Historical Society of Old Yarmouth

06/02/2026

How would you like to spend your Cape vacation in a tent? These tents were available at Bayberry Lodge in West Yarmouth beginning in 1925. According to the Hyannis Patriot, "In the rear of the house is the colony of tents where Back-to-Nature is served in both a healthful and comfortable manner. Each tent has one to three beds, electricity and running water, also a wooden floor." No mention of toilet facilities.

05/29/2026

Learn more at bit.ly/yarmouth250

We can't wait to see the Bristol County Fife and Drum Corps perform at the Legacy of Liberty: Yarmouth’s 250th Anniversary Celebration on June 20th at the Fred Thacher/Yarmouth Port Playground! How about you? For more information on this family friendly event, or to check out volunteer opportunities, go to bit.ly/yarmouth250
Visit Massachusetts MA250 Cape Cod Genealogical Society Town of Yarmouth Massachusetts

05/29/2026

This witness house to the Revolution is one you may not have seen. Originally built in Weir Village about 1770 by Benjamin Homer, it passed to his son Robert in 1775, then down through two more generations of Homers to Isaiah Homer, a shoemaker. He moved it in the mid 1800s from Weir Village to Old Main Street, then in the 1970s it was moved again, across the street to Mill Lane, to make more room for the Bass River Savings Bank. It was a dairy farm in the early 1900s, and remained in the Homer family until the 1980s.

05/27/2026

Without factories, how were the soldiers during the Revolution supplied with clothing, food and ammunition? Every town was expected to contribute! In Yarmouth, townspeople heeded repeated calls for war supplies and in June, 1780, they sent some 51 shirts and the same amount of shoes and stockings, 26 blankets and over 10,000 pounds of beef. Women, in particular, made homespun, sewed breeches, shirts, stockings and blankets. Some were even paid, as the document above shows. Abigail Newman and Hannah Stocker of Newburyport received compensation for cutting and sewing men's shirts.

05/25/2026

Remembering all who served -
Yarmouth Boy Scouts after a Memorial Day parade around 1942. The boys are in front of the Congregational Church on 6A - you can see the lawn on the left.
Front Row: L-R: Arthur Clark, Sherman., ? Second Row: Alan Schauwecker, Arthur Smith, Milton Smith, Harold Ellis, Granville "Bunny" Chalke, Larry Smith

05/24/2026

https://www.hsoy.org/blog/2026/5/24/the-annex

I remember living in the Annex in the 1950s as if it were yesterday.

05/22/2026

By 1780 more than half of Yarmouth’s adult males had already served time in the Revolutionary militias. One example was Samuel Taylor of Hockanom. He enlisted in 1775 after the battles at Lexington and Concord and served nearly 5 years, crossed the Delaware with Washington's forces, and saw action at Saratoga and Monmouth. After the war he went to sea and, according to his obituary, went on at least 28 voyages, and rose to captain before retiring.

05/21/2026

Because we're all missing the boardwalk, here's a blog post from two years ago about how it came to be.

One of the most photographed scenes of Cape Cod is a weathered boardwalk reaching across the marsh from Bass Hole to Clay’s Creek on the north coast of Yarmouth. It is also a favorite locale for birdwatching, weddings, viewing the sunset, and stealing kisses in the moonlight. Thomas C. Thacher, an