The Brewster Old King's Highway Historic District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

encompassing much of

Massachusetts Route 6A Massachusetts Route 6A is the state road for two sections formerly known as U.S. Route 6 (US 6) on Cape Cod. Most of Route 6A is also known as the Old King's Highway. Combining the 2 major sections (and a "silent" concurrency with US& ...

and portions of some adjacent roads in

Brewster, Massachusetts Brewster is a New England town, town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population of Brewster was 10,318 at the 2020 census. Initially settled in 1659, the Town of Brewster ...

, which was known as the Old King's Highway during colonial times. The center of Brewster grew around the junction of the Old King's Highway and Harwich Road (now

Massachusetts Route 124 Route 124 is a north–south state highway located in the towns of Harwich and Brewster in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Its southern terminus is at Route 28 in Harwich and its northern terminus is at Route 6A in Brewster. Route descri ...

), with its first church built there in 1700 (the current church is a Greek Revival structure built in 1834), and a nearby burying ground established in 1707. The civic and commercial functions of the town were spread along the Old King's Highway through the 19th and into the early 20th century. This concentration of historic resources extends about west of the main junction, and about eastward. Prominent landmarks in the district, in addition to the church, include the Old Town Hall, a richly-detailed Queen Anne structure built in 1881; it is located at the junction of the highway with Chatham Street (

Massachusetts Route 137 Massachusetts Route 137 is a north–south state route on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The route begins at an intersection with Route 28 in the town of Chatham. The route serves as a connector between Chatham, the town of ...

). The 1868 Brewster Ladies Library is a fine example of Stick style, and was the first purpose-built library building on Cape Cod. The current Town Hall was built in 1925, and originally served as a school. Two 19th-century school buildings also survive in the district: the No. 2 Schoolhouse, an Italianate two-room building first used as a high school, overlooks Schoolhouse Pond, while the more modest No. 3 Schoolhouse (1850) has been repurposed as a barn.National Register nomination for Brewster Old King's Highway Historic District; available by requested from the National Park Service The district was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1996.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Historic districts in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Brewster, Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Barnstable County, Massachusetts Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

See also

References