United States Customs District of Barnstable

The towns of Sandwich, Harwich, Wellfleet, Provincetown and Chatham were designated as ports of delivery only.

The district included all shores and waters within the county of Barnstable, excepting the town of Falmouth.

Ammi Burnham Young, Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department, designed the two-story, Renaissance Revival style building with an advanced cast-iron structural system in 1856.

The federal government deeded the building and grounds to the town of Barnstable in 1960 for use as a historical museum, which opened that same year.

After the Society moved out, the customhouse was restored by a group of dedicated local residents and reopened as the Coast Guard Heritage Museum at the Trayser in July 2005.