What is it like to live in Brewster?
The town is full of natural beauty and historic treasures. While it fronts only Cape Cod Bay, the beaches draw mostly locals and are rarely overcrowded, even at the height of summer.
Sally Cabot Gunning, 65, got her feet wet by writing mass-market mysteries like “Dirty Water,’’ “Hot Water,’’ and “Deep Water,’’ then she moved from Providence to Cape Cod and became fascinated with the area’s rich history and her own family roots here.
The move prompted a change in genres.
Gunning, who started writing when she was 6, first worked for a local doctor to pay the bills. The office was closed one day a week, so she deemed that her time to write. Inspired by her surroundings, the author of 10 mysteries switched to historical fiction and wrote “The Widow’s War,’’ “Bound,’’ and “The Rebellion of Jane Clarke.’’ All are set in Satucket, the native American name for an area in and around Brewster. She then dared to explore off-Cape settings and characters, penning “Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard.’’ Her latest book, “Monticello,’’ about Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his daughter, Martha, is due out in September.
Gunning has lived in her grandparents’ old summer house, built in 1931 on land purchased for $600 a acre, since the late 1970s. It’s only 100 yards from Cape Cod Bay. It doesn’t offer a lot of square footage for Gunning and her husband, a school social worker, but that doesn’t stop them from receiving several summer visitors, who stay in their guest house.
Brewster is known as the “Sea Captains Town.’’ The Brewster Historical Society, for which Gunning serves as vice president, has relocated to a former sea captain’s home on Lower Road, the Elijah Cobb House, which was built in 1799. One of the town tours the society runs is based on “The Widow’s War.’’
Gunning said she’s glad she’s lived most of her adult life in Brewster.
“It’s why I became a historical writer, and it’s been inspiring me ever since.’’
Author Sally Cabot Gunning of Brewster
BY THE NUMBERS
50
The number of clipper-ship captains who lived in town at one point in 1850
95
The number of years the Animal Rescue League of Boston has served Cape Cod. Its Brewster location is equipped with a stable and paddock.
1,900 & 835
number of acres at Nickerson State Park and Punkhorn Parklands, an area the town took by eminent domain in the 1980s. Nickerson offers hiking, swimming, canoeing, more than 400 campsites, and nearly 8 miles of biking trails. Punkhorn has many hiking trails, too.
$575,000
What the Brewster Historical Society paid for the Elijah Cobb House in 2015. It is costing the organization $365,000 to restore and renovate it into a museum.
PRO & CON
Pro
The town is full of natural beauty and historic treasures. While it fronts only Cape Cod Bay, the beaches — from Paine’s Creek to Crosby Landing — draw mostly locals and are rarely overcrowded, even at the height of summer. The Cape Cod Museum of Natural History is a perfect place to learn about the different ecosystems in the area.
Con
Because there is no concentrated downtown, it is difficult to get anywhere without frequent car trips. For people like Gunning, this can be unfortunate in a bad winter, when the power goes out a lot, or a good summer, when tourists jam the town’s main thoroughfare, Route 6A.
Reservations are required to walk inside the inflatable 44-foot humpback whale at the Cape Cod Natural History Museum.
Scott Lajoie is a freelance writer on the Cape. He can be reached at [email protected]
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