Cotuit, Massachusetts

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Cotuit is a village on Cape Cod in the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States. Located on a peninsula on the south side of Barnstable about midway between Falmouth, Massachusetts and Hyannis, Massachusetts. Cotuit is bounded by the Santuit River to the west on the Mashpee, Massachusetts town line, the villages of Marstons Mills, Massachusetts to the north, and Osterville, Massachusetts to the east, and Nantucket Sound to the south. Cotuit is primarily residential with several small beaches including Ropes Beach, Riley's Beach, The Loop Beach and Oregon Beach.

The Francis Minot

Rope's Beach in the 1900s

Rope's Beach looking out onto Cotuit Bay, April 2008

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Colonial Era

Cotuit was part of a major land purchase negotiated by Myles Standish of the Plymouth Colony with Paupmunnuck, Wampanoag headman of the Cotachessett village located on the island known today as Oyster Harbors, or Grand Island. That transaction, which occurred on May 17, 1648, was made by Paupmunnuck and his brother, and "sold" about "twenty square miles of land in what is now the southwestern section of Barnstable."[1].

The purchase price was two kettles, a bushel of Indian corn, and the agreement to fence off 30 acres of land comprising the Cotachessett village. However this was renegotiated shortly after the conclusion of the Standish agreement to drop the fence and corn and settled instead on a price of "one great brass kettle seven spans in wideness round about, and one broad hoe."[2]

Built circa 1793, just off of Main Street near the center of the village, is the Josiah Sampson House, the oldest standing home actually built in Cotuit (the Crocker House on Route 28 was built in 1749 in the village of West Barnstable and then moved its present location in Cotuit by oxen)[3]. When this Federal-style New England house was built by English businessman, Squire Josiah Sampson, it was regarded as so extravagant for its day that it came to be known by the townspeople as "Sampson's Folly", faced with many windows and containing a ballroom for dancing on its second floor. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this home today operates as a bed-and-breakfast. The house is also referred to as "Sampson's Folly"[4] on the List of Registered Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. The property contained a working farm and a mill on the Santuit River, lending its name to the road which ran nearby, Sampson's Mill Road.

[edit] Modern Era

In the early 20th century Cotuit saw more commercial activity including hotels such as The Pines, one of Cape Cod's earliest summer resorts. During World War II, Cotuit was home to Camp Candoit. During the 1970s there was a large restaurant called The Harbor View which has been turned into a private residence. The Cotuit Inn was demolished in the late 1990s and condominiums were built in its place.

[edit] Geography

The latitude of Cotuit is 41.61667. The longitude is -70.4375[5]. According to the 1995 Town of Barnstable Comprehensive Plans, Cotuit is among the smallest of the town's seven villages, having a total area of roughly 5 sq mi (12.95 km²): the major part of the village is bounded on three sides by water. Although Cotuit has 12 miles of coastline, comparable in length to its 10 miles of scenic roadways, the 8 town-owned beaches, landings and ways to the water in thevillage combine to only 3.16 acres.[6]

[edit] Central Village

The commercial zone is small with only a few businesses located in the center of the village: a small restaurant and bar called The Kettle-Ho (named after the legend of how the town was acquired from the native Wampanoags for a kettle and a hoe, see above), a gas station which is no longer open for business but has been listed for sale, a post office (02635), a Federated church (United Church of Christ/United Methodist Church), several real estate offices, an insurance office, an architect's office, and the Cotuit Public Library. To the north on Main Street is a small variety store, the Cotuit Grocery Co. or "Coop" which sells groceries, liquor, and has a small deli counter/restaurant. The Josiah Sampson House Bed and Breakfast is located just off Main Street on Old Kings Road, halfway between the center of the village and Route 28. Other Cotuit businesses are located along Massachusetts Route 28 in the Santuit-Newtown area of the town, also location of the Cotuit Center For the Arts and the Cahoon Museum of American Art.

The Cahoon Museum of American Art is located in Cotuit at the former home of Martha and Ralph Cahoon who were prominent American painters.

A few steps from the village green is the historic Freedom Hall, currently used for various civic gatherings and elections, and Mariners' Hall, currently a Masonic Lodge. A little further down Main Street is the Museum of the Historical Society of Cotuit and Santuit, which includes the Samuel B. Dottridge Homestead, a superb representation of coastal life in Cotuit in the first half of the 19th Century.

[edit] Cotuit Bay

Cotuit Bay, the main body of water in town, is bounded by Cotuit to the west, Grand Island/Oyster Harbors to the east (part of the village of Osterville) and Dead Neck/Sampson's Island to the south, making the bay a quiet harbor and part of the so-called Three Bays system which includes North and West Bays. Sampson's Island is an Audubon bird sanctuary jointly managed by the Three Bays organization and can only be reached by boat. A permit is required for visitors. The bay is shallow and busy with boat traffic during the summer months. It is the site of the Cotuit Oyster Company.

Mooring is regulated by the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts.

[edit] Demographics

According to the 1995 Town of Barnstable Comprehensive plans, Cotuit, one of the less densely populated of the villages, has a year round population of roughly 2600, with an additional 1600 summer residents.[7]

[edit] Cotuit Oysters

[edit] Cotuit Oysters

Cotuit Oysters are a distinct version of the Eastern oyster species, unique to Cotuit Bay and remarkable for their flavor."Seed now comes from a hatchery...but unspoiled Cotuit Bay has changed little, and the oysters still have the bright and briny flavor they are famous for."[8]

[edit] Cotuit Oyster Company

The Cotuit Oyster Company dates back to 1837 and is still cultivating the distinctive Cotuit Oysters with their unique flavor, producing the oldest brand name of oyster in the United States[9]. Cotuit is world famous for its oysters and in years past they rivaled Wellfleet oysters, and could be found on menus in restaurants from San Francisco to Paris. In the 1980s, however, many of the Cotuit oyster beds were significantly diminished. Today, Cotuit Oysters are re-appearing on the menus of many fine-dining establishments on Cape Cod and Boston, and the world-famous[10] Oyster Bar Restaurant in Grand Central Station in New York City.[11]

[edit] Recreation

[edit] Cotuit Skiffs

Cotuit Skiffs, formerly known as Cotuit Mosquitos, are 14-foot gaff-rigged "one-design" sailboats that have been sailed on the waters of Cotuit Bay for the last 90 years[12] , making them one of the oldest continuously sailed fleets of one-design racing boats in the world.

They were designed by Stanley Butler after the turn of the 19th century and were modeled after the flat bottomed skiffs used in the oyster and commercial clam trade. Those boats were built with hard chines and low gunwales to provide a stable platform from which to clam from.

Cotuit Skiffs are rigged liked classic Cape Cod catboats -- that is they carry only a gaff-rigged mainsail, no jib, and their masts are stepped in the very bow of the boat. They carry a considerable amount of sail and are considered an extremely challenging boat to sail, especially in a brisk breeze. They are fitted with a centerboard and are generally raced by one or two people, with three carried only in high winds. The huge mainsail and its boom overhang the hull's transom by four feet.[13]

Since 1906 the Cotuit Mosquito Yacht Club (CMYC) has hosted races during the summer months. Although the yacht club has had more than one fleet, the gaff-rigged sailing craft called the Cotuit Skiff (formerly known as the "Mosquito") has been raced for slightly over the 100 years that the yacht club has existed.

[edit] Cotuit Kettleers and the Cape Cod Baseball League

The Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League play at Lowell Park, located very close to the center of the village, from mid-June to early August. Cotuit has won more Cape League titles in the Modern Era than any other team in history with twelve, their last of which came in 1999.[14]

The Cotuit ball field is named for Elizabeth Gilbert (Jones) Lowell (d. 1904), daughter of George Jones (publisher) of New York, a co-founder of The New York Times.[15]

[edit] Historical Books

Published in 2003, there is a pictorial history of Cotuit by James W. Gould called "Cotuit and Santuit, Images of America: Massachusetts".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Mashpee: The Story of Cape Cod's Indian Town, Francis G. Hutchins, Amara, 1979
  2. ^ The History of Cape Cod, Frederick Freeman, Boston, p 259
  3. ^ Images of America: Cotuit and Santuit, James W. Gould and Jessica Rapp Grassetti, Portsmouth, 2003
  4. ^ http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/research/nris.htm
  5. ^ Cotuit. Placenames.com. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  6. ^ Cotuit Village. town.barnstable.ma.us. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  7. ^ Cotuit Village. town.barnstable.ma.us. Retrieved on 2008-04-22.
  8. ^ Jacobsen, Rowan. A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America, 109. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2007.
  9. ^ Jacobsen, Rowan. A Geography of Oysters: The Connoisseur's Guide to Oyster Eating in North America, 109. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2007.,
  10. ^ Nation's Restaurant News, July 27, 1998
  11. ^ http://www.cotuitoystercompany.com/howtopurchase.html
  12. ^ http://www.churbuck.com/things/skiffs.htm
  13. ^ http://www.churbuck.com/things/skiffs.htm
  14. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotuit_Kettleers
  15. ^ Falmouth Genealogical Society

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 41°37′00″N, 70°26′13″W