Evolving Villages

History

Evolving Villages

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Yarmouth was a town of well established communities. Each of the villages had begun to take on its own distinct character. The northside settlement, laid out along present Route 6A, evolved into two villages: Yarmouth to the east and Yarmouth Port to the West. Yarmouth had its stately church on the village green and its maritime hub in Bass Hole. But as the Hole began to silt in, maritime commerce shifted to the Mill Creek area, farther to the west, and Yarmouth Port became a community of much activity with its own Common and churches and numerous stores. In 1829, Yarmouth Port was incorporated as a separate village and the two villages remained distinct entities until the Yarmouth Post Office was closed in the 1960s and the northside assumed the identity "Yarmouth Port." Many of the town's deep-water captains lived on the north side, 50 being said to have lived on a one-mile stretch of the Old Kings Highway alone.

Jenkins House, Pleasant Street, South Yarmouth

On the south side, West Yarmouth became populated with the descendants of the earliest settler Yelverton Crowe(ll). (Crowell remained the most prominent surname in the village well into the 20th century.) Although the Crowells were joined by other families, and married into many of the northside families, the village itself remained small and rural in nature. Homes with large acreage for subsistence farming dotted the county road (now Route 28) which ran from Parker's River to Hyannis' Main Street. A fulling mill in the village, established in the late 17th century, was the first known mill in Yarmouth. The Baxters, who operated the mill, also built a gristmill along the shores of Mill Creek in West Yarmouth -- a mill which is still in working order and now an historic site owned by the town. Stores, however, were few and tradesmen were fewer. Many villagers transacted business in nearby Hyannis or in Yarmouth Port. Since the village remained rural and undeveloped throughout much of the 18th and 19th century, it presented a blank palette for developers who were to arrive with the turning of the twentieth century.

Friend's Village, now South Yarmouth, had a much later beginning than Yarmouth's other villages. However, with the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of the Quakers who took up residence there, the village soon became a thriving hub of maritime and business activity with its ropewalk, sailworks, shipbuilding enterprise, packets, saltworks and banks. The Quakers constructed solid and stately homes along the shores of Bass River and welcomed newcomers of all faiths to their village.

In 1854, the town built three new identical district schoolhouses. By 1881, 355 children between 5 and 15 were students in the public school system. In 1890, 1,760 people called Yarmouth home and the town's distinct villages formed a self supporting, prosperous town. Dry goods dealer Crocker & Company sold its share of clothing and home supplies from its store in Yarmouth Port while Hallet's Drug Store, just a few doors down, had recently opened for business. (More than a hundred years later, Hallet's store is still in business, operated by the great-grandson of the original owner, and is a popular attraction for residents and visitors alike.)

Visit the Tour the Villages section for more photos of the villages' past.