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Hyannis Harbor

Barnstable, MassachusettsGeography of Barnstable County, MassachusettsMassachusetts natural resourcesPorts and harbors of MassachusettsTransportation in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Hyannis Harbor, Massachusetts (3120842544)
Hyannis Harbor, Massachusetts (3120842544)

Hyannis Harbor is a harbor of refuge located in the village of Hyannis Port, MA. The North East side of the harbor is located in the village of Hyannis. Hyannis Harbor extends on shore from the southerly point where the breakwall makes landfall to the small jetty at Dunbar Point on Kalmus Beach.Hyannis Harbor is not a natural harbor but is protected by a breakwall that was constructed beginning in 1824. The harbor was used by packet schooners, often as a layover awaiting favorable winds to sail the treacherous back side of the cape to or from Boston. In the 1800s a large wharf, built to service the schooners, was expanded by a rail line linking to the main line in Hyannis. The wharf was dismantled and the granite was used to expand the breakwall. The harbor is now mainly used by private vessels and is home to the Hyannis Port Yacht Club. Hyannis Harbor is often mixed up with Lewis Bay. Lewis Bay is a small natural harbor that serves as the principal harbor of Hyannis, MA. Lewis Bay is in the town of Hyannis and the town of Yarmouth, and contains the ferry docks in Hyannis in the town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. The inlet is called “Hyannis Inner Harbor” on some government charts. NOAA Nautical chart 13229 shows the relation between Lewis Bay and Hyannis Harbor.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Hyannis Harbor (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Hyannis Harbor
Breakwater Shores Drive,

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Latitude Longitude
N 41.631472222222 ° E -70.286861111111 °
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Breakwater Shores Drive 119
02647 , Hyannis (Barnstable)
Massachusetts, United States
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Hyannis Harbor, Massachusetts (3120842544)
Hyannis Harbor, Massachusetts (3120842544)
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Hyannis Rear Range Light
Hyannis Rear Range Light

The Hyannis Rear Range Light, also known as the Hyannis Harbor Light, was a lighthouse and, for part of its life, one of a pair of range lights adjacent to Hyannis Harbor. The Range Rear tower was built in 1849 and equipped with a 5th order Fresnel lens in 1856. In 1863 the original birdcage lantern was replaced with a new cast iron one. In 1885, a front range light was added on the Old Colony Railroad Wharf, and the two lights together served to leading vessels to the wharf. The 20 foot Range Rear tower is shorter than most lighthouses, as its purpose was just to guide ships to the wharf. In the early 1800s, the railroad extended from its current terminus at the Hyannis Transportation Center, down what is now Old Colony Road (named after the railroad) to Harbor Road, where it ended in the 300 foot wharf that was a busy area for shipping coal, lumber, grain and fish.Over time, as the channel into the adjacent Lewis Bay was dredged deeper, there was a shift of traffic into Lewis Bay and Hyannis inner harbor, and the wharf fell into disuse. The lights were discontinued in 1929 and the front range light has disappeared along with the wharf, although the outline of the wharf can still be seen in aerial photographs. The lantern was removed from the rear light before it was sold. In 1987 a new, much larger lantern room was added to the top of the tower by local carpenter Theodore Ingemanson. The lighthouse is now privately owned but can be seen on Google Street view or directly from Harbor Road in Hyannis.

John F. Kennedy Memorial (Hyannis, Massachusetts)
John F. Kennedy Memorial (Hyannis, Massachusetts)

The John F. Kennedy Memorial is located on Ocean Street in Hyannis, Massachusetts. It overlooks Lewis Bay, where President Kennedy often sailed while in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The memorial is a large stone wall with a bronze medallion on each side. President Kennedy's left bust profile is on the front medallion, facing the bay. The Great Seal of the United States is on the back, facing Ocean Street. The memorial’s landscaping includes plantings, lawn, a large concrete terrace, bluestone benches, and a reflecting pool and lit fountain that invokes the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame at Arlington National Cemetery. The reflecting pool is surrounded by bluestone engraved with the quote, “I believe it is important that this country sail and not lie still in the harbor.” It comes from President Kennedy's Radio and Television Report to the American People on the State of the National Economy given August 13, 1962.The memorial was commissioned by the citizens of Barnstable, Massachusetts and dedicated on July 8, 1966. Donald Durell of Falmouth, Massachusetts was the memorial's architect, and J. Paul Lanza of Simsbury, Connecticut (formerly of Osterville and West Yarmouth, Massachusetts), was its general contractor. The sculptor Agop Minass Agopoff, who Gloria Vanderbilt recommended to President Kennedy's widow Jacqueline, created the bust profile. Jose Greco III, nephew of the dancer Jose Greco, cast the bronze. The John Stevens Shop of Newport, Rhode Island, carved the letters on the wall and around the reflecting pool. Materials were primarily sourced from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The memorial is overseen by the Town of Barnstable JFK Memorial Trust Fund Committee, which collects the coins placed in the reflecting pool for youth activities, including sailing. A restoration of the 50-year old memorial is being planned by the Town of Barnstable.

Hyannis Port Historic District
Hyannis Port Historic District

The Hyannis Port Historic District encompasses the historic heart of Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, an area that was intensively developed as a summer resort community beginning in the later decades of the 19th century. The district is about 100 acres (40 ha) in size, and extends from nearly Scudder Avenue in the west to Ocean Avenue in the east. It is bounded on the south by Nantucket Sound, and on the north by Grayton, Edge Hill, and Ocean Avenues. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.Until the late 19th century, Hyannis Port was a modest agricultural and seafaring village. The Hyannis Land Company was formed in 1871-72 and engaged in a major resort development push, which was one of the largest such efforts on the Cape. The company purchase most of the oceanfront property between Dunbar's Point and Craigville, and platted out parcels. They built several hotels, staged events to promote the area, and built summer resort houses for vacationers from as far off as Indianapolis and Chicago. The company was not financially sound, however, and went bankrupt in 1879. The area was not fully developed until the first decades of the 20th century. The district does have a few 18th-century houses, but most of its houses are in the styles popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The most famous residents of Hyannis Port, however, are the Kennedy family, whose compound is a National Historic Landmark. Joseph P. and Rose Kennedy purchased the compound's main house in 1926.

McKeon Park
McKeon Park

McKeon Park is a baseball venue in Hyannis, Massachusetts, home to the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). The Hawks play on Judy Walden Scarafile Field located at McKeon Park. Saint John Paul II High School is located just to the west of the field in the old Barnstable High School building. Located in downtown Hyannis not far from Hyannis Harbor, the field originally served the adjacent former Barnstable High School and later Junior High School. It served as home to the Barnstable Townies Grid Club (Football) until its dissolution in 1950 at which point it became home to the Barnstable Townies Baseball Club. The field was reconstructed in the late 1970s to play host to the CCBL's Hyannis Mets franchise, which joined the league in 1976. While under construction, the team played at the new Barnstable High School field. The renovated park was slated to open for the 1978 CCBL season, but unforeseen drainage problems caused a delay. The park was finally opened for the 1979 season, and was dedicated in memory of the first Secretary-Treasurer of the originally named Barnstable Townies Baseball Club, and longtime Barnstable school committee member and athletic booster John McKeon. Son K.C. McKeon threw the opening pitch during the inaugural game. Permanent lighting was first installed at McKeon prior to the 1985 season. Ospreys have routinely nested atop the light stanchions since at least 1992, and their gametime activity has come to be seen as symbolic of the unique flavor of baseball on Cape Cod. By 1995, the lights had come into disrepair, and the Mets were forced to abandon night games at the park. The deteriorating state of the park was the subject of heated town debate in 1997, with various proposals considered to either renovate the park, or redevelop the land for other purposes.In 2006, the CCBL received a sizeable Yawkey Foundation grant for upgrades to McKeon Park. Together with matching fund donations secured by the Hyannis Athletic Association, the grant allowed the team to install new lighting prior to the 2008 season, complete with an osprey platform inviting the return of the team's unofficial mascots. In late 2008, Major League Baseball announced that it would enforce its trademarks, and required those CCBL teams who shared a nickname with an MLB team to either change their nicknames or buy their uniforms and merchandise only through MLB-licensed vendors. In response, the Hyannis club opted to drop its "Mets" moniker prior to the 2010 season, and became the Harbor Hawks. The choice of name was an homage to the osprey, which is also known as a "fish hawk" or "sea hawk", and in a fitting and timely gesture, an osprey pair at last took up residence on the new platform just prior to the start of the 2010 season.In 2011, the Harbor Hawks dedicated the field house at McKeon Park in honor of Massachusetts state senator Jack Aylmer, who had been instrumental in the franchise's 1976 founding. In 2016, the field at McKeon Park was named in honor of longtime CCBL president Judy Walden Scarafile. The Harbor Hawks completed a major rehabilitation project of the park prior to the 2019 season, erecting a new scoreboard, and completely stripping, replacing and regrading the field to install sprinklers and improve drainage and field conditions.McKeon Park hosted the CCBL all-star game festivities in 1997 and 2005, and has seen Hyannis claim three CCBL titles, most recently in 1991. The ballpark has been the summertime home of dozens of future major leaguers such as Robin Ventura, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Jason Varitek.