Osterville Historical Museum – Cape Cod, Massachusetts
One of the many amazing things about visiting the eastern seashore area is the opportunity to look back in time and truly see what ingenious people the pioneers were, how they lived, made a living and socialized. When you visit the Osterville Historical Museum you will have the opportunity to see the house that was built by Captain Jonathan Parker in 1824. Capt. Parker was a schooner captain that lived in the village and made is living in fishing and providing transportation up and down the coastline. The house was added too over a number of years but finally became the home to the Museum in 1961.
Today the house uses its series of rooms to display the collection of the Museum. There are 7 rooms of historical maps, 18th & 19th century furniture, art and ceramics for you to see. The ornamental garden marking the entrance to the Museum adds a charm to whole experience.
The Cammette House is even older and dates from circa 1730. In the 1830′s there was an addition of an ell and extension to the house. It was named for the family of John Cammett who is thought to be the earliest inhabitant. The post and beam construction of the one room dwelling offers a fascinating study of early construction methods. You will be able to view the underpinnings of the house’s earliest section from the lower observatory.
There is an herb garden of the 1700′s which contain plants that were once used for cooking and medicinal purposes. In the kitchen you will see a beehive oven, root cellar and cooking utensils showing you even more of how the pioneers lived.
Do you know what a catboat is? A traditional catboat has a wide beam approximately half the length of the boat, a centerboard, and a single gaff-rigged sail. Herbert F. Crosby began building them in the second half of the 1899 and was quick to become a favorite with all sailers. Between 1850 and 1970 the Crosby family built over 3,000 catboats.
The Herbert F. Crosby Boat Shop is the original shop built in the circa 1855 and contains many of the original tools dating form the 19th century boat shop. Although it no longer sits on its orginal site, it was moved, intact, to the new locaiton when the Nauticus Marina was built.
There are four shops which adjoin each other featuring the Museum’s extensive colleciton of full-size wooden boats, half models and two “hawk nests” designed by Oliver Hinckley. The largest shop contains a Wianno Senior and an Wianno Junior, two one-design local racing classes, and a W.P.A. era mural by the artist Vernon Coleman.
Have you ever heard of a Jelly House? These were franchise houses taht started on the Cape in the early 1900′s. They are doll-like houses, al lbuilt alike, and were placed along the roadsides from which people sold jellies. After WWII the Jelly Houses fell to disuse or were moved into private dardens and rused as a children’s playhouse. The one at the Museum is now a delight to children (of all ages.)
Location:
Osterville Historical Museum
155 West Bay Road
PO Box 3
Osterville, MA 02655
Email: OHS@OstervilleMuseum.org
Phone: 508.428.5861
The Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays, beginning June 3, 2010.
The Museum Office is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. year round.
Private tours by appointment.
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