From You Know Who:
This post about Hyannis, which is a village of the Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod, was supposed to have more photos. Due to a mental error, the likes of which I've never encountered before, I will have to take those other photos another time. Long story short: I accidentally bumped the settings dial on my camera without realizing it, resulting in several pictures being overexposed and not at all useful.
None of the pictures in this post, or in the Post of the Future, will feature any of the Kennedy clan, known for congregating in Hyannisport to play football, go sailing and flash their big, white teeth.
When I searched "Cape Cod" and "Jack Kerouac" on Google, the first thing that popped up was a mention of The 19th Hole in Hyannis.
I knew, having read Kerouac's On the Road a few times in the last 30 years, that he had mentioned Cape Cod. Turns out, that reference was simply Kerouac talking about how Route 6, at that time, traveled clear across the United States, and that it began on Cape Cod. He didn't actually get on Route 6 for a road trip until the roadway reached New York. Anyway, Kerouac did live on the Cape -- Hyannis to be exact -- for almost a year in 1966, three years before his death. He lived with his mother, and, apparently, was known to bend his elbow at The 19th Hole in downtown Hyannis. So that's why I took that picture.
You know me. When I visit a city or town, I don't go looking for the typical tourist fare. I seek out the oddball, the unusual, the hidden history, the faded memories. So that's what I did over the summer in Hyannis.
McLean's Barber Shop, which has been on the same spot since 1923, is right next door to the tavern. Maybe Kerouac got his haircut here....
The shop closed in 2018, following the deaths of both the son and grandson of the original owner. In 2019, however, according to this Barnstable Patriot article, Matthew and Amanda Kundel, operators of the Cape Cod Barber Shop, took over the business.
Check out the Cape Cod Times video about the shop, below:
Turning the corner from Barnstable Road to Main Street, I was struck immediately by the word MAYFLOWER and the date 1932 carved into the edifice of 334 Main Street.
Currently the home of an outlet of KKatie's Burger Bar, this storefront has a long history of housing restaurants, as well as some great murals that were covered for a long time, rediscovered, then hidden away again. Prior eateries include the Mayflower Restaurant, Priscilla Alden Room, John’s Loft, Sophie’s, Hooters (!) and, most recently, Tommy Doyle’s.
During renovations of the space in 2016, construction crews uncovered seven semi-circular paintings done on the horsehair plaster walls. Those works of art depicted "scenes of Hyannis and other villages of Barnstable as they appeared in the 1930s, including beach shacks, dunes, local harbors and windmills," according to this Cape Cod Times article.
The murals were painted in the 1930s by artist Vernon Coleman for the Works Progress Administration, which created jobs for artists during the Great Depression, according to the Times article. Coleman (1898-1978) painted more than 100 murals for the WPA, and founded the Cape Cod Art Club, which is now the Cape Cod Art Association, per Wikipedia. Although his paintings are cool and historic, alas, they couldn't be saved. They were bricked over. Make sure to click the link above and look at the photos.
Continuing east on Main Street, I came across the Federated Church of Hyannis.
Built in 1957, later than I'd figured, the sanctuary is the fifth church to be located on this site, per MACRIS. Baldwin Hall, below, is attached to the church, and dates to 1939.
A few doors down is the Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular (Foursquare Gospel Church) of Hyannis, located in a storefront building that dates to 1910. Foursquare churches are evangelical Pentecostal Christian houses of worship. The denomination's name represents the four aspects of the Department of Christ: Savior, Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, Healer and Soon-coming King, according to Wikipedia, and had nothing to do with the playground game I loved as a kid.
The building at 296-98 Main Street is known historically as the Megathlin Drug Store, per MACRIS. In 1926, the store was sold to the Louis K. Liggett Co., which occupied the first floor and basement while the upper floors were rented as office space, according to MACRIS.
A few doors down is the circa-1905 Wilson's Grocery Store building.
Most recently home to the Baybridge Clubhouse, a community of support for individuals who are in recovery from mental illness, this place stuck out to me because of the poster slapped on the facade. It portrays John "Mad Jack" Percival, "a naval officer who served his country during the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War and "the campaign against West Indies pirates," according to Wikipedia. Perhaps the most amazing story from Mad Jack's life is his piloting the USS Constitution around the globe in 1844-45, as I mentioned in an October 2018 post about a small slice of Barnstable, Mass., which features Percival's gravestone.
Across Center Street from Mad Jack's poster is the headquarters of the Cape Cod Central Railroad.
Built in 1880 and since "altered beyond recognition," per MACRIS, the station was built as a private home. Really more of a commercial spot, with a store and ticket counter for scenic and dinner train rides as well as a small food mart, the building was situated behind a train depot, which was demolished in 1950. "The present building probably incorporates the [Baxter] House which stood on the site at the turn of the century," per MACRIS.
Across Main Street, on the corner of Pleasant Street, is a nice mural on the side of the Cash Block building.
Home to Bradford's Hardware since 1892 (!), the building once had a pool hall in the basement, per MACRIS. While that's apparently gone, there may still be two bowling lanes down there. As for the mural, it was painted in 2016 and is a gateway to the Sea Captains Row neighborhood, according to this Cape Cod Times article.
Located on Pleasant Street, which heads south from Main Street to the harbor, Sea Captains Row features homes from the 1800s. It was named one of Massachusetts' Most Endangered Historic Resources by Preservation Massachusetts in 2016. One of the few remaining seafarer homes along Pleasant Street is the Captain Allen Crowell House, below.
Built in 1852, this Greek Revival house is currently an inn, as best as I can tell. Capt. Crowell was born in 1821, and was one of the more well-known sea captains in Hyannis, according to MACRIS. "In 1847, Crowell, along with Capt. Rodney Baxter, carried supplies to Ireland during the dread potato famine," MACRIS indicates. "During his entire career, Capt. Crowell never was involved in a nautical accident, indeed a rarity in any era."
While the Cape is a huge tourist destination, it is still an active fishing and seafaring community, although nowhere near as busy as it was 200 years ago. In the 1800s, the area had nearly 700 sea captains that traveled the world, according to the Crowell House web site. "The various captains that lived on this street, interacted with historic events such as: The Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, and The Spanish American War," the web site continues.
There is a development being built across from the Crowell House called -- you guessed it -- Sea Captains Row. One-, two- and three-bedroom apartments will be available. Plans call for two artists-in-residence to live and work in two new studios located in the former Patriot Press building, seen below.
Built in 1840, this building is known historically as Freeman Tobey General Store, per MACRIS. Tobey ran the store until his death in 1863. Freeman Chase and E.G. Crowell then took over the business. In 1892, the successor to Chase and Crowell, Capt. Allen Baxter, sold the building to the Goss family, owner of several newspapers. The Hyannis Patriot was located here, as was its successor, the Barnstable Patriot.
A short distance away, overlooking a marina and steps from the Hyannis Ferry Terminal, is the Anchor In Hotel. The building dates to 1955; I'm not sure whether it has always been this hotel. I love the hotel's sign.
Back on the corner of Main and Ocean streets, I spied the cool sea-creature artwork below.
This building, which dates to 1935, has been emtpy for several years, as far as I can tell. Constructed as an A & P Grocery Store, it has housed a restaurant, a movie theater, an art museum and an art gallery, among other businesses I'm guessing. In 2008, the building was up for auction, but the sale was postponed because a co-owner had filed for bankruptcy. The foreclosing lender accused the owners of trying to "avoid paying a combined $44 million in debt by filing multiple bankruptcies and lawsuits," per the Cape Cod Times article linke in the prior sentence. The owners, in turn, claimed the lender had "tried to bully him...and other business owners across the Cape into ceding control of their projects and employing loan-to-own schemes and other fraudulent methods." The lender, of course, denied those claims.
In the ensuing years, the building, which has of course continued to decay, has changed hands four times, most recently for $100 in April 2019, according to the Barnstable assessor's office. I have no idea if this building will eventually be torn down. As for the murals on the side, I haven't been able to determine who made them. They are part of Arts Barnstable's Smile Spots project.
A few doors down heading southwest is the former Masonic Hall.
Dating to 1923, the old fraternal organization headquarters was in use until the 1960s, per MACRIS. This building was where the first movies in Hyannis were show, MACRIS reports. These days, the building is home to apartments, an art gallery, a bakery and other small businesses.
Continuing in that direction on Main Street, on the opposite side of the street I spied a cool architectural detail on the Puritan Cape Cod clothing store.
Built in 1925, this building is known as the Colonial Block. Among the original tenants, according to MACRIS, were the Telephone Exchange, a paint store and a restaurant. Later tenants included Woolworth's and the Cape and Vineyard Electric Company.
I may not have been able to deliver all the shots I wanted to, but at least I got the pink bus.
According to a 2014 Cape Cod Times article, the bus dates to 1966, and was supposed to be converted to a mobile repair lab for Nifty Nate's, the computer repair business in whose parking lot the bus sits today.
With any luck, I'll have more Hyannis shots sometime this fall.
