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Old Town Center Historic District

Barnstable County, Massachusetts Registered Historic Place stubsEastham, MassachusettsHistoric districts in Barnstable County, MassachusettsHistoric districts on the National Register of Historic Places in MassachusettsNRHP infobox with nocat
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, MassachusettsUse mdy dates from August 2023

The Old Town Center Historic District is a historic district roughly along Locust Public Rd. and Salt Pond Road in Eastham, Massachusetts. The district encompasses Eastham's original town center, with a cluster of well-preserved 18th- and 19th-century buildings. The area served as the town's civic center due to its proximity to Salt Pond, which provided access to the Atlantic Ocean, and was a major transportation route. (Most of the district is now separated from Salt Pond by US Route 6, a four-lane road.) The advent of the railroad in the 1870s shifted the town's economic and civic heart to the present center. The Old Town district is 40 acres (16 ha) in size, with 42 mainly residential buildings contributing to its significance. The oldest building in the district is the c. 1672 John Knowles House at 191 Locust Road. The town's first town hall (1851) and first schoolhouse (1869) still stand in the district; the schoolhouse is a landmark visible from Route 6.The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Old Town Center Historic District (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Old Town Center Historic District
Grand Army of the Republic Highway,

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N 41.838333333333 ° E -69.976944444444 °
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Grand Army of the Republic Highway 3085
02642
Massachusetts, United States
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Nauset Archeological District
Nauset Archeological District

The Nauset Archaeological District (or "Coast Guard Beach Site,19BN374" or "North Salt Pond Site,19BN390") is a National Historic Landmark District in Eastham, Massachusetts. Located within the southern portion of the Cape Cod National Seashore, this area was the location of substantial ancient settlements since at least 4,000 BC.The first written account of this area was by Samuel de Champlain in 1605, in which he described sailing into a bay surrounded by the wigwams of the Nauset tribe (see map, right). The account detailed the settlement's crops (e.g. corn, beans, squash, tobacco), housing (round wigwams covered with thatched reeds), and clothing (woven from grasses, hemp, and animal skins). De Champlain's map also depicts one of their fishing methods, using a conical weir constructed of saplings and grass rope, designed to capture fish swimming from the marsh into a pond. To farm the land, they used stone hoes and fire-hardened wood tools. About 150 people were living at the site around Nauset Harbor, and about 500-600 were living around Stage Harbor to the south in the area of present-day Chatham. Archaeological studies have since shown that these settlements were occupied year-round.After 1620, English colonists from the settlement at Plymouth visited Nauset many times to buy food and trade. In addition to goods for trade, however, the Europeans also unwittingly introduced diseases. Many of them died as a result, and their population declined drastically. In 1639 about half of the English from Plymouth relocated to the Nauset area, settling the town that is now Eastham. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993. The area can be visited via the Fort Hill area of the Cape Cod National Seashore, off U. S. Route 6, where the Fort Hill and Red Maple Swamp trails wind from the top of the hill to the marsh and beyond.