Barnstable County Courthouse

Barnstable is the name of one of the seven villages within the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. The Village of Barnstable is located on the north side of the town, centered along "Old King's Highway" (Massachusetts Route 6A), and houses the County Complex of Barnstable County, a small business district, a working harbor, and several small beaches. The village is home to many small attractions, including Sturgis Library, the Olde Colonial Courthouse (now Tales of Cape Cod), the Barnstable Comedy Club, and the Trayser Museum. The Sturgis Library was constructed in 1644 for the Reverend John Lothrop, founder of Barnstable. The building is one of the oldest houses remaining on Cape Cod. The house which forms the original part of the library is the oldest building housing a public library in the United States. Since Reverend Lothrop used the front room of the house for public worship, another distinction of the Sturgis Library is that it is the oldest structure still standing in America where religious services were regularly held. This room is now called "The Lothrop Room" and contains a beamed ceiling and pumpkin-colored wide-board floors that exemplify the quintessential early character of authentic Cape Cod houses.The Olde Colonial Courthouse is one of the oldest courthouses in the United States. Built of wood, court proceedings of the King's Court were interrupted in 1774 by James Otis, Samuel Adams and 1,500 other protestors opposed to the King's bill of attainder that denied the right of colonists to a jury trial. As a result, the King's judge decided to cease holding cases. It served as a state courthouse until 1838. This courthouse in now a museum and hosts the "Tales of Cape Cod", a local tourist attraction.The village is arguably the most historic village in Barnstable; it holds the homes of M. Hinkley, D.G. Bacon, F.D. Cobb, and several other homes dating from the mid-19th century. The area also holds the renowned Cummaquid Golf Club, the Barnstable Comedy Club and the Trayser Museum. The Barnstable Comedy Club is the oldest and longest-running community theater in Massachusetts. The Trayser Museum is the former county custom house, which now houses a Coast Guard Heritage Museum. Also on the grounds of the museum is a jail, complete with inmates' graffiti. The jail dates back to 1690. Barnstable Village is also home to the Crocker Tavern, which was built around 1754 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Crocker Tavern served as a stagecoach stop, an inn, and an important meeting place into the mid-19th century. Cornelius Crocker, one of the wealthiest men on the Cape, was the first keeper of the tavern. Under the stewardship of Crocker, the inn became the central meeting place for American patriots including James Otis prior to, and during, the Revolutionary War.In his collection of short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House, author Kurt Vonnegut references Barnstable Village on more than one occasion. Vonnegut and his family lived in Barnstable, in a house overlooking Barnstable Harbor, from 1951 to 1971.

The Barnstable County Jail and House of Correction is the former county jail for Barnstable County. It was opened in the 1930s as a replacement for the second Barnstable Jail, which was constructed in 1821, itself a replacement for the Old Jail, the oldest wooden jail in America. During the 1990s the prison became overcrowded as Cape Cod's population increased during the housing boom. Construction began on a modern facility and in October, 2004 the last prisoners were transferred to the new Barnstable County Correctional Facility. Between 2004 and 2010 the structure remained largely empty with the exception of its center section, which housed offices of the Massachusetts Trial Court Community Service Program. This section of the building is currently in use by the Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment and the Southeast Regional offices of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. In 2010 the renovation of the West wing of the jail began, having been largely abandoned for six years. It currently houses the Barnstable County Information Technology Department, the Barnstable County Community Septic Management Loan Program, and a conference room. The facility is also the current home of the Barnstable County Cataldo Archives.Construction on the new Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment Water Quality Lab began in late 2011 in the former gymnasium. The gymnasium, which was originally constructed in 1976, most recently played host to the Jail's chapel. The Water Quality Lab was located in the basement of the Barnstable County Courthouse before its relocation.

Barnstable station was a railway station located on Railroad Avenue in Barnstable, Massachusetts. It was constructed in 1889 by the Old Colony Railroad. From the latter years of the 19th century to the 1950s, the station served daily New Haven Railroad trains from Boston, and due for points further east on the Cape. For several decades in the mid-20th century, the station also served the New Haven's day and night versions of its seasonal New York - Hyannis Cape Codder trains. The station was torn down after the New Haven ended passenger rail service to the Cape in 1959.

Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts is the oldest building that houses a public library in America.The original library building was built in 1644 as the house of Rev. John Lothropp and is the oldest building housing a public library in the United States. Since Reverend Lothrop used the front room of the house for public worship, another distinction of the Sturgis Library is that it is the oldest structure still standing in the United States where religious services were regularly held. This room is now called "The Lothrop Room" and contains a beamed ceiling and pumpkin-colored wide-board floors that exemplify the quintessential early character of authentic Cape Cod houses. The library was organized in 1863 and has continuously operated since that date.

Barnstable's Olde Colonial Courthouse, at 3046 Main St. (Rt. 6A) in Barnstable, MA, was constructed c.1763, to replace Barnstable County's first courthouse nearby. Barnstable County comprises all of Cape Cod, MA The courthouse was a wood-frame structure in the Georgian style typical of small government buildings of the era, roughly 30' by 40', facing the roadway, with a brick and stone foundation, round-top windows, cupola belfry and a small, enclosed entry porch. The building housed only the courtroom. Juries deliberated in a nearby tavern.Court records were kept in a separate wood-frame building to the east, the County House, which burned to the ground in 1827, with the loss of nearly all accumulated court records.Col. James Otis was presiding judge here from 1764 until 1776. Otis was the father of James Otis Jr., an early opponent of British policy. John Adams argued at least one case in this courthouse, on May 16, 1767.The courthouse was the site of a mass protest on Sept. 27, 1774, after Britain abrogated Massachusetts Bay's 1691 charter — one of a series of Coercive Acts intended to punish the colonists for the Boston Tea Party the previous year. As a result of the protest, all Barnstable county officials agreed to ignore Parliament's new rules, effectively freeing Cape Cod of British control.The protest was similar to actions mounted at county courthouses across Massachusetts the summer and autumn of 1774. By the end of that year, all of Massachusetts was free of British control except for Boston, where British forces were stationed. The Royal Governor, Gen. Thomas Gage, was unable to retake control of the colony for lack of an adequate military presence. His major effort the next spring to secure military stores in Concord, MA, resulted in the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the first engagement in what became the Revolutionary War.The Barnstable building is one of only two remaining Massachusetts colonial-era courthouses where those 1774 protests were mounted. The county dedicated a new courthouse in 1834, consolidating all court functions in a large, granite structure closer to the present center of Barnstable Village.The old courthouse was remodeled in 1842 to serve as a home for the newly formed Third Barnstable Baptist Church. After the church was disbanded in 1972, the building was purchased by Tales of Cape Cod, a nonprofit volunteer group committed to preserving the Cape's history.The building is a contributing property of both the federal and Barnstable town Old King's Highway Historic District.

The Mill Way Historic District encompasses a residential area significant in the development of the maritime industry in Barnstable Village, Massachusetts. It includes thirteen houses, ten on Mill Way and three on adjacent Freezer Road, just north of the Old King's Highway. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.Mill Way was the major route between the center of Barnstable and its port area from its very earliest days. Agriculture dominated the village until later in the 18th century, with a grist mill located to make use of the local tides for its power. In the 19th century the port area grew as a shipbuilding and salt production center, and some of the district's buildings reflect this heritage.The oldest house in the district is the David Bursley House (35 Mill Way), built c. 1750; it is a 2+1⁄2-story four-bay house with side gable roof, and wood shingle siding. It was supposedly built as a single-story cottage, which was then raised on ship masts to build a new ground floor underneath. The 1797 Maraspin House (200 Mill Way) is a fairly typical five-bay Cape cottage, whose property in 1835 included two wharves, a store, barn, mill, salthouse, and other outbuildings. The Stetson Cottage is one of the few buildings in the district with significant later alteration. Built c. 1785, the five-bay cottage was given a Colonial Revival treatment in the early 20th century, with a five-bay dormer across the front roof, and a porch with Tuscan columns below.

The Massachusetts Military Reservation Wind Project is located in Barnstable County, Massachusetts on the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR), also known as the Joint Base Cape Cod. This Wind Project currently consists of one wind turbine, built in 2009, and two others recently completed in 2011. The first turbine was a Fuhrländer 1500/77 wind turbine with an 80-meter (260 ft) tower and a 77-meter (253 ft) rotor diameter. The two completed in 2011 were General Electric wind turbines. Each of these GE 1.5-77 wind turbines outputs 1.5 MW of power on top of an 80-meter (260 ft) tall tower. Therefore, the total net capacity for the MMR Wind project is approximately 4.5 MW. Clearance may soon become available to build more turbines. (See the “New Turbines” section below for more information). The contracting company hired to build all three of the turbines is called ECC Corporate, and the plant code and utility ID of the facility are 57253 and 56619, respectively.

Barnstable ( BARN-stə-bəl) is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalities that have been granted city forms of government by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts but wish to retain "the town of" in their official names. At the 2020 census it had a population of 48,916. The town contains several villages (one of which is also named Barnstable) within its boundaries. Its largest village, Hyannis, is the central business district of the county and home to Barnstable Municipal Airport, the airline hub of Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Additionally, Barnstable is a 2007 winner of the All-America City Award.

The U.S. Customshouse (now known as the Coast Guard Heritage Museum and the Donald G. Trayser Memorial Museum) is a historic customs house and United States Coast Guard museum on Cobbs Hill in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built in 1855 to a design by Ammi Young, it was used as a custom house and post office until 1913, continuing to house the post office and other offices until 1958. It was converted into a museum in 1960, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Barnstable's Old Gaol is a historic colonial jail in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built c.1690, it is the oldest wooden jail in the United States of America. The jail was built by order of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony courts. It served as the Barnstable County jail until c.1820, when a new stone jail was built. The structure, which held about six prisoners, was eventually attached to a barn. In 1968 it was rediscovered, separated from the barn, and moved 100 feet onto the grounds of the Coast Guard Heritage Museum (located in the old Customshouse building) in Barnstable Village.The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and included in the Old King's Highway Historic District in 1987.In 1716, the jail imprisoned Goody Hallett, the lover of pirate Samuel Bellamy, later known as the Witch of Wellfleet, as well as the two survivors of Sam Bellamy's flagship Whydah Gally which wrecked at Wellfleet, and the seven survivors of his consort ship Mary Anne which wrecked ten miles south at Pochet Island. The jail house is considered one of the most haunted in America and is open to ghost tours at certain times of the year. It is believed to be haunted by Goody Hallett, who is said to also haunt the Expedition Whydah in Provincetown, as well as Lucifer Land (also called Goody Hallett's Meadow) which is a reference to the area of land at the top of the Wellfleet cliffs.

The Nathaniel Baker House is a historic house in Barnstable, Massachusetts. The house was probably built about 1721, and is a well-preserved example of an early Georgian hip-roofed house. It is also noted for its association with the locally prominent Baker family. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

The Benjamin Baker Jr. House is a historic house at 1579 Hyannis Road in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built about 1828, it is a well-preserved example of a Federal period "half Cape". It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.