FALMOUTH – All that remains of the Old Stone Dock, once the town’s center of commerce, are two rows of boulders that form jetties at Surf Drive Beach. But memories of the dock and the town’s early years have been passed down through the generations and are celebrated by one of the town’s most active neighborhood associations.
Kevin M. Doyle is proud to say that the Old Stone Dock Association, of which he is president, has more members than any other similar association in the town of Falmouth. And that is no surprise to him.
Barbara Weyand and Kevin Doyle take a break at Coffee Obsession with the Falmouth Preservation Alliance’s new Heritage Map of Falmouth Village.
“This was the original settlement,” he said of the area in and around Main Street, Shore Street, Surf Drive, Mill Road and Locust Street.
Doyle likes to point out that not all the 250 households that are members in the association even live in the area.
“They come from all over town—anyone interested in preserving what we have,” Doyle said. Concern about preservation of the town’s history and historic buildings has invigorated residents throughout town, even leading to the formation in recent years of an active group, the Falmouth Preservation Alliance.
Barbara Weyand, the president and a founding member of the Alliance, said, the center of town where the Old Stone Dock Association is located is bigger than the borders of certain streets downtown. “It’s a state of mind. There’s a strong sense of identity around the value of the area,” she said.
With an advisory committee that includes members of the Falmouth Preservation Alliance and Historic Districts Commission, the Falmouth Economic Development and Industrial Corporation (EDIC) is restoring the former train station, now the bus depot, to its original appearance of the 1913 building.
The preservation spirit has taken hold in Falmouth and leaders in the movement are seeking to preserve what is left of the town’s historic identity. A major project to restore the old train station on Depot Avenue is front and center for the group now but so is an intense focus on the town’s historic core.
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