Eastham Attractions

Eastham’s oldest burying ground holds links to its earliest days and those of Massachusetts, with the graves of three Mayflower passengers: Lt. John Rogers (1608-1678), Constance Hopkins (1605-1677) and Giles Hopkins (1607-1690). Rogers served in the Plymouth Colony Militia. Constance and Giles Hopkins were siblings and the children of fellow Mayflower passenger Stephen Hopkins, one of the Pilgrims who had the famous first encounter with the Nauset Indians on First Encounter Beach. Constance Hopkins later married Nicholas Snow, who served as Eastham’s first town clerk from 1646 – 1662.

Used as a cemetery from 1660 - 1770, this burial ground is also the site of Eastham's first meetinghouse. Ralph Smith is another early resident buried here. Born in 1610 in Hingham, England, he was a leading figure in founding Hingham, Mass. in 1633, according to a plaque placed by the Association of Descendents of Ralph Smith in June 1946, which calls him, “a pioneer of distinction.” He died in 1685.

This French Second Empire style home was built by Capt. Edward Penniman, one of the most successful whaling captains of his time. Born in Eastham in 1831, Penniman began life at sea at just 11 years old as a cook on a fishing schooner. Though he reaped the rewards, Penniman disliked life on the water and urged his son to find another calling. He sometimes took his wife Gustie and children with him to help pass the four-year voyages out of New Bedford.

Penniman’s home was built in 1868 on 12 acres he purchased from his father. The 2 ½-story structure has an ornate mansard roof, eight rooms and Corinthian columns outside the front door. It was Eastham's first house to have indoor plumbing. The pale yellow dwelling and barn once had real whale bones in the backyard, following the common belief it was lucky to pass through them. Today, the sentiment continues, though the whale bones are wooden replicas.  

The family held onto the home until 1963, when the Cape Cod National Seashore purchased it and the 12 acres along Nauset Marsh from Penniman’s granddaughter, Irma Penniman Broun, for $28,000.

Built in 1741 by Joshua Knowles, this Cape style house has the bowed roof and wide floorboards typical of a ship carpenter’s work. It features a deep kitchen chimney, period furnishings and historical Eastham pictures downstairs and a wedding gown collection from the 19^th and 20^th centuries upstairs.

The house was occupied by Nathaniel Swift in the mid-1800s, before he and his brother Gustavus left Eastham to start the Swift Meat Packing Co. in Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Daley purchased the home in 1939 and painstakingly restored it, then gave it to the Eastham Historical Society in 1974.

Out back stands the Tool Museum and Olde Shop, which features local artisans’ work. The Tool Museum holds hundreds of tools, most notably a wooden crankshaft from an old saltworks and cranberry sorters, along with doorposts from the town’s first meeting house.

Open July and August, Mon. – Fri., 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Open Saturdays in Sept., same hours.

The oldest windmill on Cape Cod, the Eastham Windmill is a source of great pride in town and has been celebrated at Windmill Weekend every September since 1977. Built by Thomas Paine in Plymouth circa 1680, the 25-foot structure was moved to Truro in the 1770s and to Eastham in 1793. It still occasionally grinds corn.

Open July and Aug. daily, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Dedicated in Jan. 1890, this is the oldest Eastham church still standing. It was built by the Eastham Universalist Society for $2,300 on land donated by W.H. Nickerson. Capt. Edward Penniman was a leading contributor driving the construction.

The 1970s was a time of change for the church. The First Encounter Coffee House began hosting bimonthly Saturday night performances there in June 1974. In 1978, the First Parish of Brewster put the building up for sale and the newly formed Nauset Fellowship, a Unitarian/Universalist congregation, purchased it, paying off the mortgage with 10 years of chowder dinners. Today, the public is invited to attend Sunday morning services and all other events, including the First Encounter Coffee House.

No longer used for teaching, this one-room 1869 schoolhouse holds the town’s stories and many gems from its past, including U.S. Lifesaving Service mementos, Indian tools and shipwreck finds, along with a 13-foot jawbone from a washed-up 65-foot finback whale. The schoolhouse still has the separate entrances boys and girls used to enter classes and rare keepsakes from writer Henry Beston’s stay on Coast Guard Beach, which led to his distinguished book “The Outermost House.”

Built on dunes in 1925, Beston called his two-room house Fo’Castle and donated it to the Massachusetts Audubon Society in 1959, though he returned there on Oct. 11, 1964, when the U.S. Department of Interior formally recognized “The Outermost House,” as a National Literary Landmark. The home was rented to bird enthusiasts until the Blizzard of 1978 washed it to sea. The Henry Beston Society is now raising funds to erect a replica.

Two years after Sen. John F. Kennedy proposed the Cape Cod National Seashore bill to Congress, the Cape Cod summer resident signed it into law as the country’s 35^th president on Aug. 7, 1961. The park was considered an innovative preservation model, the first national park to include private homes and property along with federally-owned land.

Today, it encompasses more than 43,000 acres and 40 miles of coastline in Chatham, Orleans, Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown. Its headquarters are on Marconi Road in Wellfleet, but the Salt Pond Visitor Center is where most visitors first encounter the National Seashore.

The visitor center has a book store and short films about Cape Cod. It serves as the trailhead for several short paths and connects to the Cape Cod Rail Trail bikeway. The visitor center is open year-round from 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. with extended summer hours.

Doane Rock is the largest exposed boulder on Cape Cod, driven in place by glaciers some 18,000 years ago. It sits near the site of Deacon John Doane’s homestead. Doane was a leader in Plymouth Colony who arrived in Plymouth about 1630. After serving several posts like Assistant to Governor William Bradford, he joined six other men and settled Eastham in 1644. He served as deacon of the town’s first church and is also honored at Cove Burying Ground with a marker his descendents erected in 1907. 

The Doane Rock area also features picnicking, seasonal restrooms, the Doane Loop Trail and trails leading to Coast Guard Beach and the Salt Pond Visitor Center.

The federal government put up three lights to differentiate Nauset from nearby Highland Light in Truro and the twin lights at Chatham, even though it soon became clear three lights were unnecessary.

Still, three more lights were built farther inland in 1892 as the first three succumbed to coastal erosion. Two were removed in 1911, their wood sold to build nearby cottages. The other beacon remained onsite until 1923, when it was replaced by one of Chatham’s twin lights. The 48-foot tower built in 1877 got its red stripe in 1940, an image that has oft been reproduced, most notably by the Cape Cod Potato Chips company.

While the lighthouse keeper’s home was sold in 1955, the Coast Guard didn’t talk about decommissioning Nauset Light until 1993. Citizens formed the Nauset Light Preservation Society to maintain the lighthouse and were faced with the immediate challenge of saving it from a collapsing bluff. The tower was moved back 336 feet from the old site on Nov. 16, 1996 and the light was relit on May 10, 1997 as a private navigation tool before 2,000 loyal supporters.

The Nauset Light Preservation Society opens the lighthouse for tours several times between May and October. See the website for schedule. No matter what time of year, visitors can follow the short trail past Nauset Light to see the rebuilt “Three Sisters of Nauset.” The National Park Service bought back all the wood from the original lighthouses and set them back up in 1989. 

Both attractions are short walks from the Nauset Light Beach parking lot.