For the first hundred years after settlers moved to Cape Cod, land travel was so difficult that few attempted to travel distances by roads. Cape Cod’s first highways were actually the sea lanes to Plymouth and Boston.  In 1704 Massachusetts resident Sarah Kemble Knight journeyed from Boston to New York by horseback, a feat that she wrote about because it was so unusual and hazardous.

Yarmouth’s first roads followed existing Indigenous paths, including what is now Route 6A. As soon as a meetinghouse was built, most roads in the town headed toward it, as it was mandatory to attend church each Sunday. Yarmouth’s first church was located in Ancient Cemetery on Center Street in Yarmouth Port. A large boulder there marks the spot. People from the other side of Bass River and Chase Garden Creek had a long distance to travel, eventually resulting in separate churches being organized in East Dennis and West Yarmouth.

Those coming to church or meetings from Hockanom (an area north of 6A) built a bridge across White’s Brook. The pilings of that bridge still remain behind Lookout Road and can be seen by canoe at very low tide. The Brays, Taylors, Hulls, and others living in Hockanom used the bridge rather than the longer journey south around the end of White’s Brook near 6A. 

Early roads had no names but granite “milestones” were erected in the 1700s in some locations with distances to Barnstable or Boston (more about those another day). Boston began naming roads shortly after the 18th century out of necessity - visitors and sailors needed to find their way around, but rural towns didn’t follow that trend until after the American Revolution. Yarmouth’s first map, drawn in 1795 for the state, shows only ten roads within the town, and those are identified with descriptions about the reason for the road rather than names. Today’s West Yarmouth Road was known in 1795 as the Road from Meetinghouse to Meetinghouse (from the church at the Yarmouth Port Common in the north to the church near the West Yarmouth cemetery). Other roads included the Road to Kelley’s Rope Works (Station Ave), Hyannis Road, and Barnstable Road.

By the time Yarmouth’s second official map was drawn in 1830, more roads existed in the town. They weren’t identified by name on the map, because the state didn’t require it. We do know that roads had names before the Civil War, as the 1858 Wallings Map of Barnstable County shows many named roads in town.

During the 1840s Yarmouth voted to plant elm trees along Main Street in Yarmouth Port and the saplings were brought by oxcart down from Middleboro, lined up by eye and planted. They grew to create an arboreal tunnel overhead by 1900.

Three Willow Streets in Yarmouth clearly point out the fact that 19th century Yarmouth was really a grouping of separate villages. One Willow Street starts in Yarmouth Port heading to Hyannis; another is in South Yarmouth heading towards Bass River; the third over off Bayview Road in West Yarmouth. It was not unusual for this happen in towns, yet apparently it caused little to no confusion.

The arrival of the bicycle as a means of transportation in the 1880s led to improving roads. A Scotsman named MacAdam created hard surfaced roads by oiling them and then spreading sand on the oil, giving them a solid surface. However, the coming of the automobile to Cape Cod was the real impetus for change. South Yarmouth’s Charles Henry Davis Jr. was one of the first to recognize this possibility. Prior to World War I he founded the National Highway Association with the slogan “Good Roads Everywhere” in an attempt to improve roads and to have maps and information available for the traveler. It is said that the rotary on River Street in South Yarmouth, just beyond his house, was the first rotary in the United States.

At first, many highways were identified by a name rather than a number. Route 6A was named by the General Court of Massachusetts in 1920 “The King’s Highway.” Markers were placed all along the road, though some Cape Codders objected because they thought it unpatriotic.

In 1922, fed up with the confusing combination of names and colored bands painted on telephone poles, the New England states got together and decided to number highways. Numbers below 100 were saved for roads passing through more than one state; above 100 were within a single state only. The Cape’s Route 6 originally ran from Orleans to Colebrook, NH; Route 28 ran from Sagamore to Manchester, NH and Route 3 ran from Provincetown to Providence, RI. The other state highways on Cape Cod, being local roads, all had numbers above 100.

The Route 28 “bypass” in South Yarmouth was built in 1933 and connected to Bridge Street. Prior to that, all traffic went down Old Main Street as no other road existed and what we now call “Four Corners” was then Three Corners. The Bass River Bridge you see now was also built at the same time.

Our roads underwent major changes after World War II. The biggest change was the creation of a new Route 6, a one lane road each way from the canal as far as Barnstable. It was completed in 1950 and the next year extended one lane each way as far as Dennis. In 1959, it was continued to the Orleans rotary.

Two lanes each way proved much safer and the capacity was needed, so Route 6 was expanded from Barnstable to Yarmouth in 1967 and to Dennis in 1971.

Now, with our roads at capacity much of the year, it’s hard to imagine quieter days when a horse and buggy, or someone on foot, meandered down Old King’s Highway to the general store on an errand, or to visit a friend.

Researched and written by Duncan Oliver.