Cataumet is a seaside neighborhood within Bourne, a town split by the Cape Cod Canal between the Cape and the mainland.
As dilapitated as Bourne is on the mainland side, the Cape side has some magnificent homes, including a renovated 22-bedroom summer house that used to be a hotel called the Alden House.
Yesterday, a number of people opened their homes for a tour celebrating the area’s Victorian past (the theme was “Then and Now”).
For example, next to the former Alden House, there are still working train tracks, the same ones that carried passenger cars from Boston to the Cape.
The tracks are still used, but only by the daily trash train that hauls solid waste from Yarmouth and Falmouth to the SEMASS Resource Recovery Facility in Rochester, MA.
Having its “stick house” origins over 100 years ago, Cataumet is a close-knit community, many of whose current residents vacationed there as kids, “made a good living” as one of the guides put it, and came back to purchase and restore some of the beautiful old homes.
Having reconciled myself to semi-Bohemian material (but not necessarily spiritual) poverty, I love house tours, figuring that’s the only way in this incarnation I’ll experience, even for a little while, the lifestyles of the (very) wealthy.
Quite honestly, it amazes me that these homeowners allow the hoi polloi access to their residences, and obviously, their wish to support a good cause overrides their concerns about security.
That aside, I’ve visited a number of neighborhoods throughout the years (Falmouth, Orleans, Sagamore, Pacific Heights in SF), and find Cataumet to be among the most welcoming.
It would be impossible for me to describe all the homes, or all the impressions, from the tour: the acres (seven) of landscaped grounds on one property, the views of Red Brook Harbor from the second floor deck of another, the amount of work it must have taken to remove horsehair ceilings, refinish wood flowers, replace walls, put in modern kitchens.
I could relate a little, having done a partial restoration of a small cottage in Marshfield that included new ceilings, ripping up old tile and carpet, installing new windows, etc.
I hear that Mashpee will be putting a moratorium on home additions in the near future, so even if I had the coin, doing a big project here soon will be impossible.
Even so, I come away from these tours with an appreciation for what paint, imagination and a strong aesthetic can accomplish.
To be honest, I also enjoy being in the company of people who are mostly WASPs, especially if they are of the friendly variety. I come from Scottish/English stock, so fit in unobtrusively with other fair-haired, blue-eyed folks, not my usual circle, and somehow, I feel at home and at peace.
One of the nice little bonuses of the day was something everyone could enjoy, regardless of status: the complimentary refreshments in the Cataumet Schoolhouse, the focus of the fund-raiser.
The committee put out a civilized, abundant ladies-type buffet, including a treat, cream cheese and olive sandwiches on trimmed wheat bread, cut into dainty quarters.
All in all, it was a most pleasant alternative to the afternoon of rain and wind we’d expected, well worth the time and the modest donation.