but sometimes you’re too close, and you don’t see it.’’

They’ve stopped into the visitors center, housed in a former keeper’s house. While exploring the 3 miles of walking trails on the 50-acre island, they plan to climb the 156 steps of the North lighthouse. Decommissioned in 1932, it’s now maintained by 70 volunteers with the Thacher Island Association, headed by Paul St. Germain, and the Thacher Island Town Committee, headed by Syd Wedmore. The South light, still operational, is maintained by the Coast Guard.

Grace Polk of New York City, a first-time visitor to Thacher Island and a painter, casts her vote for Motif #1.

She also suggests I see the rare, first-order Fresnel lens from Thacher Island’s South tower, which is on display at Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester. Built in Paris in 1860, it’s made up of almost 300 glass prisms in a bronze frame, stands more than 10 feet tall, and weighs more than a ton.

A final vote for “most popular’’ came from Christine Weston of Middleborough, who was out with two of her four children, on their third tripto Thacher Island. She and her daughters, Talitha, 19, and Tori, 12, love Rockport so much, they’ve made their own “Rockport-opoly’’ game, filled with all the popular sites.

“And Motif #1 is in the middle!’’ Tori shouted.

Motif #1

a distinctive, dark red fishing shack on a Bearskin Neck wharf, arguably Rockport’s trademark, one recognized around the world?

Paper House

a one-of-its-kind summer cottage made of rolled up newspapers, and furniture, too?

Twin Lights

on Thacher Island, the last twin lighthouses still operating in the country?

Kathy Shiels Tully can be reached at kathyshielstully @gmail.com.