Ask any child to draw a house, and what you will probably get is a symmetrical structure of one and a half stories with a door in the middle and a window on either side - in other words, a "Cape." From the mid-1600s to the 1850s, capes were the standard New England home, providing farmers and fishermen, city dwellers and country folk with houses that were easy to build, economical, and whose low-slung design stood up to the bracing winds that swept in from the ocean. After World War II, these straightforward practical designs were adapted to twentieth-century living. Here is the history of these charming homes, accompanied by detailed and elegant pencil drawings illuminating everything from the wallpapers to the floor plans.

The Cape Cod cottage has been one of America's most popular home styles for almost four hundred years. While a perennial domestic favorite, historians have long ignored the modest Cape Cod, relegating it to a vernacular footnote along with barns and mills. In The Cape Cod Cottage architectural historian and photographer William Morgan places this uniquely American housea remarkable combination of necessity and traditionin its historical context and makes a compellingargument for the reassessment of its place in the history of American architecture. The Cape Cod Cottage follows the uniquely American house type from its earliest beginnings in the colonial period, through its spread across New England, to its embrace as a suburban ideal in the twentieth century, and its reinterpretation by contemporary architects. Historical images oflost Capes augment beautiful new photographs taken specifically for the book. As a tribute to a special house, The Cape Cod Cottage is an appeal to preserve the Cape's legacy and an essential document of this unique architectural icon.

Introduction -- Sixteenth-century England -- Early seventeenth century -- Late seventeenth century -- Characteristics of the Cape Cod house -- Historic homes -- Other Cape Cod towns with historic Cape Cod homes -- Conclusion

From Agatha-awarding winning author Maddie Day comes the latest novel in her Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery series set in a picturesque Cape Cod town, where resourceful bike-shop owner Mackenzie “Mac” Almeida” tackles a cold case with the help of her fellow book club sleuths—a treat for fans of fresh, clever, cozy mysteries and those who love Lorna Barrett’s Booktown series. ʼTis the day after Christmas, following a wicked-busy time of year for Mac’s bike shop. It’s just as well her Cozy Capers Book Group’s new pick is a nerve-soothing coloring book mystery, especially when she has last-minute wedding planning to do. But all pre-wedding jitters fade into the background when Mac and her fiancé, Tim, begin a cottage renovation project and open up a wall to find a skeleton—sitting on a stool, dressed in an old-fashioned bridal gown . . . As Mac delves into the decades-old mystery with the help of librarian Flo and her book group, she discovers a story of star-crossed lovers and feuding families worthy of the bard himself. Yet this tale has a modern-day villain still lurking in Mac’s quaint seaside town, ready to make this a murderous New Year’s Eve . . . Includes Recipes!

The classic nature memoir of Cape Cod in the early twentieth century, “written with simplicity, sympathy, and beauty” (New York Herald Tribune). When Henry Beston returned home from World War I, he sought refuge and healing at a house on the outer beach of Cape Cod. He was so taken by the natural beauty of his surroundings that his two-week stay extended into a yearlong solitary adventure. He spent his time trying to capture in words the wonders of the magical landscape he found himself in thrall to. In The Outermost House, Beston chronicles his experiences observing the migrations of seabirds, the rhythms of the tide, the windblown dunes, and the scatter of stars in the changing summer sky. Beston argued: “The world today is sick to its thin blood for the lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot.” Nearly a century after publication, Beston’s words are more true than ever.

In the summer of 1937, Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, rented a house on Planting Island, near the base of Cape Cod. Thus began a chapter in the history of modern architecture that has never been told _until now. The area was a hotbed of intellectual currents from New York, Boston, Cambridge and the country's top schools of architecture and design. Avant-garde homes began to appear in the woods and on the dunes; by the 1970s, there were about 100 modern houses of interest here.

Thirteen exquisite houses create a portrait of life in one of America’s most exclusive coastal destinations, along the beaches of Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod. Hutker Architects, led by founding principal Mark A. Hutker, has designed more than three hundred houses along the New England shore. A member of the close community on Martha’s Vineyard since his arrival in 1985, Hutker has become an expert at interpreting the ideal lifestyles of his clients within the respected traditions and restrictive codes of the beautiful but fragile environment. In their design and construction, these houses honor the vernacular traditions of craft and indigenous materials, are deeply respectful of the cherished landscape, and demonstrate a lively range of solutions to building on the bluffs and dunes that line the shores of the Vineyard and Cape Cod. A working organic farm fulfills a family’s dream of simpler values; a luxurious renovation saves the best of an antique shingle cottage while transforming it for contemporary family life and a raised structure clad in naturally weathered boards combines the legacy of midcentury regional modern architecture with Cape Cod’s maritime tradition. The firm is committed to the principle “Build once, well,” looking to the historic architecture of the region and the inherited experience of its carpenters and craftspeople as inspiration for contemporary design. The result is an architecture that is at once adaptable and livable, yet enduring, efficient, inevitable, and appropriate. The houses sit lightly on the land, deferring to their surroundings, often built as a series of modest pavilions linked by passages or grouped to enclose an outdoor space. Creative design solutions—a light-filled gallery running the full length of a house, a continuous wall of sliding glass doors—make houses both open to views, but protective in a storm. Specially commissioned photography captures the craftsmanship and the settings of the houses, from dramatic bluffs overlooking the sea to secluded coves and rolling meadows filled with wildflowers, creating a unique portrait of Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.