Historic Beech Tree
behind 599 / 605 Main Street, Hyannis
About
Historic Beech Tree, behind 599 / 605 Main Street, Hyannis (Almost to the end of the one-way Main Street on the left hand side just beyond the Mass Bay store). The Historic English Weeping Beech tree is a HUGE weeping beech. As legend and lore based on historic events have it, the tree was gifted to the town of Barnstable in 1776 by the British Governor of the area "to be planted in the center of commerce" (Hyannis) as a reward for loyalty to the Crown. It seems that the seeds of the Revolution were sown by a Barnstable patriot named James Otis - whose statue is on the grounds of the Barnstable Court House. Within a year, he was attacked by British Revenue Officers and sustained a major head wound. Whether this fear tactic worked or not is unknown, but Barnstable, in 1776, was the only town on Cape Cod that did not vote for independence from the Crown.
