It goes by many names, rotary, traffic circle, or roundabout. Whatever it is called it is a common part of daily life not only on Cape Cod but all across the globe. As of 2022, according to Lee Rodegerdt's book Roundabouts: An Informal Guide, there were roughly 9,860 rotaries, traffic circles, and traffic-calming circles spread across America with Florida having the highest number. For as commonplace as these are today they had to start somewhere and that somewhere was Cape Cod and more specifically South Yarmouth. The man behind America’s first rotary was Charles Henry Davis, a man with deep connections to Cape Cod as well.
 |
| America's first traffic circle at River and Pleasant Street in South Yarmouth, MA |
Davis was born in 1865 and lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a child. His father and grandfather were both involved in road construction which led to him later in his life becoming co-founder of the National Highways Association in 1911 along with Coleman DuPont. The first initiative of this organization was to publish a map of a 50,000-mile National Highways network for the country. It also began the system of numbering major state roads as can be seen all across America.
Davis moved to South Yarmouth in 1902. He amassed quite a large fortune in the early years of the 20th century. This came about as his family owned several plots of land in the coalfield area of Harlan County in southeastern Kentucky. Davis bought up all of these plots as well as several pieces intertwined through these plots. This meant that he owned most of Harlan County as well as having the rights to its coal and lumber. He created the Ketenia Mining Company.
 |
| Charles Henry Davis(Federal Highway Association) |
These land holdings proved valuable to Henry Ford the visionary automobile entrepreneur who was looking for a way to produce an affordable vehicle. Davis leased the entire Ketenia properties to Ford for ten years. Ford did all of the mining and provided Davis with a set price per carload of coal as well as a set royalty on each car Ford sold. This contract provided Davis with a mass of wealth that he put to good use.
Shortly after coming to the Cape Davis purchased land surrounding Bass River. At the intersection of River and Pleasant Streets in the South Yarmouth village of Bass River, he created two things to cement his legacy here. The first was his home.
Davis purchased a piece of property containing three old Cape-style houses and a barn. These buildings were connected into one forming a larger estate. Years later, after his six daughters were born, Davis added a sleeping porch and a runway to the already massive home. This made the house a complete square with a courtyard in the middle. It was known as the House of Seven Chimneys. Though it did have seven chimneys the home in its entirety had at least twice that number of actual open fireplaces. It also had 217 windows and 17 front doors.
 |
| House of Seven Chimneys in the early 1900s.(Historical Society of Old Yarmouth) |
The House of Seven Chimneys was a unique and highly spoken-of property. It was featured in House and Gardens Magazine four times in the span of a year between 1908-1909. The compound had no electricity. However, it did have a cellar with furnaces and water heaters that ran under the entirety of the buildings. This was affectionately referred to as the ‘Bass River Subway.’
The second piece of Davis’ legacy which exists in Bass River is America’s first traffic circle. It was originally an old brick watering trough but was transformed by Davis to help handle traffic in the area. The signage denoting which road one is traveling on still stands today, however, the three ship lanterns which originally hung there to act as makeshift traffic lights were vandalized and have long since been removed. The rotary was known as the National Highways Circle paying homage to Davis’ role in the National Highways Association.
Despite having set up deep roots on Cape Cod, Davis did not stay put for long periods. He chose to travel extensively around the country in his Hudson automobile. This was decorated with forty-eight license plates, one for every state in the Union at the time, each with the plate number ‘25.’
Charles Henry Davis’ legacy on Cape Cod extends far beyond his estate and the country’s first rotary. In 1928 he constructed Ship Shops Marina, originally at the foot of his estate along Bass River. It now operates a half-mile north along Bass River on Pleasant Street.
Just across the river, the popular West Dennis Beach is named Davis Beach in honor of the man. He owned the entire property and sold it to the town for $50,000($589,900 in 2024) just before he died in 1951. He also purchased the Bass River Golf Course in 1946. In the 1920s it doubled as a dairy farm with cows roaming the links, though fenced in somewhat to keep them off the fairways and greens. At one point in time, Davis could walk from Nantucket Sound to Cape Cod Bay and never leave the property he owned.
Though not responsible for it, Davis was one of the first to propose a Mid-Cape highway. His proposed route along the ‘crest’ of the peninsula was not far removed from where the highway was eventually laid out.
In 1947 he proposed that one of the cornerstones of the new United Nations building be from Cape Cod, Debs Hill in South Yarmouth specifically. The sixty-ton boulder on the property of Fannie Holloway took more than two months to unearth and was not used for the project with then-Mayor of New York City William O’Dwyer saying that if the stone was brought to the city he’d have it dumped in the East River. Instead it today sits appropriately at a traffic circle inside the New Seabury development in Mashpee.
 |
| Davis' boulder at New Seabury.(Google Maps) |
Davis died on June 3, 1951, in New York City at the age of eighty-six after two years of failing health. He left behind a huge legacy not only on Cape Cod but in the country as well. His contributions to the Cape are numerous yet slightly below the surface. Whether circumnavigating America’s first rotary in South Yarmouth, walking the sandy shores of West Dennis Beach, or driving any of the numbered routes across the United States Charles Henry Davis’ impact is difficult to ignore.
