Built in 1891 in the Victorian architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
“The French Cable Station is a historic telegraph station on the southeast corner of Cove Road and MA 28 in Orleans, Massachusetts.”
Wikipedia article French Cable Station, CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1972 · category: Building · built in 1891, Victorian architecture.
Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service
This property stands in Orleans Town. History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890, published 1890 gives that township a chapter of its own.
The chapter covers the township.
Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.
Read the whole chapter on Orleans Town - 30 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 73 fires within 5 miles of French Cable Station between 1993 and 2020, burning about 42 acres in total. 9 started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 28 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 15 |
| Debris and open burning | 10 |
| Natural | 9 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 6 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Smoking | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 September 2018 | Natural | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 28 September 2015 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 1946 |
| 24 September 2020 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 22 September 2020 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 5 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 1520 |
| 3 August 2018 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | not named |
| 3 August 2015 | Equipment and vehicle use | under an acre | Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control | 1025 |
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 3,120 specimens collected within 10 miles of French Cable Station between 1819 and 1975: 1,584 Animalia, 1,185 Plantae, 165 Fungi, 68 Bacteria, 63 Chromista, 55 Unrecorded. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. B. Seymour, A. R. Hodgdon, A. R. Alan Hodgdon Hodgdon and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.
| Image | Species | Year | Collected by | Where, as recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laminaria caperata Bachelot de la Pylaie, 1824 | 1819 | Collector unknown | ||
 | Carya tomentosa (Lam.) Nutt. | 1840 | Collector unspecified | |
 | Stenotomus chrysops (Linnaeus, 1766) | 1860 | William Bemis | Cape Cod Bay, Wellfleet Harbor |
 | Alosa mediocris (Mitchill, 1814) | 1871 | MCZ team | Brewster, Cape Cod, Massachusetts |
.jpeg) | Bittiolum alternatum (Say, 1822) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
 | Buccinum undatum Linnaeus, 1758 | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
| Gastropoda | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod | |
 | Helix Linnaeus, 1758 | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
 | Hydrobia minuta (Totten, 1834) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
 | Lacuna vincta (Montagu, 1803) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
 | Littorina littorea (Linnaeus, 1758) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
 | Littorina rudis (Maton, 1797) | 1872 | Smith, S. I.; Harger, O., U.S. Fish Commission | Cape Cod |
All 3,120 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orleans, the town this property stands in, in 13 storm reports between 1994 and 2019: 6 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail, 3 lightning. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2009 | Lightning | Orleans | 1 killed | A 41 year old man was out digging for quahogs (clams) on the tidal flats of Little Pleasant Bay, a quarter mile east of Sipsons Island when he was struck by lightning and killed. |
| August 2008 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $5,000 | Trees and wires were downed by thunderstorm winds. |
| November 2005 | Lightning | Orleans | $5,000 | no account filed |
| November 2005 | Lightning | Orleans | $5,000 | no account filed |
| July 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | South Orleans | $3,000 | Amateur radio operators reported trees down on Route 28 Southbound. Wires were down on Main Street. A tree was down on wires on Blue Heron Way. A large tree was down on Quanset Road. Wires were down on Karen Lane. |
| August 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | $1,000 | At 9:09 AM EST, thunderstorm winds toppled a tree on O'Connor Road in Orleans, near the Transfer Station. |
| April 2008 | Hail | Orleans | - | Penny sized hail fell near Rock Harbor. |
| July 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | Large tree limbs down. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Orleans | - | Penny size hail. |
| July 2007 | Hail | Orleans | - | Penny size hail. |
| May 1994 | Hail | Orleans | - | Dime-size hail was reported. |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | no account filed |
| July 1996 | Thunderstorm Wind | Orleans | - | no account filed |
No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.
Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.
| Photograph | Property | Distance | Listed |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Universalist Society Meetinghouse | 0.6 miles | 1999 |
 | Collins Cottages Historic District | 0.9 miles | 1999 |
 | Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG 36500 | 1.4 miles | 2005 |
 | Cove Burying Ground | 1.8 miles | 1999 |
 | Penniman, Edward, House and Barn | 2.4 miles | 1976 |
 | Bridge Road Cemetery | 2.7 miles | 1999 |
| National Archives record | The nomination case file for reference 72000121 in Record Group 79. |
| Wikipedia article | Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA. |
| Barnstable County | All 145 listed properties in this county. |
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