View the Barnstable HandbookBarnstable, Massachusetts
A Short History of Barnstable
From Wampanoag homeland on the shores of Cape Cod Bay to one of New England’s oldest towns — the county seat of Barnstable County and, in Hyannis, the commercial capital of the Cape.
Before the Town
Long before English settlement, the land between Cape Cod Bay and Nantucket Sound was home to the Wampanoag, who lived and fished around the area the English came to call Cummaquid. The region’s harbors, marshes, and ponds had sustained Native communities for thousands of years.
One of the Cape’s First Towns (1639)
Barnstable was incorporated in 1639, making it one of the oldest towns in the United States. It took its name from Barnstaple in Devon, England. Early Barnstable was a farming and maritime town, its villages growing up around the harbors and along the old county road now known as Route 6A.
County Seat
When Barnstable County was established in 1685, the town of Barnstable became its seat of government — a role it still holds. The county complex in Barnstable Village grew over the centuries; the stately Barnstable County Courthouse, built in 1831, remains a landmark of the village and a symbol of the town’s central place on the Cape.
Sea, Salt & Cranberries
Through the 1800s Barnstable thrived on fishing, coastal trade, salt works, and farming, including the cranberry bogs that became iconic to the region. Its seven villages — Barnstable Village, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville, and West Barnstable — each developed a distinct character that survives today.
Hyannis & the Kennedys
In the 20th century Hyannis grew into the commercial heart of Cape Cod, a year-round downtown and the transportation gateway to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. The Kennedy family’s compound in Hyannis Port made the village famous worldwide; during John F. Kennedy’s presidency it served as a summer White House, and the JFK Hyannis Museum tells that story today.
The Modern Town
Barnstable adopted its current council-manager charter in 1989, becoming a “city known as the Town of Barnstable.” Today it is the largest community on Cape Cod and a 2007 All-America City — a town balancing a booming seasonal economy, year-round neighborhoods, and the challenges of housing, water, and growth that come with life on the Cape.
Sources: Town of Barnstable; Barnstable County; U.S. Census Bureau.