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The villages of Dennis include
Dennisport-02639, East Dennis-02641,
South Dennis-02660, and West Dennis-02670. |
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History
Dennis was first settled in
1639, by Thomas Howes, as part of
the town of Yarmouth. The town
officially separated and incorporated in
1793. It was named after resident
minister, Josiah Dennis. There was not
enough land for farming, so seafaring
became the town's major industry in its
early history, centered around the
Shiverick Shipyard. Like much of the
Cape, the town was home to many sea
captains, and the town was also
eventually involved with whaling.
Currently, Dennis is a popular seaside
resort town, notable for its stately
colonial mansions along the northern
Cape Cod Bay coastline, and its
picturesque, warm water beaches along
the southern
Nantucket Sound.
[1]
The Cape Playhouse, in northern Dennis,
is the oldest summer theatre in the
United States, and among the most
well-known. The actress
Bette Davis was 'discovered' there
while working there as an usher. Other
famous Dennis residents include the
author
Mary Higgins Clark, and actress
Amy Jo Johnson, who grew up in
Dennis.
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Geography and Transportation
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the
town has a total area of 57.6
km˛ (22.2
mi˛). 53.4 km˛ (20.6 mi˛) of it is
land and 4.2 km˛ (1.6 mi˛) of it (7.38%)
is water.
Dennis spans the width of
Cape Cod, with
Cape Cod Bay to the north,
Brewster to the northeast,
Harwich to the southeast,
Nantucket Sound to the south, and
Yarmouth to the west. The town is
about ten miles east of
Barnstable, twenty-four miles east
of the
Sagamore Bridge, and seventy-eight
miles southeast of
Boston. Dennis's villages include
Dennis Port, East Dennis, New Boston,
South Dennis and West Dennis.
The town lies on the eastern banks of
the Bass River, which nearly divides the
cape in half. There are several small
ponds and lakes in town, as well as
Shiverick Harbor to the north and West
Dennis Harbor to the south. Both the
north and south shores have many
beaches, as well as the Dennis Yacht
Club in the north and West Dennis Yacht
Club in the south.
Dennis is crossed from east to west by
Cape Cod's three main routes,
U.S. Route 6,
Route 6A and
Route 28, as well as
Route 134, which crosses the town
from Route 28 to Route 6A. East of the
Route 134 exit, Route 6 (also known as
the Mid-Cape Highway) downgrades from a
four lane divided highway to a two lane
highway, divided only by markers.
The Cape's Bay Colony Rail officially
ends in the town. The ending point is
also the starting point of the
Cape Cod Rail Trail, a bicycle trail
which runs "down" the Cape to
Wellfleet along the former
right-of-way of the rail. There are also
several other bicycle trails in town.
The nearest regional air service can be
reached at the
Barnstable Municipal Airport, and
the nearest national and international
air service can be reached at
Logan International Airport in
Boston.
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Demographics
West side exterior of Scargo
Tower, Dennis,
Massachusetts.
As of the
census2
of 2000, there were 15,973 people, 7,504
households, and 4,577 families residing
in the town. The
population density was 299.4/km˛
(775.6/mi˛). There were 14,105 housing
units at an average density of 264.4/km˛
(684.9/mi˛). The racial makeup of the
town was 94.99%
White, 1.93%
Black or
African American, 0.37%
Native American, 0.37%
Asian, 0.88% from
other races, and 1.46% from two or
more races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 1.65% of the
population.
There were 7,504 households out of which
18.8% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 49.0% were
married couples living together,
9.2% had a female householder with no
husband present, and 39.0% were
non-families. 33.3% of all households
were made up of individuals and 17.7%
had someone living alone who was 65
years of age or older. The average
household size was 2.11 and the average
family size was 2.65.
In the town the population was spread
out with 16.9% under the age of 18, 4.6%
from 18 to 24, 22.2% from 25 to 44,
27.8% from 45 to 64, and 28.4% who were
65 years of age or older. The median age
was 49 years. For every 100 females
there were 85.6 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there were 82.7
males.
The median income for a household in the
town was $41,598, and the median income
for a family was $50,478. Males had a
median income of $40,528 versus $29,153
for females. The
per capita income for the town was
$25,428. About 5.4% of families and 7.0%
of the population were below the
poverty line, including 10.4% of
those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age
65 or over.
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Government
Dennis is represented in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
as a part of the First Barnstable
Districts. The town is represented in
the
Massachusetts Senate as a part of
the Cape and Islands Districts, which
includes all of Cape Cod, Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket except the towns
of Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich and a
portion of Barnstable.[2]
The town is patrolled by the Second
(Yarmouth) Barracks of Troop D of the
Massachusetts State Police.[3].
On the national level, Dennis is a part
of
Massachusetts's 10th congressional
district, and is currently
represented by
Bill Delahunt. The state's senior
(Class I) member of the
United States Senate, re-elected in
2006, is
Ted Kennedy. The junior (Class II)
Senator, up for re-election in 2008, is
John Kerry.
The town of Dennis uses the
open town meeting form of
government, and is led by an executive
secretary and a
board of selectmen. The town has its
own police department, and a fire
department headquartered near the
intersection of Routes 28 and 134 with a
branch station off of Route 6A. There
are post offices in each of the five
villages, as are the town's libraries.
The central library is located in Dennis
Port, and all are a part of the Cape
Libraries Automated Materials Sharing
(CLAMS) network. The town operates its
own landfill, located southeast of the
junction of Routes 6 and 134.
Dennis shares its school system with
Yarmouth to form the Dennis-Yarmouth
Regional School District. The town
itself operates the Ezra H. Baker
School, which serves students from
pre-kindergarten through third grade,
and the Nathaniel H. Wixon Middle
School, which serves grades 4 to 8. High
school students attend Dennis-Yarmouth
Regional High School in Yarmouth.
Students are not officially contracted
to any vocational high schools; private
schools can be found in each of the
neighboring towns.
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From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Click for large map of the Islands
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