What It's Like To Live on Cape Cod

Get to know this sunny peninsula, made up of charming towns and a picturesque backdrop.

By Chuck Ross | Published: 2/10/2011

It's typical to find Cape Cod homes that have been passed down from generation to generation. Photo courtesy of Chuck Ross

A short lesson on a long history. Cape Cod's unique geography is key to its appeal. The 70-mile long peninsula -- 20 miles wide at its base and less than a mile wide at its very tip in Provincetown -- was formed by the retreat of glaciers at the end of the last ice age. Originally settled by natives of the Wampanoag nation, Cape Cod's first European residents were second-generation Pilgrims (in fact, Cape Codders are proud to point out that Provincetown, not Plymouth, was the first New World landing point for those English ex-pats). Many descendants of those "old comers" still call the area home, and most here cherish that long history and the sense of seclusion created by the need to cross a bridge to reach the rest of the world.

"There's a certain level of identity that's historically very strong on the Cape -- something very rooted in a region or a place," says Paul Schlansky, who moved to the town of Harwich with his wife, Marilyn, from the Hudson River Valley, in 2008. "There aren't many places in the U.S. where people have been there for 400 years."

The earliest European settlers made their livings as farmers and fishermen. Some became wealthy owning and captaining international shipping vessels. The homes of these 17th, 18th and 19th century residents, both modest and grand, set the tone for architecture throughout the Cape and comprise a nationally recognized historical resource. The Old King's Highway National Historic District is the nation's largest, stretching along Route 6A through five towns on the north side of the Cape.

"It's sort of a window on another time," says Doug Payson, a local realtor whose family has owned a home in Barnstable since 1969. "This is one of the few places that have stuck to that -- that sense of place."

Today tourism is the area's primary industry. As anyone who's spent time on Cape Cod knows, the peninsula -- essentially a 70-mile-long barrier beach -- features amazing access to water, from the tidal flats of Cape Cod Bay, to the warmer waters of Buzzard's Bay and the Nantucket Sound, to the protected ocean vistas of the Cape Cod National Seashore. And, scattered throughout, you'll find innumerable kettle ponds, freshwater jewels left behind millennia ago as parting gifts from the retreating glaciers.

As a year-rounder, you also can tap into a deep artistic community that's been inspired by both the natural beauty and the sense of remove. What's it like living here? Well, read on to learn more.

Getting Around >>
Owning a Home >>
Finding Fun >>
Tallying the Cost of Living >>

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