The Centerville Historic District is a
historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...
encompassing the heart of the village of
Centerville in
Barnstable, Massachusetts
The Town of Barnstable ( ) is a town in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod, and is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipaliti ...
. The district extends along Main Street from a point north of its junction with Old Stage Road and Park Avenue, south to the junction with Church Hill Road. Most of the buildings in the district were built in the middle decades of the 19th century, although its oldest building, the
Austin Bearse
Austin Bearse (1808-1881) was a sea captain from Cape Cod who provided transportation for fugitive slaves in the years leading up to the American Civil War.
Early life
Bearse was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, on April 3, 1808. As a youth h ...
House, was built c. 1690. The area's growth was spurred by the relocation in 1826 of the Congregational Church building to its present location.
The district was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1987.
Description
The Centerville Historic District is located in southern Barnstable, roughly midway between the villages of
Hyannis and
Cotuit
Cotuit ( ) is one of the villages of the Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Located on a peninsula on the south side of Barnstable about midway between Falmouth and Hyannis, Cotuit is bounded by t ...
. The district is essentially linear in shape, extending along Main Street from just south of Wilton Drive to a four-way junction with Church Hill Road and Bacon Lane, with a major triangular intersection with Park Street near the district's geographic center. It includes 40 historically significant buildings dating to the 19th century or earlier, and includes a significant concentration of buildings that are either Greek Revival or Italianate, architectural styles that were popular in the mid-19th century. Most buildings are 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 story wood frame houses. Buildings of note that fall outside of these general categories include the c. 1880 Benjamin Childs House (339 Main), one of the only Second Empire houses in Barnstable, and the Marston family houses, a pair of Queen Anne Victorians at 454 and 481 Main Street, and the Centerville General Store, a vernacular structure built c. 1834.
[
There are two churches in the district. One, the Congregation Church at the southern end of the district, was built in 1797 and moved to its present location in 1826, an event that (along with an increase in maritime-related economic activity) stimulated development of this area in preference to Centerville's traditional center to the north. The other church building, originally built in 1876 for a Methodist congregation, has been substantially altered and is no longer historically significant. The triangular park at the junction of Park and Main includes two war memorials, one to the community's ]Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
soldiers (placed in 1866), and a World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
memorial placed c. 1920.[
]
See also
*
References
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Historic districts in Barnstable County, Massachusetts
National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable, Massachusetts
Barnstable, Massachusetts
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts