USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Falmouth > Falmouth on Cape Cod : picturesque, romantic, historic > Part 1
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Gc 974.402 F21w 1779079
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01095 5166
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FALMOUTH
ON CAPE COD
PICTURESQUE ROMANTIC HISTORIC
By the Walton Staff ...
PUBLISHED BY Perry Walton, Boston, Mass.
Copyright 1925 All rights reserved
(Second Edition)
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FROM FALMOUTH'S SHORE On the road to East Falmouth, a simple, quiet view which is, after all, the embodiment of Falmouth's charm.
F84427.95
THE OLD MILL No longer do the four great sails challenge every wind that blows. Its day is past, but it remains a landmark of Old Falmouth.
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Walton, Perry,
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F 84427 .95 Falmouth on Cape Cod, picturesque, romantic, historic, by the Walton staff. "Second edition. Boston, Mass., c1925.
OHAL! CARS
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FALMOUTH ON, CAPE COD
QUIET, cool, shady place, where the tall elms meet overhead to form an arch above the streets that edge the broad expanse of velvet green . . . where stately old homes look forth from grounds that speak of constant care, with the dignity of those who know their charms lie half in history . . . where a church with ivy-covered walls stands beneath the towering elms, reaching its steeple to the leaves above, and spreading its buttresses to the lawn that softly rolls from the gently shaded sidewalk to the pond. . . .
Falmouth, in many aspects, is the same old town today that it was so many years ago when the greater part of its men sailed the seas. In many respects it remains un- changed by the time that has passed, and by the thousands of people who year after year have been making Falmouth their summer home; for the things that we all hold dear, and the things that we most respect, have been guarded carefully, and will be, through the years. The homes that face the Common were in almost every case erected by sea- captains who, retired from their voyages, sought the tranquillity of life ashore among their old companions. They are almost all homes of true Colonial design, with an outlook room in the very center of the roof, a mark of the seaport colonial. In these tiny rooms, fifty and one hundred years ago, the wives and mothers would sit and watch the boats come into port and dock at the Old Stone Wharf; for the trees that now obstruct the view were then not planted, and what vegetation there existed did not reach to a height of more than fifteen or twenty feet.
The second house west of the Congregational Church is the Bourne home, on whose lawn, years ago, there stood the village whipping-post where Quakers, and other disturbers of the peace, received their punishment. In the belfry of the Church itself
On the left is the First Congre- gational Church. It faces the shaded beauty of the Green, and is a monument to tra- dition. The Old Lawrence Academy Building (on the right) is now the local head- quarters of the G.A. R. Post and is a splendid example of Colonial architecture.
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there hangs a bell fashioned by Paul Revere and inscribed appro- priately :
"The living to the Church I call" "Unto the grave I summon all".
Though hanging now in its third location, the bell still serves its original purpose. Beyond the Common to the east extends the main street of the town, where the post office, bank, and shops are lo- cated. Beyond is the town hall, the library, and the schoolhouse, each one set well back from the BOURNE HOMESTEAD One of the oldest houses in Falmouth, on whose lawn, years ago, there stood the village whipping-post. road, with an expanse of turf and shrubs and trees. From Main Street south are streets that lead to the beach, which extends along the entire length of the village proper. The Public Library, standing in the center of the row of public buildings, has one large room given over wholly to objects of historical and local interest. There one may see the curios brought from foreign and one-time savage lands by Falmouth sailors; the rare old pieces of glass manufactured years ago in Fal- mouth; the pictures of Falmouth ships and men whose histories and lives, known only by a very few, scintillate with romance; the log books, and diaries, and books of
ST. BARNABAS MEMORIAL CHURCH With its velvety lawns and ivy-covered walls, the little Episcopal Church is like a bit of England.
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THE VILLAGE GREEN Green, and cool, and gently shaded, the Green is reminiscent of olden days.
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reminiscences-whose pages are now stained and brittle with age-that were written by Falmouth captains on Falmouth ships.
Falmouth township is most attractively located on the shoulder of Cape Cod, where its shores extend along the edges of Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, facing the preva- lent wind-a cooling wind, even on the hottest of mid-summer days-that gently blows from the southwest. It is in itself large, extending over an area of about thirty square miles and including many villages and summer colonies. In the northwestern corner of this township, facing on Buzzards Bay and directly overlooking Cataumet Har- bour, is Megansett, entirely a summer-resort section, and in reality a part of North Falmouth. Here, during all the summer months, the bay is filled with sailing craft of almost every rig-catboats, dories, knockabouts, sloops, yawls, schooners, and, of course, many motor boats. Buzzards Bay is ideal for small-boat sailing, for the waves rarely run to a height that would endanger even an eighteen-foot catboat; and there are cruises to and from Marion across the bay, or Woods Hole and the Elizabeth Islands to the south, which can easily be made in one day with safety. Megansett has always fostered water sports, and today its most attractive, sandy beach is constantly under the care of a life-guard. A raft has been moored in the dredged part of the har- ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH The church is located on Falmouth's main street and is the center of Catholic worship in the township. bour, beyond the pier, which has a diving-board and chute, and the water itself averages a temperature of seventy degrees throughout the summer, which makes
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SHIVERICK POND
Within a few feet of Falmouth's main street. It is a spot of sheer beauty which is properly appreciated and cared for by the town.
it warm enough to play in for hours at a time, yet cool enough and lively enough not to be enervating. One finds a thing very common to the Cape in a fresh-water pond hardly two minutes' walk from the beach where trees and bushes grow to the very water's edge and there are met by the yellow and white blossoms of water lilies. The eastern shore, tradition says, was years ago an Indian burying-ground. On the highest spot of land overlooking this bit of water is the Megansett Tea Room, known throughout the entire Cape for its music and charm. Following the shore line to the south one finds Wild Harbour, where a small yet most attractive group of summer homes has been built on the point that only re- cently was given over entirely to scrub pine, and oak, and scrawny bush. Today the land has been so cultivated and improved that even the home on the very tip of the rugged point, exposed as it is to nearly every wind that blows, has its neatly trimmed lawn and shrubs.
The coast is one of constantly varying elements. Cataumet, just north of Megansett, has a harbour called Squeteague Bay, whose
CEDAR POND AT MEGANSETT The eastern shore, tradition says, was once an Indian burying-ground.
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shores are, for the most part, muddy, and whose bottom is decid- edly clear, black mud. Megansett Harbour, on the contrary, is edged by a firm, coarse sand that leads south and west to the bold, rocky point, Wild Harbour; and a few 44 hundred yards from it, there lies a beach whose beauty has inspired the name of the colony which has grown up about it, Silver Beach. It is not a large community, nor is it very well known; but for those who have discovered the charm of the silver sand and the water that shows crystal clear above it, there exists no part of Cape Cod MEGANSETT WHARF AND HARBOUR The Harbour, with its sheltered waters, forms the northern boundary mark of Falmouth. worthy of comparison. From Sil- ver Beach following the shore road south, one passes through rather an extensive district which, privately owned, has never been developed; so that barring several coast-line views of exceptional beauty, nothing is seen save the winding country road till a sharp turn brings West Falmouth, its harbour, and Chappoquoit Island into full view. The story is told in regard to Chappoquoit Island, that years ago in a town meeting at Falmouth it was suggested by one far-sighted man that a bridge be built from the mainland to Chappoquoit, or what was then known as Hog Island, for he claimed within ten years the town would find this section yielding a pretty revenue in taxes. He was laughed at, but so strong was his vision, and so infectious his enthusiasm, that the bridge was built and the land developed into what today has proved to be beyond a doubt one of the most ideal sections of summer homes in New England.
In the very center of Chappoquoit there stands a water tower surmounted by an observatory, where the best view of Falmouth's Buzzards Bay shore may be had. To the north, in the immediate foreground, the entrance to West Falmouth harbour lies between two sandy promontories, one the island itself, and the other a point where in the midst of the surrounding cedars there stands a lovely summer home that commands the sweep of the bay. Beyond, the shore extends in alternating bold, rocky points and regular sandy beaches-Old Silver Beach, Silver Beach, Wild Harbour, Scraggy Neck (bleak, forbidding, and yet romantic in its wildness), the Wings Neck Light, and farther still the vague outline of the shores beyond. To the right is West Fal- mouth town, huddling under its tall elms that line the state road. Years ago the Quakers, driven from place to place, finally found in this quiet spot a refuge. Their little meeting-house stands today facing the east on the old public road. It was built in 1842, and is the third building occupied by the
SILVER BEACH HOTEL With its congenial, homelike atmosphere, the Hotel boasts a clientele of many years' standing.
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FALMOUTH ON, CAPE COD
SILVER BEACH Above the rippling white sand the water shows as clear as that of a mountain stream.
South of West Falmouth, yet not as far south as the Falmouth Arms, in a district which because of its scarcity of trees and vegetation is known by the quaintness "Pov- erty Hollow," there nestles an old house with a rainbow roof, that is without doubt the oldest today in Falmouth. The Bowerman home has sheltered eight generations of the family; and though the exact date of its erection is unknown, it is generally conceded that when land in the township was deeded to Thomas Bowerman, the first of the line, in 1688, the house was already standing. The building itself is a joy to an admirer of the early colonial period, for in its floors are boards sawed from the whole width of a tree, which in many cases are twenty-four inches wide at one end, tapering to sixteen inches at the other. There is a quantity of fine old panelling in the house, and the attic, perhaps the most unusual part, is a large room open to the roof where one could spend hours on end examining the old field-stone fireplace and chimney, the pegging in the rafters and beams of the roof, the old chests of drawers, the old benches and chairs, the iron pots and brass kettles, and the spinning-wheels of
WEST FALMOUTH HARBOUR AND CHAPPOQUOIT It is a lovely, peaceful scene that is brought to view at the turn in the Old Silver Beach road.
Friends in West Falmouth. As early as 1685 meetings were held, and by 1725 we know that the first meeting-house, a small building, stood completed on a little knoll a trifle north and east of the pres- ent location. The second house was built on the same site as is used today, and was occupied until the demand for larger quarters pro- duced the present building. It is rigidly plain in outline, and archi- tecturally reflects the simplicity of the Quaker garb of years ago. In- side the church a central partition can still be raised and lowered, which is reminiscent of the days when men and women sat apart in public worship.
one and two hundred years ago. There has long existed a story connected with the old house which, while pleasing to the ro- mantic sense, is almost certainly a result of the workings of a fertile imagination. A tale was told within the realms of possibility and was swallowed whole by a gullible, sentimental majority, which later set it down, not as the result of a dreamer's facility of conception, but as History. It has been said that the Bowerman home was the house that sheltered the Name- less Nobleman of Jane Austin's story, so that today sightseers stop at the place and ask to be shown the room where François
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Le Baron was hidden. It is possi- ble that Mrs. Austin in her travels over the Cape conceived this house to be so well suited to the trend of her fiction that she consciously, perhaps, had it in mind during her days of writing, but to im- agine for an instant that the Nameless Nobleman lived the exact life of Mrs. Austin's record- ing is folly.
Nearer the sea, but still to the right as one stands in the tower of Chappoquoit and faces the north, there rests, in a country that per- fectly suits it, the Inn, an old English building in half-timber LOOKING SOUTH FROM THE TOWER OF CHAPPOQUOIT The western shore of Falmouth is shown . . . West Falmouth beach, Sipper- wissett, Gunning Point, and in the distance, Woods Hole. and stucco, bearing an air of gen- tle refinement and cordial hospi- tality. To the south and west, the land goes down to meet the sea in a gradual sweep from the inland hills. In the foreground the Chappoquoit beach, probably the most per- fect on Buzzards Bay, extends to the rugged point on which there stands the largest hotel on all Cape Cod, "Falmouth Arms." Beyond is Gunning Point and Quissett, and farther still the softly rounded hills of Woods Hole, between which and the Elizabeth Islands, the tides of Buzzards Bay meet those of Vineyard Sound. Westward are Marion and Matta-
NORTH FROM THE TOWER OF CHAPPOQUOIT In the foreground lies the entrance to West Falmouth Harbour, and beyond are the various inlets and coves that form the eastern edge of Buzzards Bay.
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poisett, eight or ten miles directly across the bay, and there also in the dim blue that barely shows between the brighter hues of sky and sea is New Bedford, whose one real claim to fame lies in the mighty fleet of whalers that used to sail, some eighty years ago, from her wharves.
Quissett, just to the south of Chappoquoit, is a community which has grown slowly, due to the fact that most of the land has been held by people who loved the freedom they there found from the inces- sant demands of a conventional OLD SILVER BEACH One of the loveliest beaches on Cape Cod. It invites the wanderer to linger, with a charm which is often irresistible. society. Naturally, when the sec- tion started to grow, it developed well. Beautiful homes, with grounds enough to assure privacy, are situated around and toward the inlet that forms the entrance to Quissett Harbour. Peaceful, quiet, and yet accessible, Quissett enjoys an enviable location, being conveniently near Falmouth, Woods Hole, and the Woods Hole Golf Club, an excellent eighteen-hole course that draws players from all over the Cape. Woods Hole itself, at the end of the road from Quissett, is the seat of a government school for marine biological research which is the center of biological instruction and investigation
WEST FALMOUTH AND ITS HARBOUR In the foreground is a part of Chappoquoit, and beyond the sheltered bay is the land that first was settled by the Quakers in 1688.
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in this country, and the largest marine laboratory in the world. It is approached in size by only one other, at Naples, which is now in the process of reconstruction, having been disorganized during the War.
The present laboratory is a lineal descendant of the first ma- rine laboratory in the world, which was established in America by Louis Agassiz in 1873, on the island of Penikese, in Buzzards Bay. It was in existence only two years, under the supervision of its foun- QUAKER MEETING-HOUSE On the state road in Wl'est Falmouth it stands, reflecting in design the stern simplicity of its founders. der during the first year, and after his death at the end of that time, under his son, Alexander Agassiz, who abandoned it in 1874 to follow his own work elsewhere. In 1880 the Women's Educational Association of Boston, acting in co-operation with the Boston Society of Natural History, opened a seaside laboratory at Annisquam, which continued as best it could until 1888, when through the efforts of this society and Harvard College the present Marine Biological Laboratory was opened, which soon marked a change in the biological ideas of the world.
Renowned scientists from all parts of the world congregate at Woods Hole to take advantage of the exceptional opportunities offered in pursuing their investigations and research work, and the lines followed extend all the way from systematic studies to the most recondite investigations in biochemistry, or genetics, involving the anatomy, physi- ology, and life histories of many animals, together with the development and evolution of their organs. It is the aim of the institution to offer opportunities for the study of animals and plants at the seashore, with the especial view to utilizing the many forms of marine life. Student classes have always been a part of the program; and while five courses are given, the Laboratory has continually refused to adopt an academic machinery, so that students do not work for credits, but for their own edification. At the time of the opening session in 1888, the student and faculty bod- ies numbered in all seventeen, and the first classes were held in one small building, now the south wing of the main wooden building oppo- site the entrance to the brick lab- oratory. From the time of the origin of the school, until the pres- ent day, there have been but two directors; the first, Professor C. O. Whitman, who served from 1888 to 1909; and the second, Professor Frank R. Lillie, who was formerly assistant director under Professor Whitman, from 1909 until the BOWERMAN HOUSE present time. It may be said in praise of the stability of these two
A splendid example of the "rainbow roof," the house was built in about 1685 and is today the oldest in Falmouth. For eight generations it has sheltered the Bowerman family.
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men, that during the entire period of the Laboratory's existence, the fundamental policies and ideals have remained unchanged.
Numerous wooden buildings were added during the first twenty-five years, and in 1914, through the generosity of Charles R. Crane, the admirably equipped brick building facing the harbour was completed, which today houses the general offices and library as well as rooms for sixty-three investigators. Today there is a new half-million-dollar build- ing which represents the latest addition to the facilities, and which forms with the older main laboratory a structural unit. The new building provides for an extension of the library, a commodious lecture hall, rooms for general offices, and important appurtenances to research work, such as rooms supplied with fresh and salt water, controls of tempera- ture and light, and several forms of electric current. There are in addition special instal- lations, such as X-ray rooms, a galvanometer room, photographic rooms, experimental dark rooms, constant-temperature rooms, and others to meet the demands of the advanced biophysical and biochemical work.
The Laboratory maintains a supply department using several boats manned by a staff of collectors who know the habits of the different forms of marine life, where they may be found, and how they may be transplanted. Every afternoon these men ask each research worker what his requirements are for the following day, and endeavor to provide the requisite in the exact state desired. It would be almost impossible to name the variety of marine life to be found in the surrounding waters, but by the Laboratory's location near such fertile fields of supply, the students find it easy to follow Agassiz' dictum, "Study nature, not books." Each individual works with his own problems, and to know just what investigations are in process it would be necessary to interview each person. It was in this laboratory that it was discovered how to commercially separate insulin.
On the Falmouth road in Woods Hole is one of the beauty spots of the entire township,
WOODS HOLE GOLF COURSE A delightfully located, well-cared-for, and sporting course of eighteen holes.
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the Fay rose garden, perhaps the most famous in the world. Through a little gate and down a narrow walk, lined on each side by a high hedge of Ramblers, one walks to the garden itself, which lies beyond an expanse of grass of the softest green, in the shade of old, spreading trees. The Fay family, whose most prominent member was the Hon. Joseph Story Fay, for years have shown the keenest interest in the develop- ment of plant life, and it was due almost wholly to their efforts, to- THE INN AT WEST FALMOUTH gether with those of the Beebes, Basked in sunshine and swept by sea breezes. An atmosphere of quiet dignity pervades this charming house of English architecture. that Falmouth township has to- day its wonderful elms. Michael Walsh, often called the Rose King of America, until his death, a few years ago, had charge of the Fay garden, and there originated and developed the Rambler, and other species of rose for which he received world-wide recognition, and special honors from England, France, and Italy. Michael Walsh really ranks with such men as Luther Burbank, and during his lifetime people came from all over the world to learn his views and methods, to obtain plants, and to admire the faultlessness of his achievements.
Woods Hole today is the center of what fishing industry exists in Falmouth, for throughout a year's time two hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars' worth of fish is shipped to Boston and various points along the line. The town is, however, merely a point of contact for the fishermen of Gloucester, Nantucket, and New Bedford who ply their trade in the waters about the southern extremity of the Cape, and is not the home of fishermen. Samuel Cahoon, the buyer of Woods Hole, roughly places the number of lobsters caught, in a season of about seventeen weeks, at three hundred and fifty thou- sand. Other fish which are handled in large quantities are swordfish, mackerel, scup, bonitos, flatfish, clams, and scal- lops. Swordfishing is more reminis- cent of early days than any other business carried on in the town- ship for, barring the length of the voyages and the size of the quarry, there exists a great similarity to whaling. Nantucket has produced in recent years the most expert- swordfishers; and their catches, sold to Woods Hole, bring in ninety to one hundred fish each week. Considering that the average fish weighs, when cleaned and dressed, approximately two hundred and twenty-five pounds, and that the wharf price is twenty-two cents a pound, it affords a very fair in- come. Almost all of the boats en- FALMOUTH ARMS Cape Cod's largest hotel stands by itself on the bold point known at one time as Sipperwissett, facing the west and Buzzards Bay. gaged in the business today are
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gasoline run, which greatly facili- tates the work. On the end of a broad bowsprit is an apparatus which is commonly known as the "pulpit," where the harpooner stands awaiting the boat's ap- proach to the hooked fin that barely shows above the surface of the water. To the end of the har- poon is tied a rope about fifty feet long, which has at its other end a keg. When the fish is struck, the rope and keg are thrown over- board, so that when he is dead or has tired himself out, the float LITTLE HARBOUR shows his location and a small boat One of the many attractive coves about the tip of the Cape. On the right is the wharf of the United States Government buoy setters. is sent to bring him in. This is the most dangerous part of the whole business, for oftener than not the fish will attack the boat, and instances have been known where the powerful sword has pierced solid oak planking one inch thick. The fishing grounds are from ten to forty miles out from Woods Hole in the direction of No Man's Land.
Penzance, fifty years ago, was a far different property than today, for it was there that a fertilizer industry operated, and there that Menhaden fish were crushed and ground. The old Breakwater Hotel is all that is left to remind one of the day, for in it the employees
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