Chatham, Massachusetts - It's Where You Want to Be

Beloved by fishermen and sea captains for centuries, the charming seaside village of Chatham on Cape Cod in Massachusetts came into its own as a resort destination in the 1870s when wealthy New Englanders discovered its vistas of sea and shore.

Chatham has long been recognized for its exquisite natural beauty. Picture-perfect streets are lined with 18th-century homes, Cape Cod cottages and glorious gardens. Anchored by the historic Chatham lighthouse, the village boasts a lively and architecturally rich Main Street where merchants cater to locals and strolling visitors from around the world.

The town celebrates its sense of place through well-loved summertime traditions such as free Friday night band concerts, Chatham A's baseball games and a Fourth of July parade that is a Norman Rockwell painting come to life. In the winter months, Chatham hosts a First Night Celebration that culminates with midnight fireworks over Oyster Pond.

Chatham is located on the elbow of Cape Cod surrounded on three sides by water and extends out to sea as the most easterly point in Massachusetts. One of Cape Cod’s oldest townships, Chatham was settled in 1656 and incorporated in 1712. Originally a farming community, Chatham’s inhabitants found deep-sea fishing more lucrative. Today small boat deep sea fishing and shell fishing continue as important maritime industries.

You will find the natural beauty of Chatham remarkable. Visitors are drawn to the expansive and magnificent beaches, the lighthouses, wildlife, nature trails, bike path, and stunning views of the ocean. Chatham has a special blend of the past and present with quaint streets lined with historic sea captains’ homes, a fine selection of historic museums, and a walking Main Street area with unique shops, galleries, and restaurants. Lodging options range form a spectacular ocean front resort to lovely bed and breakfast inns tucked in throughout this picturesque seaside village.

Covering an area of approximately 17 square miles, Chatham is a happy combination of past and present. It benefits from Mother Nature’s “natural air conditioning” with cool summers, exquisite autumns, and mild winters. Nationally recognized for the traditional grey Cape-style architecture, interesting walking districts, and sense of style, downtown Chatham sits a block from the ocean, surrounded by ponds and colorful seaside gardens.

Chatham has an active fishing fleet that brings in their catch to the Fish Pier on Shore Road shortly after noon each day depending on the tide and weather, and tours are given regularly at the Chatham Lighthouse. The town has been designated a Distinctive Destination by the National Trust for Historic Preservation for its success in nurturing and showcasing its history. The Atwood Museum on Stage Harbor Road is owned and operated by the Chatham Historical Society and houses an extensive collection of Chatham’s history. The Chatham Railroad Museum on Depot Road is over 100 years old and exhibits a relic of the first commercial railroad in the U.S. The Marconi Maritime Museum is Chatham’s newest museum opening in the summer of 2010 to showcase the sights and sounds of wireless radio history that was made in Chatham.

Activities

Baseball

Veterans’ Field in Chatham is the home part of the Chatham Anglers, one of the 10 teams in the widely known Cape Cod Baseball League. This league is a NCAA sanctioned summer league, first organized in 1885. The Cape League is partially funded by Major League Baseball. The 44 game baseball season opens in mid-June and concludes in mid-August.

The amateur talent in the Cape League is second to none. With over 1,000 alumni performing at all levels of professional baseball in 2009, a record total 212 former Cape Leaguers populate major league rosters. Cape Cod played a prominent role in the development of rosters for the 2007 World Series as twenty players in the honed their skills in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Among the 2007 World Champion Boston Red Sox who played in the Cape Cod Baseball League are World Series MVP Mike Lowell (Chatham ’94), team captain Jason Varitek (Hyannis ’91 & ’93), former Gold Glove first baseman Kevin Youkilis (Bourne ’00) and speedy centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury (Falmouth ’04). Top CCBL alumni performing for the 2007 NL champion Colorado Rockies included: All-Star slugger Todd Helton (Orleans ’94), hard-hitting catcher Omar Quintanilla (Cotuit ’02), slugging third baseman Garrett Atkins (Cotuit ’98-’99) and hurler Ryan Speier (Bourne ’01).

Band Concerts

Every Friday evening at 8 pm from July 2 to September 3, all roads on the Cape lead to the band concert at the gazebo bandstand at Kate Gould Park on Main Street in Chatham. As many as six thousand people attend these concerts throughout the summer, and it is a highlight of summer events in Chatham. Members of the colorfully uniformed 40-piece band live in Chatham and the surrounding towns. Blankets and chairs are set out on the green grass of the park, colorful balloons are seen everywhere, and people of all ages dance around the bandstand to numbers for grownups, folk dances for the children and community singing for everyone. It is a summer event never to be missed.

Beginning in the summer of 2010, a new concert series sponsored by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod will take place every Wednesday evening beginning at 6 pm at Kate Gould Park. Music will range from big band to swing, to folk, and so much more. Events in the park are always free to the public and are family friendly.

Seal Watching

Harbor and gray seals are the most common species in Chatham, and can often be seen resting or hauled-out on rock piles, ledges, sand bars, and jetties exposed during low tide around the shoals of Chatham from the North Beach break-through to South Beach and Monomoy. They also rest on isolated beaches, in marshes, and on floating docks at all tide stages.

The best time to see seals is within 2 hours of low tide on a sunny midday afternoon. Because seals cannot move well on land, during high tide they position themselves over submerged jetties. When the tide goes out they are left exposed, sitting on the jetty basking in the sun. If left undisturbed, they will stay on the rocks until the tide comes in again. If conditions are right, approximately 1,500 to 2,000 seals can be seen in the afternoons at Monomoy Island.

Points of Interest

You will find few spots on the entire East Cost of North America that can equal the view at “The Light”. If you drive down Main Street to the Lighthouse, you will see cars from nearly every state as you gaze over the majestic Atlantic Ocean. There are 44 steps and a ladder to ascend to the top of the Lighthouse where tours are given free.

The Chatham Fish Pier, located on Shore Road on Aunt Lydia’s Cove, is a constant source of interest to visitors. The members of the fishing fleet make their run each suitable day to the fishing grounds from 3 to 100 miles off Chatham. Their catch consists of haddock, cod, flounder, lobster, Pollack, dogfish and halibut. The fresh fish is placed in ice and transported in refrigerated trucks to the New York, Boston, New Bedford, and local markets, arriving less than 24 hours from the time it is taken from the ocean. The boats start returning to the pier shortly after noon, depending upon the tide.

Atwood House Museum

The Atwood House Museum on Stage Harbor Road is owned and run by the Chatham Historical Society. The original part of the museum is a house built in 1752 by Captain Joseph Atwood when he was a subject of King George II of England. It provides an excellent view into the way of life during the 18th and 19th centuries in New England. Today there are eight spacious galleries that house art, artifacts, and decorative arts to portray life on Cape Cod since the 17th century.

Railroad Museum

The Railroad Museum is located in the Old Chatham Railroad Company station on Depot Road. Listed in the National Register of Historical Places, this building is over 100 years old and sits on its original site. It served the town for over fifty years form 1887 to 1937. The exhibits, starting with a relic of the first commercial railroad in the U.S. in 1826, include hundreds of items of historical significance in the railroad field, plus models and objects which never fail to interest visitors. The 75-year-old caboose of olden days, the gift of the New York Central System, has been fully restored and is open for all to enjoy the sounds of the rails.

Caleb Nickerson House,/p>

Caleb Nickerson, a 7th generation descendant of William Nickerson, the founder of the town of Chatham, and his wife Priscilla Eldredge owned this home on Stage Neck Road in the early 1800s. The house stood on a bluff overlooking the Oyster River for almost two centuries until in 2003 the house made a journey by land and sea to its present location at 1107 Orleans Road. This pristine antique full Cape home features three working fireplaces including a beehive oven and original iron cranes, period woodwork and random width wide pine floors, a colonial kitchen and vegetable and herb garden. You can experience colonial life in this restored antique cape which now rests on the original homestead land, a few yards from the cabin site of William Nickerson, founder of Chatham.

Chatham Marconi Maritime Center

In the summer of 2010, the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center plans to welcome visitors to its Museum and Education Center located at 847 Orleans Road (Route 28) overlooking Ryder’s Cove in the Chathamport area of North Chatham. The Museum is located in the historic Operations Building built in 1914 by the “wizard of wireless”, Guglielmo Marconi. This station was part of his visionary wireless network intended to link America with Europe and Japan. Under the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and known by its call letters WCC, it was the busiest ship-to-shore station on the East Coast between 1920 and 1993. Not only did WCC relay vital messages to ships around the world, it also provided communications to brave aviators and bold adventurers---Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and Admiral Byrd at the South Pole. Exhibits will include videos about Marconi’s life and the role of WCC in world events, an authentic shipboard radio, artifacts from important periods in WCC’s history, and opportunity for children to send Morse code as well as an operational amateur radio station.

Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge

Chatham is a mecca for bird enthusiasts. The nearly 3,000 acre refuge stretches approximately ten miles southward into the waters of Nantucket Sound and the Atlantic Ocean. 94% of Monomoy’s acreage was designated a Wilderness Area in 1970. It is the only Wilderness area in southern New England. The refuge provides nesting, feeding, and resting grounds for a known 285 species. This is one of the most famous and productive ornithological points on the Atlantic seaboard.