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Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: February 24, 2020
Oral Historian: Reverend Jonathan Drury
Interviewer: Troy Clarkson
Topic: First Congregational Church
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
00:00
[Music]
00:44
so welcome
00:45
thank you and my first question to you
00:47
is I’d like to begin by
00:48
asking you to tell us your full name and
00:51
the postcard you'll be discussing and
00:52
you can certainly show it to us
00:54
my name is Jonathan Drury I’m the 24th
00:57
pastor of the First Congregational
#firstcongregationalchurch
Hunt_Village_Bldg_001
Hunt_Village_Sts_152
Gunning_Village_Sts_0073
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0346 through
0365
00:58
Church in Falmouth
00:59
uh this is the postcard that I’m going
01:01
to be discussing that's a photograph
01:03
of or a picture I don't know if it's a
01:05
photograph
01:06
um of the church that is taken from the
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:09
south side of the green
#falmouthvillagegreen
See above for postcard views of the
First Congregational Church on the
Green
01:12
and there's a number of other postcards
01:15
of this church
01:16
here's another example
01:21
it's a very prominent structure on the
01:24
green
01:24
probably the most prominent structure on
01:26
the green and so I I thought I’d talk a
01:28
little bit about the history of
01:30
the buildings that have supported the
01:32
Congregational Church over the years
01:34
the First Congregational Church in
01:36
Falmouth was established in 1708
01:39
and it was established at the same time
01:40
that the town of Falmouth was
01:42
established
01:43
so the congregation was an offshoot of
01:45
the West Parish in Barnstable
01:48
which claims to be the oldest
01:49
congregation on Cape Cod they were
01:51
established in 1614.
01:54
um so this is you know for for American
01:56
history this
01:57
predates our nation by easily 150 years
#1708
#westparishofbarnstable
#1614
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:01
so it's it's pretty remarkable
02:02
um 1708 a group of people decided that
02:05
they wanted to establish their own
02:07
congregation
02:08
and to do that they also had to
02:09
establish a meeting house where there
02:11
could be
02:13
some form of governance some some
02:15
structure of governance so
02:17
initially the the first meeting house
02:19
was built off of Mill Road in the old
#millroad #oldburyingground
Gunning_Village_Sts_0001 through
0016
Hunt_Village_Sts_075 through 178
02:21
burial ground
02:22
and it was likely built sometime between
02:24
1690 and 1700
02:27
that would have also been the seat of
02:29
governance for Falmouth at the time
02:31
and it was a very simple structure as
02:33
far as I know
02:34
had no paint had no heat no organ no
02:37
bell
02:38
um the Puritans were were
02:43
their approach to purity included
02:45
aesthetics and
#puritan
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:47
they they didn't need much in terms of
02:49
artifice
02:52
later on there was another
02:55
meeting house built on that location
02:58
this was a
03:00
meeting house built in 1717 that was
03:03
actually
03:05
designed to look just like the meeting
03:07
house in
03:08
Barnstable so they they very much saw
03:10
themselves as an offshoot of that
03:12
congregation
03:13
and then in 1750 the first church
03:18
was moved to the from the old burial
03:21
ground
03:22
to the brand new green space that had
03:25
been established in Falmouth what we
03:26
think of now is the town green
03:28
the town green initially was actually
03:30
kind of the front lawn of the church
03:32
because the church was built on the
03:33
south end of of the green
03:36
in 1750 and at that time there were
03:40
roads but it was not divided the way it
03:42
is today um
03:43
there were you know dirt roads that were
#1717
#1750
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:46
used for
03:47
horses and and buggies um but they were
03:50
not in the same
03:52
location that our current roads are in
03:54
the green was much larger and what's
03:55
also kind of interesting about the green
03:57
is that it has always been a green space
04:00
um
04:01
before it was established as the town
04:03
green it had been a green space that was
04:04
available for anybody to use
04:07
for their horses and so it's the
04:09
equivalent of the parking lot for for
04:11
downtown Falmouth
04:12
and remains a green space of course
04:15
today
04:16
um that's also where the the local
04:18
militia would have gathered
04:19
uh to do their training um both for the
04:22
Revolutionary War then later for the
#americanrevolution
04:23
Civil War
#americancivilwar
04:25
which is interesting so in 1750 the
04:28
church was built on the south end of the
04:29
green
04:30
and it remained there until 1796 when
04:33
the fourth meeting house was built and
5
#1796
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:36
at that time in 1796
04:39
a decision was made to outfit this new
04:41
meeting house with a bell
04:42
which brings me to a riddle the riddle
04:45
is
04:46
the living to the the living to the
04:49
church I call
04:51
and to the grave I summon all
04:54
what am I a bell
04:58
a church bell that's right that riddle
05:01
which is actually not a riddle it's just
05:03
a poem is engraved along the top of all
05:06
of Paul Revere's bells
05:08
so in 1796 the First Congregational
05:11
Church
05:11
uh commissioned a bell from Paul Revere
05:13
who was a bell maker in Boston at the
05:15
time
05:16
the bell that was purchased weighs 807
05:18
pounds and we have the original
05:20
receipt signed by by Paul Revere and
05:22
what's interesting about that receipt
05:24
is that along with having the price and
05:26
the weight of the bell
05:28
it indicates that the price was derived
05:31
by a specific cost per pound
#churchbell
#paulrevere
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#boston
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:34
so almost like you were selling poultry
05:36
or something he sold his bells
05:38
42 cents per pound so 807 pounds
05:42
at 42 cents came out to just under 400
05:46
which would have been a small fortune in
05:47
1796.
05:49
so in 1796 that bell was put into the
05:52
steeple of the church
05:53
and has been ringing over Falmouth ever
05:56
since
05:57
which is quite remarkable
06:00
but the church was moved it was moved in
06:03
1858
06:05
the decision to move the church came as
06:07
a result of a very generous offer offer
06:09
from the Swift family
06:10
to give them a parcel of land the Swift
06:14
family was a very prominent
06:16
family in town they owned the first
06:18
mercantile store in Falmouth
06:20
they also owned the first bank in
06:22
Falmouth and they owned quite a bit of
06:24
land in Falmouth
06:25
um probably the equivalent of the Beebes
in
06:28
that regard
#1858
#swift
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#beebe
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
06:29
they owned all of the land that exists
06:32
behind the church
06:33
and the parsonage which is directly next
06:34
door to the church extending
06:36
all the way back to Lakeview which is
#lakeview
06:40
the neighborhood behind the Lawrence
#lawrenceschool
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0232
06:42
School so all of the Lawrence athletic
06:44
fields all of the Katharine Lee Bates
06:45
Road
06:46
all of the land behind the church all
06:47
belonged to the Swift family
06:49
and in 1858 they agreed to offer a
06:53
parcel of this land
06:54
to the to the congregation the
06:57
congregation decided to take advantage
06:59
of this offer and to move the church and
07:02
so depending on who you ask
07:04
the story is that they either rolled the
07:06
church on logs across the green
07:08
I think that's very unlikely the truth
07:11
is most of the trees would have been cut
07:12
down by that point
07:13
to build the ships in Woods Hole so
07:16
there's a widow's walk on top of the
07:18
parsonage next door
#katharineleebatesroad
#woodshole
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:19
and you would have easily been able to
07:21
see the ocean
07:23
from that widow's walk today you can't
07:25
see those you can see a lot of trees
07:27
but those trees didn't exist when in
07:30
1814 when that house was built
07:32
so they probably didn't roll the church
07:34
across the green
07:35
um some people say that they put it on a
07:38
sled
07:38
and they pulled it across um which is a
07:41
possibility though I think that the
07:43
train wouldn't have really accommodated
07:44
that
07:45
it was a big building and then other
07:47
folks said that they parceled the the
07:49
church
07:49
literally taking apart piece by piece
07:51
and then rebuilding it in
07:53
a new location whatever they did they
07:56
didn't do it well
07:57
because within a year they tore that
07:59
building down and they built the fifth
08:01
meeting house
08:01
I say that the truth is the claim has
08:03
always been that the congregation was
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:05
growing so quickly that they needed to
08:06
have a larger sanctuary
08:08
and needed to have a larger foundation
08:10
for the church
08:12
so we'll go with that but they did build
08:14
that
08:15
that church in 1858 the fifth meeting
08:18
house
08:19
now here's some also some some
08:21
remarkable history attached to the
08:22
church
08:24
two things one we discovered not long
08:26
ago
08:27
that um the steps in front of the church
08:30
were covered with bluestone and we had
08:33
to add a new railing to the front of the
08:35
steps
08:36
when the the masons were doing the work
08:38
on the steps
08:39
we heard them kind of yell out they were
08:40
very excited I was hoping they had found
08:42
a box of gold doubloons
08:44
underneath the stone steps that wasn't
08:46
what they found what they found
08:47
might be you know an equivalent treasure
08:50
though they discovered that underneath
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:51
the blue stone was
08:52
original pink granite some of the
08:55
Falmouth granite
08:56
and so somebody in fact we know is
08:58
probably in
08:59
1952 someone decided to put
09:03
bluestone on the steps we had lost track
09:06
of that
09:07
and so it was a great find to be able to
09:09
restore those front steps back to their
09:11
original condition
09:12
so um in 1858 these were what the steps
09:16
would have originally looked like
09:17
in the process of of thinking about
09:19
those steps and looking at the steps we
09:21
also had some of the masons
09:22
bring to our attention the fact that the
09:24
whole foundation of this church
09:26
is made from that pink granite
09:30
and there is virtually a few hundred
09:31
tons worth of this pink granite
09:34
at this church so it may be that the
09:36
true value of the church
09:38
is really the church's foundation we'll
09:41
see
09:41
um but I I just think it's it's a
#falmouthgranite
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:43
remarkable piece of kind of
09:45
lost history that was recently
09:46
discovered
09:48
one of the most interesting aspects of
09:50
that move
09:52
that took place in 1858 is that that is
09:54
the year
09:55
that William Bates came as the pastor of
09:58
the church
09:59
so William Bates who is the father of
10:00
Katharine Lee Bates
10:02
was the was one of the ministers of the
10:04
First Congregational Church
10:05
he served that church for one year 1858.
10:09
he was sick from the moment he arrived
10:12
to the moment he passed away in fact the
10:15
last service he presided over was
10:17
Katharine’s baptism
10:18
she was three months old at the time so
10:21
I’ve always wondered
10:23
was this seen as a great challenge for
10:26
the congregation
10:27
this decision to move the church during
10:29
this time when the pastor was not
10:31
available to offer leadership
10:32
or was this seen as kind of
#williambates
#katharineleebates
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:35
an opportunity to make that move because
10:37
they weren't able to meet for worship
10:40
this was a chance for them to to make a
10:42
transition to a new space
10:44
as a result I don't know the answer to
10:46
that but I’ve
10:47
I’ve always been curious to know um how
10:50
that impacted the
10:52
the move itself not having William Bates
10:54
as the pastor or actively
10:56
engaged as the pastor at the time
11:00
so there have been a number of of other
11:02
additions to our
11:04
church building over the years in 1952
11:07
an educational wing was added
11:08
and then in 1992 as a result of a very
11:11
generous
11:12
gift from the Faxon family we're
11:14
able to build a Christian education
11:16
center the Faxon
11:17
Education Center and so the church has
11:20
continued to
11:20
expand and grow we really do think of
11:24
ourselves as a community church
11:26
we take to heart this this attachment to
11:29
the to the town of Falmouth and we see
#faxon
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:31
ourselves
11:32
as a place where people should gather
11:33
and meet um to to be in conversation to
11:36
have potluck suppers to worship
11:39
um we've got really great parking
11:42
which is essential if you're going to
11:44
have people gather
11:45
we're in a wonderful location and so we
11:48
really try to open up the church as much
11:49
as possible
11:50
we're we're actively looking for ways to
11:52
support our community
11:54
with with our space um and it is a
11:56
beautiful space
11:57
I’m always surprised recently in the
11:58
last four or five years we've been
12:00
opening up the the
12:01
church on the Lighting of the Green um
12:04
in December
12:05
and it's amazing how many people come
12:07
for the Lighting of the Green
12:08
opening of the church has allowed people
12:10
just to come in and warm up we usually
12:12
have a little bit of a hymn sing
12:13
the bathrooms are available I’m always
12:17
shocked to hear from folks who have
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:18
lived in Falmouth
12:19
their whole lives that this is the first
12:22
time they've been in the First
12:23
Congregational Church
12:25
I say that not as a pastor of a church I
12:28
say as someone who's just genuinely
12:30
curious about history and and the
12:32
connection of that church to the history
12:34
of Falmouth
12:35
I think that that church should be on a
12:38
short list
12:39
of locations where every single student
12:41
in our school system should come and
12:43
hear about the history of that church
12:44
I’d love to take them up to the bell to
12:46
see the bell but you've got to be a
12:47
little bit of a billy goat and
12:49
I would hate to lose any children along
12:51
the way um
12:53
but it is remarkable history and and
12:55
we're really proud of it and we really
12:57
would like to be able to share it
12:58
generously
12:59
with folks so the
13:02
the building itself is one of the
13:05
uh iconic images of Falmouth for sure
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:08
yes and you've just described the rich
13:10
history one of the
13:12
interesting things that has emerged
13:14
during the interviews that we're
13:15
conducting
13:16
we've chatted with Rabbi Lieberman with
13:20
Reverend
13:20
Will Mebane yes is the shared history
13:23
uh of the congregations in the faith
13:27
communities
13:29
for instance the the Jewish Congregation
13:33
can trace
13:34
its history the building at least
13:37
to that same first meeting house that
13:39
you mentioned is that right
13:40
uh because the East End Meeting House
#eliaslieberman
#williammebane
#falmouthjewishcongregation
#eastendmeetinghouse
Gunning_Hatchville_Bldg_0526
through 0531
13:43
which is today
13:44
the the headquarters of the Jewish
13:46
Congregation
13:47
uh was built and created because
13:50
uh the meeting house down at Mill Road
13:53
uh
13:54
could not accommodate a growing
13:56
community is that right
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:57
so what's fascinating is that uh the
14:02
history
14:03
is a shared history it sure is and and
14:05
today that interconnectivity
14:07
yes uh Reverend Mebane used the same
14:10
phrase that you just use as a community
14:12
church
14:12
yes and and and so
14:17
uh today those faith communities
14:20
continue to have
14:21
yes we do a shared history and a shared
14:23
mission absolutely
14:24
I think two of the finest examples of
14:26
that shared history mission
14:27
would be the Service Center in Falmouth
14:29
so the Service Center which
14:31
which has a huge impact on this
14:32
community and is really the front line
14:35
in terms of responding to need there are
14:37
other organizations that
14:38
that provide outstanding support to
14:41
folks in need but I think that we all
14:43
consider the Service
14:44
Center to be at the center of that that
14:46
support system
14:47
that organization was established
17
#falmouthservicecenter
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:49
originally by the clergy in Falmouth
14:51
because they recognized that they could
14:53
not do
14:54
as much of the follow-up and the
14:56
background uh work that they needed to
14:58
do to be able to provide the the best
15:01
care available and so 25 years ago they
15:04
they got together and said this is
15:05
worthwhile and we should make it happen
15:07
and now
15:08
that has a huge impact on this community
15:10
another example is the Upper Cape
15:12
Chaplaincy which supports the
15:13
the chaplain's position at the hospital
15:15
that was also
15:17
a result of of the collective will of
15:20
the clergy in town
15:22
and we still have an active group of
15:24
people who meet together on on a monthly
15:26
basis to talk about our community and
15:28
how we
15:29
as the communities of faith should be
15:32
supporting one another and
15:33
and supporting the good work that's
15:35
being done by so many organizations in
15:37
this town
#uppercapechaplaincy
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:38
I I feel this absolutely today you know
15:41
we are living in a time
15:42
where there's so much divisiveness and
15:45
division
15:46
um regardless of how you feel
15:50
about your relationship with with
15:52
eternity or
15:54
or the divine or not um
15:57
we are in relationship with one another
15:58
and our churches
16:00
and our um congregations have always
16:04
been at the center of of the community
16:07
and they should continue to be they the
16:09
our our
16:11
congregation should be open and
16:12
available as a place where people can
16:14
feel
16:16
you know not the divisiveness but the
16:18
the potential that exists in harmony
16:20
when we work together
16:22
to do good things and I think we're
16:24
going to have plenty of opportunities
16:26
to talk about doing good work with one
16:27
another in the in the next few years
16:29
indeed for sure so what does it mean to
16:31
you
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:33
to be part now of the the rich history
16:37
of
16:37
the Congregational Church and Falmouth
16:39
and and
16:41
that the congregation itself has evolved
16:44
along
16:45
as the history of the building unfolded
16:47
and today
16:48
continues to be a vibrant part of the
16:50
fabric of the community
16:51
it does um you know I’m very honored to
16:54
be
16:54
in the role that I have been given and
16:57
I’m
16:58
really grateful to work with really good
17:00
people you know my colleagues
17:03
both within the the church that I serve
17:05
but also you know the
17:07
my fellow clergy folks and and the other
17:10
folks who are serving organizations in
17:12
town that we support
17:13
um I really appreciate the the good work
17:15
that they do
17:16
but also the members of the of our
17:20
congregation are really outstanding
17:22
people they're they're all
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�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:23
very effective people and they're all
17:26
very much engaged in in this world I
17:29
will say our churches are trending much
17:31
older
17:31
and Cape Cod in general is turning much
17:33
older and so
17:35
I spent a lot of time with with my
17:36
constituency thinking about the end of
17:38
life and
17:39
and some of the concerns that that exist
17:41
around that
17:42
um it's all good it's all good
17:45
and and so I’m grateful to have that
17:47
opportunity there's a certain amount of
17:48
of
17:49
responsibility that comes with that and
17:51
I I am aware of it
17:52
um and I take it to heart and so there
17:55
are times where where
17:56
I think you know we we really have a lot
17:58
of work to do in Falmouth
18:01
there's a lot of need in this community
18:03
and it's not always apparent
18:05
right we work hard to make Falmouth a
18:07
beautiful place
18:08
and certainly we're aware that we have
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:10
folks who visit us every summer
18:12
who come because this is a beautiful
18:14
place and so we work hard to keep a
18:16
certain
18:17
a certain beauty here
18:20
it's not a facade it's real but below
18:23
that beauty
18:24
below the surface of it there is another
18:26
community that exists and
18:28
there are a lot of people who struggle
18:30
there's a terrible affliction
18:32
that exists in this community addiction
18:34
is awful
18:35
in Falmouth there are a lot of folks who
18:38
are living right at the point
18:39
of of not being able to to get by
18:42
and so um I’m aware of that we're the
18:45
downtown church one of the downtown
18:46
churches and I
18:47
I learned a long time ago if you're
18:49
going to point at God
18:51
with your big steeple you better expect
18:53
that people are going to see that and
18:54
they're going to come looking for God
18:56
or you know the equivalent of that so I
19:00
take that to heart too we we try to do
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:01
right by people if we can
19:04
it's a long answer to your question what
19:06
a wonderful one thank you
19:07
is there anything that we didn't cover
19:09
that you'd like to share today
19:12
there's so much there's so much rich
19:15
history if you had
19:16
an hour I would fill it um so I you know
19:19
I can't think of anything
19:21
specifically right now that I didn't
19:23
cover that I wanted to but if there's
19:25
ever anything
19:27
that you're curious to know more about I
19:28
would love to to come and
19:30
talk more about the history of of our
19:32
community
19:34
thank you so much you're very welcome
19:55
[Music]
23
�
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Transcript of Reverend Jonathan Drury's Oral History on the First Congregational Church
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Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Postcards from Falmouth Oral History Transcript
Recorded: March 3, 2020
Oral Historian: Kevin Doyle
Interviewer: Barbara Kanellopoulos
Topic: Old Stone Dock
Note: The right column references postcards by identifiers searchable in the Digital
Commonwealth online collection.
The Book of Falmouth is available from Falmouth Public Library under REF LocHist 974.492
BOO, as well as at other CLAMS locations.
00:00
[Music]
00:45
it's always fun to talk about the Old
#oldstonedock
Gunning_Village_Har_0173
through 0188
Hunt_Village_Bch_0089 through
0095
00:46
Stone Dock
00:47
it's uh it's a relic
00:50
of of what commerce was in Falmouth
00:53
during the 19th century
00:55
and you don't get to see things like
00:57
that along the shoreline much anymore at
00:59
all
01:00
in fact if you were to go down to the
01:02
shore today
01:04
there's a sign that says it's the kiddie
01:06
pool and for all the world nobody has
01:09
ever asked why you would build a kiddie
01:10
pool out of granite blocks
1
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
01:13
but nevertheless it's uh it's all been
01:15
silted in
01:17
but in its day and its day was 200 years
01:19
ago
01:21
it was built in 1817
#1817
01:24
following a hurricane of 1815
#1815 #hurricane
01:28
of course they weren't called hurricanes
01:30
then it was the great gale
01:31
of September 1815.
01:36
there are three hurricanes that have
01:38
really ravaged through the
01:40
New England area has lots of hurricanes
01:43
but the first one was in 1635 when
01:46
Boston and the and the Pilgrims and and
01:48
the colonies were just getting started
01:50
the second one
01:52
the same power and magnitude was the
01:54
Storm of 1815
01:56
and then the third one was a hurricane
01:59
of 1938 which
02:01
which people are far more familiar with
02:03
and they see pictures of the destruction
02:05
and so forth
02:06
but meteorologists will tell you that
02:08
those three hurricanes were very similar
02:10
in their track and their speed they came
#gale
#1938
2
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
02:13
up the coast with a speed of 100 miles
02:14
an hour they were blowing 100 mile per
02:16
hour winds
02:17
and they just destroyed everything in
02:19
their path
02:20
prior to 1817 then this Old Stone Dock
02:25
there was a a dock that was made out of
02:28
wood
02:29
uh and we think it was built in 1805 and
02:31
it would have been built out of palmetto
02:33
logs
02:34
which is basically a palm tree uh
02:37
obviously no palm trees growing around
02:39
Falmouth so
02:40
once again a surmise is that probably uh
02:44
Captain Swift brought them up in his
02:47
as part of his live oak adventures going
02:50
at getting wood
02:51
down out of the Carolinas and into
02:53
Florida
02:54
and so he probably brought these very
02:56
resilient palmetto logs
02:58
up to up to Falmouth there's not much
03:02
that
03:03
will verify that there was a dock prior
03:06
to this but it seems logical that that
#1805
#swift #elijahswift
3
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
03:10
was
03:10
the landing place of some sort it was
03:14
the scene
03:14
of the British invasion or
03:18
attempted invasion in January of 1779
#1779
03:21
during the American Revolution
#americanrevolution
03:23
they were repulsed they never landed
03:26
they did shoot musket balls at us and
03:28
they weren't too happy with us but they
03:29
didn't they weren't able to land
03:31
and the second time was in 1814 during
03:34
the
03:35
towards the end of the War of 1812 where
03:37
once again
03:39
the British came and tried to come
03:41
ashore they were repulsed again by
03:43
by our cannons so it would seem that
03:47
that's
03:47
probably there was probably some kind of
03:48
a landing area in that site prior to the
03:51
Old Stone Dock itself
03:55
the other reason why you'd think that
03:57
that was probably true is because that's
03:59
where
03:59
Falmouth was settled when the uh
04:03
the proprietors as they're called here
4
#1814
#warof1812
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:05
they're called different
04:06
different by different names but they're
04:08
the folks who basically
04:10
uh bought the land from the tribes the
04:13
the
04:14
indigenous tribes Wampanoags uh and uh
#wampanoag
04:17
Nauset Indians
#nauset
04:18
which was a sub-tribe of the Wampanoags
04:22
and the proprietors here started in
04:25
Barnstable
04:26
and came down we don't know whether they
04:28
came down by boat or by
04:29
by walking but if you look down in the
04:32
uh
04:33
down at the beach area today you'll see
04:36
what
04:36
what Jim Lloyd of the Historical
04:38
Department [Falmouth Historical Society?] likes
to call
04:40
Falmouth Rock he said Plymouth has their
#plymouth
04:42
Plymouth Rock we have our Falmouth Rock
#plymouthrock
04:44
we have a rock that says these are the
04:47
proprietors they landed here in 18
04:49
uh in 1660 and so forth and
04:53
and founded the town well the
04:56
the tribe had been here first obviously
#barnstable
5
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
04:58
they came down and we
04:59
uh we followed a lot of the Indian
05:01
trails to be here
05:03
uh and it makes sense because that area
05:06
of Surf Drive Beach opens onto a
#surfdrivebeach
05:10
Vineyard Sound and then it has Siders
#vineyardsound #siderspond
Gunning_Village_Pnd_0148 and
0149
Hunt_Village_Pnd_136
05:12
Pond which is freshwater pond after
05:15
named after Consider Hatch one of the
05:16
original proprietors
05:18
is on the one side and on the other side
05:20
is Salt Pond
#considerhatch
#saltpond
Gunning_Village_Sts_0010
through 0016
05:22
which is salt water and oysters are
05:25
plenty and that sort of thing
05:27
so there they were between fresh water
05:28
and salt water and the Sound so it was a
05:31
perfect
05:31
location for commerce and just
05:34
for survival you had the fish lots of
05:37
alewives the
05:38
herring run is right there which
05:40
is brackish water coming in
05:43
from the sound and going up towards
6
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
05:45
Siders Pond
05:46
so it's a perfect area to to
05:50
start the start the town
05:53
a lot of people you know are used to
05:56
seeing towns that have started from the
05:58
center and they move
05:59
outward because that's how the the
06:00
railroads did it
06:02
when when railroads were built and
06:04
they'd go along every 100 miles or
06:06
whatever the distance would be
06:08
did make the town grow right from the
06:10
depot and go
06:12
outward concentric circles for us it was
06:15
different and it was different for
06:16
for almost 100 years the commerce was
06:19
coming off of the off of the Surf Drive
06:21
Beach area
06:23
and the main area to to move was right
06:26
up Mill Road where the current Mill Road
#millroad
Gunning_Village_Sts_0001
through 0016
Hunt_Village_Sts_075 through
178
06:28
goes between the salt pond and the uh
06:32
fresh water pond uh and and on
06:36
up so the green was actually founded in
7
#falmouthvillagegreen
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
Gunning_Village_Sts_0053
through 0078
06:39
1749.
#1749
06:40
so here we are at 1660 and then 1749
06:43
about 80
06:43
90 years later before they got up to the
06:46
green
06:47
so the center of commerce then
06:50
was right there on the on the beach so
06:53
this hurricane comes along and destroys
06:55
everything that was wooden and
06:57
through natural erosion you can imagine
06:59
the other wooden piers probably gave way
07:02
as the ships became larger or the
07:05
elements took took their toll on a
07:08
wooden pier
07:09
so along about 1817 then they say hey
07:13
what we really need to do is build this
07:16
thing to last
07:17
uh and I should probably just say at
07:20
that point
07:22
as I talked about the progression of the
07:23
town it goes up so it took 80 years to
07:25
get to the green and then it started
07:27
heading to the east it started heading
07:29
back down
8
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
07:30
towards uh towards Barnstable down down
07:32
Main Street
#mainstreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0017
through 0041
07:34
and after a certain point they realized
07:36
that so far the only road to get to the
07:39
dock
07:39
was down Mill Road so here they are now
07:42
they're up at Locust they're going down
07:44
Main Street
07:46
and they're getting further and further
07:47
away so in 1800
07:50
just a few years before the Stone Dock
07:52
was built but in 1800
07:54
the townsfolk got together and said what
07:56
we really need to do is go
07:58
from this point which was right where
08:00
Barbo’s Furniture is right now
08:02
and go straight down to the pier and
08:04
that's why if you look at Shore Street
#locuststreet
#shorestreet
Gunning_Village_Sts_0080
through 0083
Hunt_Village_Sts_171 and 172
08:06
it's eight tenths of a mile long
08:08
it's straight as an arrow and it's its
08:10
objective was to get
08:12
people from Main Street to the dock
9
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
08:15
uh that's what it was all about so
08:18
uh after this great gale of September
08:21
uh goes blowing through
08:24
the townsfolk got together and uh and
08:28
built this
08:29
granite block now the way that's built
08:32
is they import it and there's some
08:33
question as to exactly what those
08:35
granite blocks are
08:37
I like to think that the Falmouth
08:38
granite
08:40
underneath it all but of course after a
08:41
couple hundred years they're
08:43
they're all black and covered with
08:46
seaweed and so forth so it's really kind
08:48
of hard to distinguish
08:49
the origin of all those granite blocks
08:52
but the point of it was
08:54
they would build a a a
08:57
line which which you see right now
09:00
actually uh
09:01
of of granite blocks and then they built
09:04
the
09:05
the dock the actual docking area right
09:08
over it
09:09
so it's the same palmetto logs it's the
#falmouthgranite
10
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
09:11
same planks it's the same everything
09:13
that you
09:13
used to seeing when you think of a pier
09:16
but this time they put the blocks in
09:18
there
09:19
so that it would be uh it would sort of
09:22
lend some extra support
09:24
to the the pier uh the piers themselves
09:27
and in
09:28
the uh the the structure of the of the
09:31
pier of the wharf so
09:34
that's what it is over time
09:38
all that all that wooden part you know
09:40
washed away again
09:41
but the granite blocks remain so why
09:44
wasn't it maintained
09:46
it wasn't maintained because as time
09:49
went on so that was built in 1815.
09:53
uh the gale was 1815 the the dock was
09:56
built in 1817
09:57
and things were going along fine but it
09:59
was about that time as
10:00
uh the railroad came to town and
10:04
the railroad starts coming down from
10:05
Boston and so forth
10:07
the Old Stone Dock is at least a mile
11
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
10:10
away
10:11
from the railroad station and
10:14
it just didn't work you couldn't send
10:16
freight down
10:19
on a train and get it to the pier in any
10:22
efficient manner the train dead
10:25
ended
10:26
in Woods Hole and of course that's where
10:29
the ferry terminal is today that's what
10:30
the Steamship
10:31
Authority is and that's where the
10:33
trains met
10:34
the boats so commerce went there
10:38
it also it's a much deeper uh harbor
10:41
in Woods Hole than it is off of Surf
10:44
Drive Beach
10:46
so the the question then became so what
10:49
happens now
10:51
it was a stone dock it was made for
10:52
commerce there were whalers
10:54
whaling ships that went there his
10:56
primary function was packet ships
10:58
and and by packets those would be ships
11:01
that would sail when you had the cargo
11:02
they didn't necessarily go on a schedule
11:05
you'd bring down your goods to to be
#woodshole
#steamshipauthority
#whaling
12
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
11:07
freighted up to Boston or down to New
#newyork
11:09
York and every port in between all
11:12
down down across the Martha's Vineyard
#marthasvineyard
11:14
and over to New Bedford and Fall River
#newbedford #fallriver
11:17
and so forth all those
11:18
uh all those ports between Boston and
11:21
Falmouth
11:22
and uh and New York were the frequent
11:27
markets for our strawberries the eels
11:30
the salt cranberries and so forth wood
11:34
that was the main commerce uh forestry
11:37
and so forth
11:38
incoming timbers uh as well uh
11:42
and since the Swifts were big in that
11:44
type of a trade
11:45
they would bring their goods up and
11:47
bring them to Falmouth
11:49
the Sarah Herrick is a uh is a whale
11:52
ship that was
11:53
registered or said to be to be
11:57
brought into the Falmouth dock so that's
11:59
how we know that there were whaling
12:01
ships there as well
12:03
but after the commerce now ends up in
12:06
Woods Hole
12:09
the dock started to become more
#sarahherrick
13
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
12:12
available to people and if it didn't
12:15
have the upkeep that it did
12:16
boats used to be able to sail right
12:18
inside of it uh
12:20
now that won't happen the Book of
#bookoffalmouth
From FPL: REF LocHist 974.492
BOO
12:22
Falmouth mentions a
12:25
a black who had a mail
12:28
route he would uh sail to the Old Stone
12:31
Dock
12:32
with mail for the new town is that
12:35
accurate
12:36
I can bet it is I I I don't know for
12:40
sure but yeah that
12:41
that would be the type of commerce that
12:43
you would find
12:44
coming out of the dock and the heavy
12:47
stuff would end up going down towards
12:48
Woods Hole
12:49
but that type of mail run or milk run
12:52
type of a
12:53
run over to the Vineyard and out to
12:56
Nantucket
#nantucket
12:57
and down to uh Cuttyhunk that would
#cuttyhunk
12:59
have been
14
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:00
the the daily commerce going from the
13:03
Old Stone Dock
13:06
when things when the the railroad came
13:08
in then and went down there
13:10
they said that well they needed
13:12
someplace else for
13:14
a dock for for a harbor and that's when
13:17
the Inner Harbor was created
#falmouthharbor
Hunt_Village_Har_103 through
120
Gunning_Heights_Har_1320
through 1334
13:19
and that's why you'll still see
13:20
references on charts and
13:22
when people talk sometimes they'll talk
13:23
about the Inner Harbor
13:25
well that would be sort of old-time talk
13:28
because most people now talk about the
13:29
harbor and they think of the Flying
#flyingbridge
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0377
through 0383
13:31
Bridge Restaurant and
13:32
the commerce that goes on but it was
13:34
never heavy commerce if you look at it
13:37
you say well this used to be the Old
13:40
Stone Dock used to handle
13:42
handle hogsheads of produce and
15
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
13:45
fresh cut vegetables and so forth there
13:47
was never anything like that in
13:49
in Falmouth Harbor all that had gone to
13:51
Woods Hole
13:53
so Falmouth Harbor really became they
13:55
dredged out
13:56
if you take a look and you wonder why
13:58
why in the world Clinton Avenue is
14:01
so abruptly at the Clam Shack and then
14:03
resumes over in front of the Falmouth
14:05
Yacht Club
14:06
that was a road it had been cut off it
14:09
was it was a pond of its own it was
14:11
Deacon's Pond
#clintonavenue
#deaconspond
Gunning_Village_Har_0190
14:12
and when it was dredged out it created
14:14
an inner harbor
14:16
and over the years that had been
14:17
improved and so forth
14:19
but that was in 1908 that the Inner
14:22
Harbor
14:23
opened up and for many years thereafter
14:26
people would sail their sailboats up to
14:29
up to the Old Stone Dock and they'd put
14:30
in there and many of uh
14:32
the Robert C. Hunt postcard collection
#1908
16
#robertchunt #postcardcollection
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
14:36
has great pictures of tourist day
14:39
sailors
14:40
you know boats that you and I would have
14:42
uh pulled up to the Old Stone Dock
14:44
and it's featured right there you'll see
14:47
some that have a uh some of the pictures
14:49
will have the old time
14:51
uh bath house still in that picture
14:54
and you look at it and you get a much
14:57
better picture
14:58
in looking at those old postcards
15:01
than you would ever get today when you
15:03
look at at the
15:04
Old Stone Dock but those postcards will
15:07
give you some idea of the depth and the
15:09
type of commerce that could pull up
15:11
some of those postcards still have the
15:14
pilings that were lining the the Old
15:17
Stone Dock and if you look real close at
15:19
some of them
15:20
you'll see wooden side buoys there where
15:23
you'd be pulling up
15:25
so nobody wants to pull a ship up beside
15:27
a granite block I mean that's not how
15:29
you
15:29
how you treat a boat but so
#bathhouse
17
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
15:33
over time as I say it's become a
15:35
favorite now for
15:37
the uh for the kiddie pool
15:40
if you talk to kids in Falmouth today
15:42
they'll tell you that they learned how
15:43
to
15:44
how to swim in the Old Stone Dock and
15:47
most of them don't even know that it was
15:48
there
15:50
a neighbor of ours Jim Crossen started
#jamescrossen
15:53
the Old Stone Dock Association up in the
#oldstonedockassociation
15:55
1970s
15:56
and really brought a lot of history with
15:58
it and brought a lot of
16:00
attention to this relic it is
16:03
really it's a monument to to Falmouth to
16:06
have that here
16:07
and there's very few towns who can point
16:09
to something on the waterfront and say
16:10
that was there 200 years ago
16:12
so the Old Stone Dock Association has
16:14
really worked to preserve that heritage
16:16
and
16:17
that type of history the other place
16:19
where you'll find a reference
16:21
to it is is on the there's a big
18
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
16:24
uh boulder with a
Hunt_Village_Sts_179
16:27
with a plaque on it and with an anchor
16:29
atop it right at the end of Mill Road
16:31
right where Mill Road turns on to Locust
16:34
and if you take a look at that you'll
16:35
see that that was a monument dedicated
16:37
to the seafarers
16:39
uh of in 1908 and it was really
16:44
the end of the Old Stone Dock that was
16:46
their farewell
16:47
uh to what had been such an active
16:49
center of commerce and the seafarers who
16:52
who made it such uh but in 1908
16:55
the the uh the harbor had been
16:59
dredged the Inner Harbor was now taking
17:01
over
17:02
and over time people started bringing
17:04
their boats into the Inner Harbor
17:06
and the Old Stone Dock became the Old
17:09
Stone Dock
17:12
and was there a window
17:15
a windmill and an attempt
17:19
to manufacture was it
17:23
a product glass no well yeah
17:26
a couple of things going on right down
17:28
there on the beach the windmill was up
19
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
17:30
on Mill Road and if you were to drive go
17:32
up Mill Road from the beach uh
17:36
just as the road bends and it bends
17:38
right at the end of the salt pond
17:40
that's where the windmill was located
17:42
that windmill was actually
17:45
made to to grind uh corn
17:49
it wasn't it wasn't part of the glass
17:51
tree but i'll bring that up in a sec
17:54
that was that was that was a grinding
17:56
mill and I know that because Bill Swift
17:59
told me and if anybody knows anything
18:00
about the town of Falmouth it's Bill
18:02
Swift
18:03
and he used to live right down there so
18:05
that's where that's where the windmill
18:06
was
18:07
now there were many windmills along the
18:10
shoreline uh of
18:14
Surf Drive Beach the point of
18:17
them was to to bring in salt water they
18:20
would go out into the
18:21
into the Sound and suck up the water
18:23
bring it up and put into great big vats
18:26
typically about 10 feet by 10 feet and
20
#williamswift
Gunning_Village_Bldg_0439
through 0450
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
18:28
it put water in it probably about 18
18:30
inches deep
18:32
and it would they would leave it out in
18:34
the sun
18:35
to evaporate and what you'd end up with
18:38
after
18:38
after all that water had been brought up
18:40
and left in these vats for
18:42
for some period of time it would
18:44
evaporate and you'd have salt
18:46
up until the Civil War salt was a
18:48
prime
18:49
a premium product in fact many
18:53
Civil War battles were fought
18:56
at the shoreline to destroy what was
18:58
called the salt works
19:00
and the salt works was the windmill and
19:02
the vats that dried the water
19:05
and they would just they would try to
19:06
destroy that because
19:08
salt was used to preserve meats and
19:11
anything that was perishable would be
19:13
encased in salt uh prior to the period
19:16
of refrigeration
19:19
the glass company uh was because of the
19:22
sand
#americancivilwar
21
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
19:23
and they would use the furnaces to heat
19:25
that sand up and get the silicone
19:27
and yes that was that would have been
19:29
located at the corner of Shore Street
19:32
so it's right kind of where the parking
19:34
lot is now
19:36
where Shore Street comes down and Surf
19:38
Drive goes across
19:40
it was on that corner uh and that's
19:42
where the Beach Breeze Inn is
19:44
right now and that's sort of an area
19:47
there was a bank down there there was a
19:50
tavern
19:51
and there was this glass manufacturing
19:54
and when you think about it of course
19:56
with the uh it was a perfect place for a
19:58
tavern and
19:59
and the bank because these packet ships
20:03
are coming back from their run
20:04
and now they want to deposit the money
20:06
or they need the money for some purpose
20:09
and and having a tavern and a little
20:12
little spot for the sailors to pull into
20:13
when they get there
20:14
is was kind of refreshing
20:18
yes it's interesting that you talk about
22
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
20:21
the center of town as being right on the
20:23
shore there which is makes a lot of
20:25
sense
20:25
we we don't think of uh the center of
20:28
town as being
20:30
out there no you wouldn't and and as you
20:33
look
20:34
there's actually the first two meeting
20:36
houses if you take the time to
20:38
to go along Surf Drive and then up Mill
20:40
Road to the very end right up to where
20:42
that boulder is that I talked about the
20:44
head the plaque and the anchor
20:46
there's a cemetery off to the one side
20:49
in that cemetery of course the reason it
20:51
was the cemeteries
20:52
when they used to bury their dead
20:54
outside the church outside the meeting
20:56
house
20:57
and that was the site of two meeting
20:59
houses the first two meeting houses that
21:01
were built in Falmouth
21:03
were built in that in that cemetery area
21:06
the third meeting house is it has a
21:08
stone marker
21:09
as you turn onto Locust Street before
#oldburyingground
23
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
21:12
you even get up to the green
21:14
there's a marker on the side of the road
21:16
that says this is the site of the third
21:18
meeting house uh and it's not until you
21:21
get to the green
21:23
1749 that you will find the fourth
21:26
meeting house
21:27
so yes it was it was the center of life
21:30
the houses that are extinct is still on
21:33
Elm Road there's the Hatch
21:35
foundation I guess the house is
21:38
questionable
21:39
there's a sons houses across the street
21:41
but there's a
21:42
heavy granite foundation on the left
21:45
side if you're going
21:46
up from away from the water which was
21:49
the foundation of the Hatch house and
21:50
Hatch was one of the original
21:52
proprietors
21:52
of Falmouth I have heard that at the
21:56
at that triangle with that rock and
21:58
anchor
21:59
underneath is a time capsule with
22:02
the names of 100 more than 100 sea
22:06
captains
#elmroad #hatch
24
�Falmouth Public Library – Postcards from Falmouth
22:07
but what you say is interesting because
22:09
I've never thought of that before as a
22:11
kind of
22:12
putting a period to period two seafarers
22:16
I think it was I think it was their
22:17
goodbye uh
22:19
and uh whether there's a time capsule
22:22
under there
22:22
or not I don't think we'll ever know and
22:24
I don't think the
22:26
DPW will let us dig it up anymore so
22:30
uh I don't know I don't know I've heard
22:33
the same thing whether it be under that
22:35
boulder or
22:36
in front of the boulder we've certainly
22:37
done lots of plantings around the
22:39
boulder
22:40
no evidence of it has ever come up so
22:44
perhaps it's there I don't know
23:07
[Music]
25
�
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Transcript of Kevin Doyle's Oral History on the Old Stone Dock
1749
1779
1805
1814
1815
1817
1908
1938
American Civil War
american revolution
Barbara Kanellopoulos
Barnstable
bathhouse
Book of Falmouth
Clinton Avenue
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Elm Road
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oral history
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Postcards from Falmouth
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