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Though best known
for the summer mecca of Hyannis and the lavish Hyannis
Port of Kennedy fame, Barnstable also has other
brilliant shores founded by a strong people who escaped
religious persecution in England.
The Rev. John
Lothrop and his followers arrived in 1639 and built the
West Parish Meeting House, the oldest congregational
church in the country. James Otis, Jr. – also a member
of West Parish – played a key role in the American
Revolution while his sister Mercy Otis Warren chronicled
the conflict and wrote satirical plays mocking the
British.
Barnstable’s beauty
stretches from the distant arm of Sandy Neck to the
inlets of Cotuit to Hyannis village, founded when the
English settlers paid the Indian Sachem Iyanough 200
pounds and two pairs of pants for the area. Today, it’s
the hub of Cape Cod, bustling with ferries heading to
Nantucket, an airport, downtown restaurants and museums.
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Quick glimpse
Municipal website:
www.town.barnstable.ma.us
Incorporated in 1639 as a
town and in 1989 as a city, though it
operates like a town...located on the
mid-Cape, between Sandwich, Mashpee and
Yarmouth...has 60 square miles of land...and
48,900 residents.
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