Popponesset, MA

Popponesset is a Mashpee census-designated place on Cape Cod's southern shore, part of the New Seabury community and mapped separately from it. It had 280 residents in the 2020 census. The place is built around water: Popponesset Beach and the Popponesset Spit face Nantucket Sound, while Popponesset Bay and Popponesset Creek wrap around the inland side. The Spit is a barrier peninsula about a mile long, with dunes, eelgrass, and habitat for endangered plovers and terns. The local commercial life gathers around Shore Drive.

Popponesset Marketplace, open from Memorial Day through Columbus Day, has more than 20 shops, eateries, and businesses, along with summer events and concerts. Its shingled storefronts and crushed-shell paths give that season a recognizable center. The Popponesset Beach Association works on the spit and bay, New Seabury is the larger community around it, and Mashpee is the town government. Here, sand and water set the physical limits, the Marketplace supplies the seasonal gathering point, and Mashpee handles the municipal pieces.