You’ve finally made it. After a long
cold winter, the warm weather has arrived. It is time for a trip to
Cape Cod for a summer vacation. You pack up the car and the kids and
head for the Cape but this is not 2023. No, you are heading for a
vacation on Cape Cod in 1923, one hundred years ago. What did a trip
to the Cape look like back then? Let’s find out.
First and
foremost do you have your own vehicle or do you take a train? If you
have an automobile you are one of the lucky ones. It would take until
1930 for more than half of American families to own automobiles. If
you had a vehicle it was most likely the Ford Model T as 1923 was its
best year for sales with more than two million units produced in that
year alone. Other popular vehicles included the Chevrolet Superior
and the Dodge Brothers Touring Car. These cars were quite different
from the vehicles of today, with their exposed engines and spartan
interiors.
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As you approach the Cape Cod Canal it looks
different. The canal, which by 1923 had only been in operation for
nine years, was still at its original width of 100 feet. It would not
reach its present-day width of 480 feet until 1940.
Naturally,
with a narrower canal, the three bridges that crossed it were also
different. The Sagamore and Bourne Bridges were drawbridges in 1923.
Both bridges consisted of two 80-foot cantilever sections that rose
to allow vessels to pass through. The railroad bridge was a 160-foot
cantilever bridge that pivoted upward on its north foundation. These
three bridges remained in use until 1935 when all three were replaced
with the current bridges.
You have now made it onto Cape Cod.
There are fifteen towns and 143 unique villages. A major difference
you will notice after crossing a bridge is that there is no Mid-Cape
Highway. It won’t be until 1950 that the highway opens from the
Sagamore Bridge to West Barnstable. This was Exit 6, present-day Exit
68. It is a slower go of things getting around on the Cape in 1923.
Luckily Route 6A, then known only as the Old King’s Highway,
existed to bring people all the way out to Provincetown.
The
big question now is where are you going to stay during your summer
vacation? One thing Cape Cod did not lack in 1923 was popular resorts
and hotels. In fact, the world-famous Chatham Bars Inn existed back
then, although on a far smaller scale. If you couldn’t find room at
CBI there was no need to despair.
Some of the iconic hotels
that you could have stayed at in 1923 included Aberdeen Hall on Great
Island in West Yarmouth, Terrace Gables in Falmouth Heights,
Chequesset Inn in Wellfleet, The Pines in Cotuit, and Hotel Belmont
in Harwich. It was common in those days to vacation in the same place
for weeks or even the entire summer. Hopefully, you enjoy your
surroundings.
If you were lucky enough to stay at one of these
fine hotels perhaps your room would have the hot new technology known
as a radio in it. Although there were no broadcast radio stations yet
on Cape Cod the medium would explode in popularity over the rest of
the 1920s. The majority of what would be heard in 1923 would be from
tiny amateur stations that would broadcast at random hours.
So
you have found a place to stay. What next? It’s probably a good
idea to find somewhere to get a bite to eat. Don’t go looking for
franchises like McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or KFC though. Franchises as
a concept don’t even exist yet. The first restaurant franchise was
a Howard Johnson’s which opened in Orleans, Massachusetts in 1935.
Not to worry though, there were plenty of great places to eat on Cape
Cod in 1923.
Driving around Cape Cod you will find an abundance
of tearooms. These were Victorian-era establishments that functioned
as small restaurants that served light meals, snacks, and of course
tea. Some of the popular tearooms in 1923 included the Whippoorwill
in Bourne, the Chatham Tea Room, and the Grey Gull in Falmouth. The
Grey Gull would go on to become an infamous speakeasy during the
waning days of Prohibition as The Hangar tearoom.
Of course, if
you were looking for some names familiar to longtime Cape Codders
there were a few. You could grab a bite at the East Bay Lodge in
Osterville, the Old Yarmouth Inn (then known as the Yarmouth Tavern),
or the Daniel Webster Inn in Sandwich.
If you were looking to
make yourself a home-cooked meal, or just grab some necessities, it
might have been easier to go to the market or drug store. Megathlin’s
in Hyannis was the tops as far as drug stores went. There were no
supermarkets to speak of in 1923. You could venture out to the local
Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P), with locations in Falmouth,
Provincetown, and Dennis Port among others. This was not the mammoth
supermarket we see in the 21st century though.
When looking for
familiar brands to purchase there were many that are still prominent
today. These include Coca-Cola, Heinz ketchup, Wrigley’s gum,
Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Bayer aspirin, Campbell’s soup, Hershey’s
chocolate, Kodak film, Colgate toothpaste, and many
more.
Accommodations have been set, and you have had lunch or
dinner, or at least visited the local market. What do you do for fun?
Obviously, Cape Cod has always been known for its miles of sandy
beaches. It was no different one hundred years ago. You could spend
the day at one of the beloved ‘bathing’ beaches like Craigville,
Sandy Neck, Nauset, Race Point, and countless others. There was no
option to drive over the sand to find a private spot so you would
need to either walk through the dunes or learn to love the crowds.
On rainy days you could go and see a motion picture. These
were still a part of the Silent Era and thus there was no dialogue,
only music. Seats were available for matinees at the Idle Hour
Theatre in Hyannis, Empire Theatre in Falmouth, and the Orpheum
Theatre in Chatham. Tickets cost 35 cents for adults and 10 cents for
children. What were the big summer films of 1923? They included The
Covered Wagon, Safety Last!, Main Street, and a re-release of Monte
Cristo.
Perhaps you came to the Cape without children and
wanted some fun nighttime adventures. Unfortunately, Prohibition was
in effect so alcohol was illegal. This did not mean it wasn’t on
Cape Cod though. Law enforcement was having a hard time stopping
illegal ‘rum running’ that occurred along the Cape’s coast,
specifically the beaches of Provincetown and Truro. There is a reason
why Yarmouth’s Bass River Beach is more commonly referred to as
‘Smuggler’s’ Beach.
Even without easy access to alcohol,
there was no shortage of fun nightlife. The Mill Hill Pavilion in
West Yarmouth, Chatham Pavilion, and Bournehurst On the Canal in
Buzzards Bay offered nightly entertainment while many towns had
dancing events on special dates throughout the year.
Of course
with the relatively new development of the automobile, coupled with
the ‘Summer Playground’ that Cape Cod was referred to at the time
by the Boston Globe, it might be a fun time to simply take a drive
and enjoy the scenery.
What would you see as you drove around
Cape Cod in 1923?
In short, a whole lot of open space. In the
1920 census, Barnstable County had a population of 26,670. To
compare, in the 2020 census the population was 228,996. That’s more
than ten times the number of people.
As mentioned before there was no
Mid-Cape Highway. There was no Cape Cod Mall. Route 28, typically the
most congested roadway on the peninsula, was unpaved and still
consisted mostly of residential homes and swaths of open land and
forest.
All of this open space would allow you to hear the
unending hum of the 17-year locusts that had made Cape Cod their home
in 1923. It was mostly contained between Falmouth and Hyannis though.
In addition to locusts, a scenic drive along the Old King’s Highway
might look different. In 1923, 97 large billboards dotted Cape Cod
roadsides. These would slowly but surely be removed over the coming
years due to fervor from residents.
Perhaps while motoring
along the Old King’s Highway you could stop for a few minutes to
watch the bricks being made at the legendary West Barnstable Brick
Factory. It was owned at the time by Cape Cod’s ‘cranberry king’
Abel Makepeace. In the 1920s it was reported that the factory could
produce more than 100,000 bricks per day and more than thirty million
per year. They were widely popular not only on Cape Cod but
throughout the state of Massachusetts and even further.
Driving
to Chatham you will see a lot of construction happening. The big news
in the town in 1923 is the dismantling of one of the Chatham Twin
Lights. The north tower was shipped up to Eastham. There it replaced
the final diminutive wooden tower of the Three Sisters. The former
Chatham Twin was rechristened Nauset Lighthouse, although it would
not receive its distinctive red and white coloring until 1940.
At
Mayo Beach in Wellfleet, you could gaze upon the recently deactivated
Mayo Beach Lighthouse. Within a few years, it will be removed and
‘lost’ for more than eighty years. It will be ‘found’ in 2008
living a new life as Point Montara Lighthouse in California.
You
might take a drive to the ocean side of Wellfleet. There you could
gaze upon the abandoned remains of Guglielmo Marconi’s
revolutionary wireless station. It was here that the first
transatlantic wireless communication took place in 1903. However much
like today erosion was an issue in 1923. The station’s four towers
had already been dismantled but their foundations and a few buildings
remained.
If you enjoyed shellfishing and a good adventure, you
could take a day trip over to Billingsgate Island in Cape Cod Bay.
Located about 2.5 miles west of Sunken Meadow Beach in Eastham this
formerly thriving community was on its last legs. Erosion had wiped
much of it off the map, with homes being floated across and
assimilated into Eastham and Wellfleet. Its lighthouse had crumbled,
replaced by a skeleton tower, but in 1923 it still had some of the
best shellfishing on the Cape. Within twenty years though the island
would be fully washed over and rechristened Billingsgate Shoal.
A
journey to the tip of the Cape in Provincetown was as wondrous then
as it is today. The Portuguese fishing boats were aplenty, the Town
Crier would keep you informed of all the local news, and if lucky
perhaps famed poet Eugene O’Neill would come into town from his
shack on the Peaked Hill Bar to say hello.
If the journey
called to you it was possible to take a visit to either island of
Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket via the New Bedford, Martha’s
Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Line. This was the predecessor of
the Steamship Authority. Several trips were leading out of Woods Hole
daily.
Excitement was in the air on Cape Cod when in June 1923
the Cape Cod Baseball League was formed with William Lovell of
Hyannis serving as its first president. Four teams, Falmouth,
Hyannis, Osterville, and Chatham would play a total of twelve games
each. Opening night was July 10th as Falmouth defeated Osterville
11-7. It was not to worry for Osterville however as they would become
the inaugural Cape League champions.
As it is in present-day
the crown jewel of Cape Cod summer in 1923 was the Barnstable County
Fair. It opened Tuesday, August 28th, and was held for three days
rather than a week like today. The fair was known as the Cattle Show
and Fair of the Barnstable County Agricultural Society. It was held
in Barnstable at the time near the County Court House. There were
horse shows that drew upwards of 15,000 people. Also on the grounds
were cattle shows, electrical appliance exhibits, swings, a
merry-go-round, floral arrangements, and more.
If unable to
come to the Cape for the fair the next best thing was the annual
Fourth of July festivities. There were town-sponsored fireworks
displays. However, if you wanted to create your own show you could
find ads in the local newspapers for stores like B.T. Gorham’s in
Yarmouth Port, and A.C. Ryder’s in South Yarmouth selling all of
the fireworks you could need. There were numerous special events
including dinners, dancing, and more to celebrate Independence Day on
Cape Cod.
Before you know it time is up. Your vacation on Cape
Cod during the summer of 1923 is now over. Hopefully, you enjoyed
your time on the Cape’s shores. Before crossing back over the Canal
be sure to gas up your vehicle. Also, stop by T.T. Hallet’s in
Yarmouth Port to take with you some classic Cape Cod cranberries or
other gifts and novelties to remind you of your trip. We hope it was
the cat’s meow!
All Images created with the help of Bing AI
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Purchase a DVD copy of the Lady of the Dunes documentary here:
Purchase the new book Searching for the Lady of the Dunes written by 12th Generation Cape Codder Christopher Setterlund.
