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Hidden History focuses on lesser-known historic events, places and people from around Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the South Coast. You can hear Hidden History on WCAI during every other Monday during Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
36 Episodes
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Salt works once were a common sight along Cape Cod shores. Today, a replica of a salt works sits on the grounds of the Aptucxet Trading Post in Bourne. Salt was in constant demand for colonists who came to the new world from England in the 1600s. It was mainly used to preserve food, and the colonists got much of their supply of salt from England. But they wanted to figure out how to make it themselves. Initially, they tried filling cast-iron kettles with water. “They’d build a fire under it, and
Nowadays, the shoreline along Pleasant Bay in Orleans features is dotted with large private homes, many on stately bluffs overlooking the water. But years ago those shores were home to numerous summer camps for boys and girls – some of the first of their kind in the country. One in particular – Camp Quanset – was started in 1905 by a local woman named Mary Hammatt. “She did it as a way to create a playgroup for her daughter,” said Jill Klein, who attended Camp Quanset from age 8 to 16 and later
In the 1830s, silk was all the rage in fashion. And Nantucket decided to get in on the action.
There’s been renewed talk about replacing the two bridges that span the Cape Cod Canal. Most people agree that the aging structures aren’t sufficient to handle present-day vehicle traffic traveling on and off Cape Cod. And it’s not that different from a similar scenario which played out in 1914, when the canal was opened to provide a safer route for vessels.
Say the phrase “Cape Cod house,” and most people picture a quaint, grey-shingled cottage. But deep in the woods of Wellfleet, a group of outliers defy that stereotype. These are modern homes built by a group of bohemian designers who gravitated to the area in the 1930s and 40s and pioneered the school of modern architecture. Several of these houses have been restored by the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, which offers tours of the homes during summer. “A group of American self-taught architects
The Cape Cod Melody Tent begins its summer season in mid-June. Most people think of the Melody Tent as a summer music venue, but it started out nearly 70 years ago in a different location. The idea originated with British actress Gertrude Lawrence, who spent a lot of time on the Cape with her husband Richard Aldrich.
The Sandwich Glass Museum is presenting a new exhibit called ‘Remember Me-Stories Engraved in Glass’ - a collection of glass items that the engravers and cutters at the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company made for their friends and family. “The stories are the artistry of the glass, the givers of the gift and the recipients of the gift,” said Katharine Campbell, the museum’s Executive Director. The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company was founded in 1825 by Deming Jarvis, a glass importer/exporter
Whether you live on Cape Cod year-round or visit during summer, Route 6 is a part of daily life. Most of us use it to get pretty much anywhere of any distance on this small peninsula. It’s so baked into the DNA of the place that it’s hard to imagine a time before summer traffic jams, before the familiar artery we so heavily rely on today.
The Plummer House in New Bedford is one of the latest restoration projects to be undertaken by the Waterfront Historic Area League, or WHALE, an organization focused on preserving New Bedford’s architectural heritage.
The newly opened Martha’s Vineyard Museum sits on a bluff with stunning views of Vineyard Haven harbor. It’s a renovated structure with an interesting past. “The original property was commissioned to be built as a marine hospital by the Coast Guard in 1895, and it operated as a marine hospital for a number of years,” said Katy Fuller, the Museum’s Director of Operations. “And then once the Cape Cod Canal got built, it wasn’t as necessary and needed any more. So it dwindled in use, and by the 60s
The Mayflower II is currently undergoing a full-scale restoration at the DuPont Shipyard in Mystic, Connecticut. It’s a replica of the merchant ship that brought the Pilgrims first to Provincetown and then to Plymouth in 1620 - a now-historic event that was completely unremarkable at the time. “This is just cargo. The only good thing about this cargo is it was self-loading cargo,” said Whit Perry, Director of Maritime Preservation at Plimoth Plantation. The original Mayflower was sold for scrap
The Nantucket Historical Association recently added an unusual item to its map collection: an embossed outline map of Nantucket, tucked in the back of the 1841 Annual Report of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, now known as the Perkins School for the Blind. “It seems that the head of the school, Dr. Samuel Howe, when he founded the school, or was one of the co-founders of the school, he was interested in building a library for his students, and there were not many
Just north of Route 6-A in West Barnstable, a narrow path runs through a nature preserve to the edge of what looks like a pond. It’s actually the flooded clay pit from the West Barnstable Brick Company, the ruins of which lie just out of view on the opposite side.
Just off route 6A in Yarmouth Port sits a former Universalist Meeting House called Strawberry Hill, built in 1836. It was converted into a private residence, and is now on the market. What makes the property so unique is the legacy of its most recent owners, world-renowned set designers Herbert Senn and Helen Pond. “They’re very, very well-known throughout the theatrical world, both on Broadway in New York, and Boston, Houston, Texas, and as far as Moscow in Russia,” said Lee Marchildon, the
WCAI has operated from a former sea captain's house in Woods Hole since the station’s founding in 2000.
The Cape Cod musical group, the Solstice Singers, has been performing for over a quarter century. They sing mainly medieval and Renaissance songs, complemented by drama, dance, poetry and period costumes.
Cape Cod’s fire towers –like the one at Howlands Park Hill in Falmouth - have played a major role in helping to detect fires for over a century – and today they’re used in much the same as they always have been.
Later this week, most of us will sit down to a Thanksgiving meal, just as the Pilgrims’ did after their first year in Plymouth. But Thanksgiving as we know it today is much different from the one the Pilgrims celebrated almost 400 years ago. Plimoth Plantation offers living history re-creations of that period in American history. One of their missions is to educate visitors about how the first Thanksgiving really happened. “For one thing, the first Thanksgiving was three days long,” said
A pre-Halloween event in Falmouth called ‘A Night with the Watchman’ presents local history with a lighthearted twist. It’s held at the Dr. Francis Wicks House, built in 1790 and acquired by the Falmouth Historical Society in 1930. “It’s a sneaky way of getting historic education about the town out,” said Tamsen George, President of the Falmouth Historical Society. “In the parlor we will have the poisoner who was from Cataumet who poisoned 32 people and was captured in 1941. And she’ll talk
The mural at the Cape Cinema movie theater is one of the Cape’s largest, most unusual works of art. The Cape Cinema opened in June, 1930. It was built by Raymond Moore, who had established the Cape Playhouse in 1926, then decided to build a movie theater nearby.
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