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Starting Out! From the Visitor Center take a left on Route 28. Go through 3 sets of lights, past the cranberry bogs on your right and then not too far on your left side you will see the 1750 Guest House.
1750 Guest House
This house (on your left) was constructed in 1750 in Marstons Mills and moved here by Thomas Black in 1768. Rev. Enoch E. Chase was born and died at the age of 83 in this house. It is believed that land next to this house is an old Indian burial ground. The Chase family was asked by the town in 1845 to allow Yarmouth Indians to be buried here.
Continuing on Route 28 past the Thunderbird Motel. Take the right after the Mill Hill Club (not Town Brook Road) where you will see a parking lot for the Baxter Grist Mill.
Baxter Mill
Thomas Baxter and his sons built the water mill in 1710 and as a tribute to them, it still works! His grandaughter and grandson married and inherited the mill. In 1860 the outside wheel was replaced with an internal power turbine because the pond froze in the winter. The mill operated for 200 years until electricity became readily available.
It is open to the public, Mid-June to Labor Day, Thursday to Sunday, 4-7 pm.
Nantucket House
Returning to Route 28, take a left, back the way you came!
After passing the Church on your right you will see a small house now housing the Yarmouth Physical Therapy Service. This house is believed to have been built around 1780 on Nantucket and then floated over to Yarmouth!
Parker's River
Continuing along Route 28 (through 3 sets of lights) you will cross a small river and marshland. You can just imagine the Pawkannawkut Indians fishing and hunting here. Go though another set of lights and bear right onto Old Main Street. Take the first right onto South Street and enter the 1800s!
Judah Baker Windmill
Take a left onto River Street, past open views of Bass River, once very alive with Packet Ships and Schooners. You will come to Judah Baker Windmill (on your right). Built in 1791 in South Dennis it was moved to this location in 1866.
House of Seven Chimneys
This large Greek Revival next to the rotary was actually three houses in one joined together from 1904-08. One of them being floated from Nantucket and rolled up the hill from Bass River! (it has moved again next to the Windmill). In all there were 36 rooms, 72 closets, 8 baths, 17 front doors, 15 open fireplaces and 217 windows!
Rotary
Once a watering trough, it somehow evolved into a rotary (some claim the first in the world). It is not known when it was built but it was at least 1930.
Bear right onto Pleasant Street and enjoy the 18th century homes, some of which were just summer homes.
Captain Isaiah House
Capt. Isaiah Crowell born in 1799 made his fortune early in life as a sea captain. In the 1830s he was a prominent member of the community and state legislature. He had the house built (on your left) in 1829 and he and his wife Abigail lived there until they died in 1872. Since the 1900s it was a boarding house and is now a Bed & Breakfast.
South Yarmouth Methodist Church
Continue to Union Street, take a left and left on Old Main.
This beautiful church stands on your right, very much as it did when built in 1852. Notice the four clocks on the tower so the time could be seen from all directions. The church had two doors until 1891, one for women and one for men. The money to build the church was raised by renting out pews.
211 Old Main Street
Further along Old Main Street you will see a building now known as the Mission House, it stands on land belonging to the last surviving Indians. Amos Baker married a Nantucket girl in 1786 and it is thought by some to have been her house floated across the Sound. The house may have been built prior to 1750.
146 Old Main Street
Continuing along Old Main Street you will come to the Bass River Shoe Repair shop (on your right). Built around 1860 this building has been many things, a grocery, restaurant, carpentry shop and has been recently restored and is now a shoe repair shop. The shop doesn't have any partitions inside and has always been associated with the house next door (number 148).
Getting Back!
Continue along Old Main Street which ends on Route 28.
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