Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of West Falmouth. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1886Falmouth sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of West Falmouth.
Timeline
West Falmouth, 1886 to 1999
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of West Falmouth yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
West Falmouth is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 census, West Falmouth had a population of 1,812. West Falmouth Village Historic District is at the heart of West Falmouth Village. Historic buildings include the West Falmouth Library, Quaker Meeting House and Quaker Carriage Sheds, Emerson House, the West Falmouth Fire Station, and numerous historic houses. Other nearby attractions include the Shining Sea Bikeway, the public beach at Chapoquoit Beach, West Falmouth Harbor, Bourne Farm, Great Sippewissett Marsh, Swift Playground on Blacksmith Shop Road, and the Mock Moraine conservation area. There are …
Its first post office opened in 1827. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,738 to 1,812 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about West Falmouth in 1890
Passages that mention West Falmouth, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-18901890 · page 672Read the page →
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West Falmouth post village is pleasantly situated on the main shore road running north from Falmouth village. Among the first settlers of this part of the town were William Gifford, sr., William Gifford, jr., and William and John Weeks. The lands were laid out to them in 1678. Five years before this William Gifford of Sandwich, came here and bought forty acres where Arnold Gifford now lives.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-18901890 · page 185Read the page →
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probable that the " first founders of the Society of Friends in this town arrived about six years after the first settlers, and that William Gifford and Robert Harper were of this number, and that their meeting at West Falmouth was established about 1685. Probably Isaac Robinson, jr., a son of the first settler, joined this meeting, — he settled at West Falmouth, — and Isaac Robinson is one of the first names to be found on the records of that Society."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
West Falmouth, decade by decade
5 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1902