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Brewster MA |
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A country store, several fine churches, and a Town Hall make it look like many other pleasant Cape towns, but Brewster's different in the number of noteworthy museums and exhibitions situated in the town or nearby. |
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Brewster is another of the picturesque little towns along MA 6A facing Cape Cod Bay. Brewster is proud of its Old Grist Mill and Herring Run at the Stony Brook Mill Sites, on Stony Brook Road near the intersection with Satucket and Run Hill roads. The 19th-century mill is now part of a park owned by the town of Brewster. The waterwheel, still in good working order, powers the grinding machinery inside the mill. You can watch the whole process at work, and buy freshly ground cornmeal, from 2 to 5 pm on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday afternoons in July and August. Upstairs there's a small museum with artifacts from the "Factory Village" which occupied this site over 100 years ago. Wander around the millpond, certainly one of the most romantic and picturesque locales on all of Cape Cod. If your visit falls during mid-April to early May, watch for the run of alewives (herring) which surges upstream from the ocean to freshwater spawning grounds. Zooquarium Cape Cod, 674 Route 28, West Yarmouth, (tel 508-775-8883). It features otters, sea lions, horseshoe crabs, loggerhead turtles, and any number of different fish; a petting zoo, a touch-me tidal pool, and a zoo for land animals as well. Seals and sea lions perform every day. The New England Fire and History Museum, 1439 Main St (MA 6A, tel 508-896-5711), one miles west of the center of Brewster, has one of the world's largest and most varied collections of early firefighting equipment (35 engines) and memorabilia, plus gardens both herbaceous and ceremonial, and a picnic area. Firefighting paraphernalia dates as far back as the 18th century and includes the world's only known 1929 Mercedes-Benz fire truck. Other exhibits include the Arthur Fiedler memorabilia collection, a historic apothecary, and a blacksmith shop. Guided tours are given; related movies are shown. Those interested in Cape Cod's flora, fauna, and ecology will want to visit the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, 869 Route 6A (tel 508-896-3867). The museum organization was founded in 1954 to preserve the wildlife and plant life in the area around Stony Brook and its marshes, to study this land, and to teach others about it. Nature walks, a lecture program, and children's classes are held year round. In summer museum naturalists lead trips to Monomoy Island to observe birds and wildlife. |
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