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

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.

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.

Faced with the sale of the century-old family summer house on Cape Cod where he had spent forty-two summers, George Howe Colt recounts returning for one last stay with his wife and children in this stunning memoir that was a National Book Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. This poignant tribute to the eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, and dormers that watched over weddings, divorces, deaths, anniversaries, birthdays, breakdowns, and love affairs for five generations interweaves Colt’s final visit with memories of a lifetime of summers. Run-down yet romantic, The Big House stands not only as a cherished reminder of summer’s ephemeral pleasures but also as a powerful symbol of a vanishing way of life.

"The work of Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders reflects the special qualities of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket." "Architecture of the Cape God Summer presents more than ten years of evocative design and well-crafted construction that is rooted in this tabled place. In an architectural world increasingly polarized between strict revivalist classicism and "avant-grade" abstraction, the work of Polhemus Savery DaSilva displays a compelling third way." "The book features twenty-five projects that range from modest to elaborate. Each is an individual creation tailored to its specific location and client. Several additional projects are depicted in a chronology of the firm's major work. Drawings by the firm and more that four hundred color photography by leading architectural photographers illustrate this sixth volume of the New Classicists series."--BOOK JACKET.

Long recognized as a classic of American nature writing. This chronicle of a solitary year spent on a Cape Cod beach was written in longhand at the kitchen table, in a little room overlooking the North Atlantic and the dunes. In 1964, the Cape Cod house was officially proclaimed a National Literary Landmark. In 1978, a massive winter storm swept it off its foundation and out to sea.

Nancy Caldwell relocates to an old sea captain's house on Cape Cod with her husband and four children. When she discovers an abandoned root cellar in her backyard containing a baby's skull and gold coins, she digs up evidence that links her land to the legendary tale of Maria Hallett and her pirate lover, Sam Bellamy. Using alternating chapters between the 18th and 21st centuries, The Old Cape House, a historical fiction, follows two women that are lifetimes apart, to uncover a mystery that has had the old salts of Cape Cod guessing for 300 years.