The first plan was drawn by Frank W. Hodgdon in September, 1907.
On August 1, 1805, the same Abram and Lois Bowerman deeded additional land to Joseph Davis, Jr., and on June 17, 1816, the same parties sold more land to Nymphas Davis, the son of Joseph
On January 20, 1907, the the first appropriation made for the cost was $25,000 from the State and $10,000 from the Town.
The lower part of the land dredged was purchased on July 13, 1804, from Abram and Lois Bowerman by Watson Jenkins, Joseph Mayhew, Stephen Davis, Consider Hatch and Joseph Davis, Jr., and used as a site for salt works by the whole or part of them.
As Joseph Davis, Sr., the father of Joseph, Jr., was then a deacon in the Congregational church, the name was grad name of "Bowerman's Pond" to "the deacon's pond" and it finally became Deacon's Pond. Later, when the name did not locate the harbor sufficiently, it was officially changed to "Falmouth Inner Harbor."
There were formerly two outlets from the pond into Vineyard Sound, and some of the old deeds refer to the East and West rivers. There was also a ditch across the marsh, probably through the land now owned by Edward Gallagher.
In 1870-1 the land about the pond and also "Great Hill" was sold by George H. Davis, the son of Nymphas Davis, to the Falmouth Land and Wharf Company, and remained in its possession several years, later becoming the property of G. Edward Smith, the president of the company.
In 1888 Mr. Smith sold the beach, extending from the line of the Falmouth Wharf Company west to the land now covered by the harbor, to George H. Davis.
One of the old rivers had long since been filled and the other changed its course so often through the beach that the town was obliged to set stone posts to define the middle line and establish a definite boundary.
When the land was finally acquired by the State, the channel was cut through the land of the widow of George H. Davis on the eastern side and a small triangular piece on the western side belonging to Henrietta F. Goodnow.