How Falmouth Inner Harbor Came to Be

If you've ever spent time on Falmouth Inner Harbor, you know that it sits just off Main Street in the downtown area, and is close to numerous restaurants and shops. 

You also understand that the harbor gets a fair amount of marine traffic thanks to the presence of marinas like Falmouth Marine, MacDougalls' Cape Cod Marine Service, Pier 37, and North Marine.

You might even have seen the Island Queen ferry service operate from the harbor with its daily sailings to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard.

But did you know that this harbor isn't natural?

When you think about it, the fact that Falmouth Inner Harbor is humanmade shouldn't be a surprise, as it's quite narrow and almost in too perfect of a location to occur naturally.

The story goes back to 1906 when Falmouth's rapidly increasing population and deterioration of the Old Stone Dock led officials to search for an unusual solution that helped shape what Falmouth has become today.

A Harbor Was Necessary

Until the completion of the Falmouth Inner Harbor in 1907, the area didn't have much development. At that time, the harbor was called Deacon's Pond and separated from the ocean by the Clinton Avenue Causeway.

By 1906, it was clear that the town had to do something because residents and visitors were finding it difficult to get onto the water. Many other locations around Cape Cod have natural harbors and provide an advantage over Falmouth, so officials eventually decided during a town meeting that the town would explore the idea of extending Deacon's Pond to the ocean to create a harbor.

While the engineering of such a project would be complicated, the town hired George Washington Goethals, who was later involved in the construction of the Panama Canal, to handle the job.

The idea was to dredge the pond to a level of six feet during low tide and make stone jetties into Vineyard Sound that would create an entrance through the causeway.

While the plan seemed like it would work, there were some obstacles along the way that made the job much more challenging than initially thought.

Objections to the Harbor

With the creation of the harbor being such a significant undertaking, it's natural that there would be some objections throughout the process.

For some, the location of the harbor was a sticking point, as members of the local harbor committee wanted it built further west near the current site of Surf Drive Beach.

In addition, residents of Falmouth Heights, which sits on the eastern shore of Falmouth Inner Harbor, complained that removing the causeway would make it far more difficult for them to get to Falmouth. There was some truth to this objection, as there weren't many roads through the area, and taking the causeway out did make the rest of Falmouth hard to access.

None of these objections were good enough reasons to delay the project, however, and work began in 1907.

Construction Problems

Since the creation of the Falmouth Inner Harbor was such a major job, it makes sense that there were some setbacks along the way.

Over the first few months, the dredge broke down, and the project lost its entire coal supply when the pier that was holding it collapsed.

There were also some legal issues to contend with because seasonal resident Horace S. Crowell filed a petition asking for the creation of a new town that was separate from Falmouth. This new town would have encompassed the main road connecting Falmouth and Bourne while eliminating a sizable portion of the population from the town's tax base. The courts ultimately rejected the petition, however, and the first boat passed through the causeway on September 12, 1907.

Falmouth Inner Harbor Today

When you head to Falmouth Inner Harbor today, you'll see that it's the epicenter of local activity in the summer and a great place to wander for a few hours.

Since the harbor now has a low-tide depth of ten feet, it can accommodate large yachts, and many residents love sitting in Falmouth Marine Park and watching the massive ships float from the docks out to Vineyard Sound.

You'll find shopping just north of the harbor at Falmouth Plaza, and there are restaurants at the various marinas and along Main Street if you get hungry.

Falmouth Inner Harbor is also just a short journey from Surf Drive Beach and Bristol Beach, making it the ideal place to stop before or after your day on the sand.

And, of course, if you buy a home in Falmouth and have a boat, there's no more convenient place to store it than one of the marinas in Falmouth Inner Harbor.

The history of Falmouth Inner Harbor might be a little rocky, but its presence definitely makes modern-day Falmouth a better place to live.