Perfect Days on Pleasant Bay

A majestic site and a dream design team set the stage
for a remarkable new home in Orleans

As the Cape’s own Katharine Lee Bates stood atop Colorado’s Pike’s Peak in 1893, so awestruck by the unbridled natural beauty before her, it was then that the iconic words of what would become “America the Beautiful” began percolating in her mind. The amber waves of grain, the purple mountain majesties—Bates’ reverence for nature’s wonders is undeniable, and so too are the patriotic musings those wonders inspired throughout her song.

Over 100 years later and 2,000 miles away, it’s easy to imagine the kind of feelings Bates experienced when bearing witness to the land and seascape that greet you at one special hillside property in East Orleans. Surrounded by lush unspoiled woodlands and boasting views of Nauset’s outer beach, Pleasant Bay stretching south toward Chatham and the Atlantic beyond, the site is simply enchanting. Enchantment is just what the property’s new owner experienced when she first visited these serene grounds.

“That first day I drove out there, it was quiet,” she recalls. “You could hear the wind through the cedars, so you heard the breeze, you heard the birds, you saw this beautiful ocean, and I really felt like I was transported back in time, like to the Cape 70 years ago. That’s really what sold me on it.”