Mashpee Real Estate

Mashpee

Mashpee is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Following King Phillip’s War, the Wampanoag of the mainland were resettled with the Saconnet, or brought, together with the Nauset, into the praying towns in Barnstable County. In Massachusetts, Mashpee, on Cape Cod, was the biggest reservation. Mashpee was settled by English colonists in 1658 with the assistance of the missionary Richard Bourne from the neighboring town of Sandwich. In 1660 the Wampanoag were allotted about 50 square miles there, and beginning in 1665 they governed themselves with a court of law and trials.

In the year 1763 Mashpee was constituted a plantation by the king of England, against the will of the native Wampanoags. The natives were given the right to elect their own officials to maintain order. However, the population of the plantation declined steadily due to the conditions placed upon them. The area governed by the Mashpee tribe was integrated into the district of Mashpee in 1763, but in 1788 the state revoked their ability to self-govern, which it considered a failure. It then appointed a committee to supervise, consisting of five white-only members.

A certain level of self-government was returned to the Indians in 1834, and although the Wampanoag were far from completely autonomous. Wampanoag land was divided up in 1842, with 2,000 acres of their 13,000 acres distributed in 60-acre parcels to each family. Many laws attest to constant problems of encroachments by whites, who stole wood from the reservation. It was a large region, once rich in wood, fish and game, and therefore desirable for the whites. Some had trouble ignoring the constantly growing community of non-whites, and so the Mashpee Indians had more conflicts with their white neighbors than the other Indian settlements in the state. Despite these attempts at self-rule, the Wampanoags lost their land, and Mashpee was incorporated as a town in 1870 the second-to-last town on the Cape to do so (other than Bourne).

Today, the town of Mashpee is known both as a tourist destination and for their Native American culture. Every year, a pow-wow is held, which offers examples of Wampanoag activities and crafts. The town's name is an Anglicization of a native name that can be segmented as "mass-nippe," where mass is "great", or "greater", and nippe is "water." The name has been translated as "the greater cove" or "great pond" or "land near great cove", where the water being referenced is Wakeby Lake, which is greater at one end.

Mashpee is considered to be on the "upper," or western, portion of Cape Cod. It is bound by Sandwich to the north and northwest, Barnstable to the east, Nantucket Sound to the south, and Falmouth to the west. It is approximately sixty-five miles south-southeast of Boston and seventy miles east-southeast of Providence, Rhode Island.

Mashpee is an average-sized town compared to the rest of Barnstable County. Like all towns on the Cape, Mashpee's topography is that of sandy soil, small ponds and inlets, surrounded by the pines and oaks indigenous to the area. The town's shoreline is framed by Waquoit Bay to the west and Popponesset Bay to the east, both spawning several rivers, brooks and small ponds. The town is also the site of South Cape Beach State Park, along Dead Neck and Waquoit Bay, and the Lowell Holly Reservation, comprising the land between Wakeby and Mashpee Ponds.

There are no freeways in the town of Mashpee. It was also the only Cape town not to have a railroad at one time or another in it, though according to 2.5. Rail Transportation, the Massachusetts Military Reservation is said to have railroad track stretching into the town. Major routes include Route 28, Route 130 and Route 151. Route 28, along with U.S. Route 6 to the north, comprise the main east-west routes along the Cape. Route 130's southern terminus lies just outside the town limits in Santuit, a village in Barnstable, and Route 151's eastern terminus is within the town, both ending at Route 28, two and a half miles apart.

There is no rail service in the town. The nearest airports (Cape Cod Airport, an airstrip for small planes, and Barnstable Municipal Airport, the largest airport on the Cape) can be found in neighboring Barnstable. The nearest national and international air service can be reached at Logan International Airport in Boston, or at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, Rhode Island.

The Breeze bus lines also services Mashpee Commons. For a small price, one may travel along the Breeze bus lines which travel from Mashpee and into the towns of Barnstable, Sandwich, Falmouth, Bourne and Yarmouth. Bus lines and routes may be obtained at town hall or the Mashpee Commons.

Mashpee is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a part of both the Third and Fifth Barnstable districts, with the area around Otis being in the third and the southern portion of town being in the fifth. The town is represented in the Massachusetts Senate as a part of the Cape and Islands district, which includes all of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket with the exception of Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich and portions of Barnstable. The town is patrolled by the Seventh (Bourne) Barracks of Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police.

Mashpee is governed by the open town meeting form of government, led by an executive secretary and a board of selectmen. The town operates its own police and fire departments, both of which are headquartered together near Pine Tree Corner. The town's post office and public library are also located nearby, and the library is a member of the Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing (CLAMS) Network, the Southeastern Massachusetts Library System (SEMLS), and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

Mashpee has two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school located in the town. The middle school is located in the same building as the high school, but operates under its own administration and has its own wing strictly for the 7th & 8th grade students.

Kenneth C. Coombs School (K-2)
Quashnet School (3-6)
Mashpee Middle School (7-8)
Mashpee High School (9-12)

Mashpee operates its own school system for the approximately 2,200 students in town. The Kenneth C. Coombs School (Also known as the K. C. Coombs School) is for pre-school to grade 2, the Quashnet School is for grades 3 to 6. Mashpee Middle School is for grades 7 & 8, and Mashpee High School is for grades 9 through 12. Before Mashpee High opened its doors in 1996, students residing in Mashpee attended nearby Falmouth High School. Mashpee's athletics teams are named the Falcons, and their colors are royal blue, white, and black. They compete in the South Shore League in all sports except winter track, which competes in the Eastern Athletic Conference. Mashpee High School's main rivals are Harwich High School, Abington High School and Sandwich High School. From 1999-2003. Mashpee played Sandwich High School in the annual Thanksgiving Football Game rivalry. From 2003-2009, Mashpee played Cape Cod Regional Technical School. In 2009, Mashpee dropped the Thanksgiving rivalry with Cape Cod Tech and has since renewed the Thanksgiving rivalry with Sandwich, effective 2010. Additionally, High school students may attend Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in Harwich free of charge. Students from Mashpee may also attend the two Catholic high schools in the area, Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth, or the newly opened Pope John Paul II High School in Hyannis. There are also two private schools in neighboring Falmouth (Falmouth Academy) and Barnstable (Cape Cod Academy) which students may also attend.

Source: Wikipedia.org

388 Properties Found (limited to 200 results)

« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next »

Mashpee Real Estate

388 Properties Found (limited to 200 results)

Disclaimer:

Quick Search