Cotuit Historical Society

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Black, white, dark blue striped header image with the text Cotuit Historical Society

In August 2024, I went on a five-day trip to Cape Cod, MA where I visited many museums and cultural organizations, along with quick history stops and trails. My fourth stop was Cotuit Historical Society, which has the full name of Historical Society of Santuit & Cotuit (HSSC). These are two village of Barnstable, MA. The society opened in 1955, and its museum currently consists of three buildings: newly built Cotuit Museum, Dottridge Homestead, and Rothwell Ice House.

A shingle sided house with red painted trim surrounded by trees A white wooden sign with black letters A tiny shingle sided building with red trim

Visitors must first stop at Cotuit Museum, which serves as the visitor center, gift shop, and gallery space. My favorite item on display in this area was the 1916 Ford Model T Fire Truck. With its claim to fame as the first mechanized fire truck on Cape Cod, the vehicle was truly just a Model T painted red with a few bonus features, like firefighter lanterns and water tanks. The vehicle was six years older than the 1922 Ford Model T Howe Pumper that I had seen the day before at Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, MA. Other interesting items in this area included a boat, a doctor’s office, a penny-farthing bicycle, cranberry harvesting tools, and a Graphophone for playing music.

A recently constructed shingle sided building with two distinct sections shaped like garages with red wooden doors and matching red trim Small red brick fireplace with blue painted mantel near a table and chairs Blue painted hutch with reproduction stenciling holding earthenware

Dottridge Homestead is directly next to the museum. The home is named after the Dottridge family. Patriarch Samuel Dottridge moved to the United States as an indentured apprentice by 1804, when he was eighteen years old. He learned carpentry from John Baker of Brewster, a village in Barnstable. According to Find a Grave, the only matching John Baker was a mere six years older than Samuel Dottridge. If this were true, I imagine the pair found plenty of ways to have a good time, although Baker banned Dottridge from frequenting local pubs. At age 21 in 1808, the apprenticeship ended, and Dottridge immediately married a woman who was ten years his senior, who was either Abigail Kelley Chase according to the historical society website, or Abigail Kilby Chase according to Find a Grave. In either case, she is not to be confused with the 19th century human rights activist Abby Kelley Foster.

Red painted vintage fire truck Firefighter lanterns on the side of a 1916 Ford Model T Fire Truck Sign reads "V.H. Nickerson & Co. Plumbing & Heating, Myers & Burks Pumps, Victor Well Points"

When the Dottridge family decided to move from Harwich further east down the Cape to the village of Cotuit, they literally moved their three-room house, the original structure of the Dottridge homestead. Being a carpenter, Samuel added another two rooms after the move. The Dottridge descendants lived in the house until 1958, when Nita Crawford collaborated with restorationists to turn the building back into a 19th century house and then gifted it to the historical society.

Sign reading in part "Ice McHenry Ice Co. General Hauling" with the numbers 25, 50, 75, 100 around the side Vintage bike with a big front wheel and small back wheel Boat in the Center of a Small Museum Room

Dottridge Homestead was a fairly standard 19th century historic house tour with an added bonus: visitors could use a binder with photographs and description of most objects to learn exactly what they wanted to know. This was significantly more organized than I had seen at other house tours, and I was impressed by the forethought. Standard items in the house included a spinning wheel, tiny piano or spinnet, oil portraits of ancestors, red brick fireplaces with carved mantels, rope beds with quilts for “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite”, reproduction stenciling on the floors, embroidered samplers hung on the walls, butter molds, and a little metal bathtub.

Wooden Box Reading "Crowell Cranberry Company 1947" A wooden box on stilts with a wooden sieve on top A wooden box labeled "Graphophone" with a metal slot on top for placing a cylinder. A crank on the right turns the cylinder to produce sound. On top of the box is a large metal horn.

Also on the property was a small ice house. This was a quick stop as I made my way out. The unfurnished building had a few signs about the history of ice harvesting in New England, with favorite ponds in Cotuit including Lewis Pond, Eagle Pond, and No-Bottom Pond, which definitely did have a bottom. The most interesting fact I learned was that ice blocks weighed between a hundred and five hundred pounds, much larger than I expected. The building also featured an ice customer sign from McHenry Ice Company. The number of top indicated the amount of ice in pounds that the customer wanted to buy that day.

Pair of Dottridge Family Portraits Hung on the Wall above a Spinnet Spinet or Tiny Piano Rope Bed with Quilt

Cotuit Historical Society had everything I look for in a local museum. The buildings were well-maintained, the history was thoroughly researched, and the guide was knowledgeable. The gift shop had a wide range of Cotuit and Cape Cod themed items, although these were all at a higher price point than seemed viable for a museum of its type. the museum is open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Memorial Day through Christmas, which is a wider range than most museums of its type. Like most old house museums, it is not fully accessible for those using a wheelchair.

A red brick fireplace embedded into a yellow painted wall with an oil painting of a ship above the mantel A red brick fireplace surrounded by yellow painted wooden panel. Hung above the mantel is a massive family tree Metal Bathtub and Washstand with Matching Basin and Pitcher Set

Unfortunately, the customer service aspect left something to be desired. The person at the front desk explicitly stated that she did not want people visiting and told another person not to put out the open flags. She then complained that people never visited the museum, even though I was in the gallery. I did not feel welcome at this museum. Because of this experience, I cannot recommend visiting Cotuit Historical Society despite its many strengths. Other small museums in the area share similar histories and are more than happy to welcome you.

Little Baby Spinning Wheel Butter Mold of Two Horse Drawn Stagecoaches Alphabet Sampler by Hannah B. Childs

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 4/10

Accessibility: 6/10



Location: Cotuit, Barnstable, MA 02635, USA