1873 Bufford Promotional Map for Falmouth Heights, Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Original promotion for Cape Cod's Falmouth Heights.

This is a striking 1873 J. H. Bufford promotional broadside map advertising Falmouth Heights, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Unlike many towns developed as investment schemes, Falmouth Heights was a great success, and some of the buildings illustrated here survive - including the charming Cottage No. 3 (Tower House).

Falmouth Heights

Falmouth Heights was developed in the 1870s as the brainchild of Worcester, Massachusetts, businessmen G. Edward Smith and O.F. Rawson, who operated as the Falmouth Heights Land and Wharf Company. The duo recognized that the planned 1871 extension of the Cape Cod Railroad to Woods Hole would create new development and investment opportunities. Falmouth Heights occupies a high bluff on the southwestern shore of Cape Cod. The location offered panoramic views and cool summer breezes, making it ideal as a summer retreat. Smith and Rawson envisioned a genteel resort community defined by whimsical Carpenter Gothic architecture, designed by Worcester architect Eldridge Boyden, who also laid out the street grid. Construction proceeded on the grand Tower Hotel along with an Observatory and several small cottages - three of which are illustrated here. Arguably, the most charming of those depicted on the map is 'Cottage No. 3 Crown Ave.', which remarkably still stands. The Falmouth Heights Land and Wharf Company miraculously weathered the Panic of 1873, which did in many real estate investment schemes, but nonetheless dissolved in 1880. By that time, the development was already a success and well underway. Today, Boyden's street grid and many of the original buildings survive.

Publication History and Census

This map was drafted by J. H. Bufford after the original town plan by Eldridge Boyden. It is a separate issue broadside intended to promote real estate in the development phase of Falmouth Heights as a summer resort community. It is worth comparing this map to Bufford's stylistically similar broadside image of Lagoon Heights, Martha's Vineyard, as he reuses some of the Falmouth Heights imagery, including Tower House. Unlike Falmouth Heights, Lagoon Heights collapsed in the Panic of 1873. We see only two other surviving examples: Library of Congress and Boston Public Library.

Cartographer

John Henry Bufford (July 27, 1810 - October 8, 1870) was a Boston based lithographer and printer. Bufford was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He apprenticed as an artist and lithographer at Pendleton Lithography (1825 - 1836) of Boston. In 1835 he relocated to New York where he took independent commissions from George Endicott and Nathaniel Currier, among others. Returning to his hometown of Boston in 1839, he took a position of chief artist with the firm of Benjamin W. Thayer, heir to Pendleton Lithography. He probably married Thayer's sister, Anna Melora Tufts Thayer (1808-1878). Bufford has been highly criticized as an engraver, with one historian, David Tatham, stating he had 'a mediocre sort of craftsmanship at best' and 'no very special skills as an original artist.' We, however, find no justification for this harsh criticism. Instead Bufford gravitated toward business and management. By 1844 Thayer's shop was renamed J. H. Bufford and Company. The firm specialized in decorative sheet music, panoramic views, illustrations for books, retractions of paintings, and commercial printing. Bufford is credited with being one of the first employers and mentors of the important artist and engraver Winslow Homer. Bufford died in 1870, passing on the business to his sons Frank G. Bufford and John Henry Bufford Jr. These young men, operating under the imprint of 'J.H. Bufford's Sons, Manufacturing Publishers of Novelties in Fine Arts', expanded the firm with offices in New York and Chicago. A possibly related lithographic printing firm named Bufford Chandler was incorporated in Boston in 1893. It later relocated to Concord, New Hampshire but closed in 1925 when its state business charter was repealed.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Light spotting. Laid down on archival paper.

References

Library of Congress G3764.F352G46 1873.E2. Boston Public Library, Leventhal, G3764.F352G46 1872.E2x.