Click Here To View Bourne Real Estate & Homes For Sale

Bourne is probably most noted for being the first town on Cape Cod you enter as all three bridges (The Bourne Bridge, The Sagamore Bridge and the Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge) connect what was once an “island” divided by a small river to the mainland of Massachusetts.

Bourne was first settled in 1640 as part of the town of Sandwich. It was officially incorporated in 1884 and named for whaling capitalist Jonathan Bourne. The town lies directly across from Onset village, at the northeast corner of Buzzards Bay, and is the site of the historic Aptucxet Trading Post, the nation's oldest store, founded by the Pilgrims in 1627 as an area for trade with the local Indian population at the mouth of the Scusset River to repay their financial backers in England.

Early industry included Salt Works, an important product due to the close connection of salt with fish curing. Salt was made along the shores of Buzzards Bay, with the first “works” in Monument Beach while the most extensive works were on Mashnee Island, built in the early 1800's.

The villages of Sagamore Beach, Cataumet, Pocasset, & Monument Beach remained part of Sandwich until 1884 at about which time The Keith and Ryder wagon factory, later becoming the Keith Car Works (RR cars), brought economic prosperity to the area.

Bourne has always been oriented to summer visitors, going back to the presidency of Grover Cleveland who summered here at an estate he called Gray Gables. The Bourne area had been recommended as a summer retreat by his friend, Shakesperian actor of Buzzards Bay, Joseph Jefferson, for its "good fishing". When Cleveland was elected in 1892, for a second term as president, Gray Gables became Cape Cod's first summer White House.

Today, the town of Bourne and its villages consist of residential and vacation communities bonded together by a deep history with the waters of Buzzards Bay and the Cape Cod Canal. Noted for sailing, sport fishing and for ships and cruise lines carrying flags from many nations, Bourne offers a vast and diverse home selection on the shoreline and in the villages, from elaborate oceanfront mansions to modest beach cottages.