![]() Standing in the Dimmicks’ 200-year-old barn meticulously restored by craftsman and builder Ben Haywood, the sweet smelling barn with its cedar roof, hay hooks, and perfectly joined floorboards recalls a pastoral era. (Perhaps it was prophetic that the last iteration of Keith Car Works was as coffin manufacturer before the rising waters of the new Cape Cod Canal literally put the former factory underwater.) They would later produce boxcars, becoming the Cape’s largest employer during World War I when, at their peak, they shipped 40,000 freight cars to France. With the demise of the stagecoach, Keith Car Works capitalized on Gold Rush fever and the opening of the American West, making heavy-duty covered wagons, shovels, and picks. The determined entrepreneur, whose beautiful home still stands on Sandwich’s Main Street, also built a block of shops, a casino, and a large stable to house all the old stagecoaches. William Ellis Boyden who had run the Plymouth/Sandwich stagecoach operation for 26 years, repurposed his company to transport goods and mail by stagecoach between the train stations and post offices. “He was a staunch Methodist,” says Dimmick, “even though receipts show they served Madeira wine.” Former taverns dot the Cape’s landscape from the Old King’s Highway to the Upper Cape, including The Old Yarmouth Inn in Yarmouthport, Liberty Hall in South Dennis, and Newcomb Tavern in Sandwich.Īlthough the stagecoaches did not endure, some enterprising stagecoach owners adapted to the changing landscape and prospered. Dimmick’s grandfather, who inherited the establishment, insisted on calling it a tearoom. Taverns located close to the new train depot, like Dimmick’s, survived the transition to rail travel. John Crocker, the then-editor of the Provincetown Advocate, heralded the first train to town, writing: “We have long felt our isolation.” He was elated that the train had finally “brought low the hills of sand.” By the time the tracks extended all the way to Provincetown in 1873, trains were nudging the slow moving stagecoach into the history books, which, according to at least one newspaper editor, is where it belonged. In fact, both Dimmick’s grandfather and great grandfather married the schoolteachers who boarded there.Įverything changed for the stagecoach with the advent of the Cape Cod Railroad in 1848. A back bedroom housed boarders, including the teacher from Cataumet’s one-room schoolhouse. Glimpses of history are everywhere, from the wavy glass of the 19th-century windowpanes to the Chinese chestnut trees, offshoots of his grandfather’s original tree, blooming in front of the barn, where 200 years ago, stagecoach horses were stabled and changed.ĭimmick believes his relatives, like most Cape Codders of prior centuries, farmed, fished, sailed, and cobbled together a living by multiple means, including tavern keeping. Although the family’s first tavern house burned down and was rebuilt in 1876, a photo of theīuilding still hangs in the parlor and includes the original barn, which remains on the property. “Tennessee had just entered the Union at that time,” he explains. Among Dimmick’s prized possessions is the tavern’s 1795 wooden sign painted with an American eagle and 15 stars and stripes. The comfortable “common room” in the middle of the house still serves as hub to all the smaller connecting rooms.Ī front parlor was once reserved for formal occasions, “such as visits from the minister,” says Dimmick. As the stagecoach became a popular means of transportation, resourceful Cape Codders turned their homes into “stages” or stations offering food, rest, and libations for weary travelers.ĭavid Dimmick’s family home in Cataumet served as one of these taverns from 1795–1910 and was the noontime stop between Sandwich and Falmouth, then an all-day trip as the horses plodded barely above walking speed.įrom the graceful, rolling lawn to the broad, painted floorboards and detailed wainscoting inside, nearly everything in the home recalls the days of taverns and stagecoaches. ![]()
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