Mural by Jackie Reeves and Mary-Ann Agresti
CAPTAINS’ ROW
Pleasant Street, while only 800 feet long in the block between Main Street and South Street, encompasses no less than the history of Hyannis. The bottom of the street adjacent to the harbor was an original settlement of Iyannough, the Native American sachem who gave Hyannis its name, he said. Also on that end of the street beginning in 1666, a Quaker named Nicholas Davis was considered the first European settler of Hyannis, having been granted lands by the Native Americans who lived here. He raised oysters in Lewis Bay.
On the other end of the street, near Bradford’s, was the home of Alexander Baxter, a daring sea captain who broke the British blockade during the War of 1812 who later became a banker who was considered the “father” of Hyannis. Eleven of the 14 properties on the street date possibly back to the 1740s and up to the 1890s.
MURAL AT BRADFORDS
When is a mural not just a mural? When it revitalizes a neighborhood.
That is the goal of architect, educator and artist Mary-Ann Agresti of Yarmouthport, who along with artist Jackie Reeves of Sandwich, is painting a mural to be installed this week on the wall of Bradford’s Hardware on the corner of Pleasant Street and Main Street in Hyannis. The mural, nine panels stretching 24 feet long and 12 feet high with colors of blues, greens, yellow and sepia tones, has images hearkening back to the 1850s, depicting Hyannis’s illustrious past as a bustling seaport. Agresti used historic photos from the Hyannis Public Library to find images of Hyannis and people from the era to use in the mural. . . .
(Credit: CapeCodWave.com Read more
1884 Hyannis Map, Boston Public Library Collection - click to enlarge
A fun 1926 Map of Cape Cod created by Mélanie Elizabeth Leonard (1868-1933).
The elegant sea monster stretches from Sandwich to Provincetown. Zoom in to see some peculiar action aimed at a boot legger off of Town Neck.
(image via DigitalCommonwealth in the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library)
Click map to enlarge it.
