Chatham, Massachusetts
Encyclopedia
Chatham is a town
New England town
The New England town is the basic unit of local government in each of the six New England states. Without a direct counterpart in most other U.S. states, New England towns are conceptually similar to civil townships in other states, but are incorporated, possessing powers like cities in other...

 in Barnstable County
Barnstable County, Massachusetts
Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, consisting of Cape Cod and associated islands. As of the 2010 census, the population was 216,902...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

. The population was 6,625 at the 2000 census. Chatham is home to the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, located on Monomoy
Monomoy Island
Monomoy Island is an 8 mile long spit of sand extending southwest from Chatham, Cape Cod off the Massachusetts mainland.- History :It was taken over by the US government just before World War II...

, and to Monomoy Theatre.

For geographic and demographic information on specific parts of the town of Chatham, please see the articles on Chatham (CDP)
Chatham (CDP), Massachusetts
Chatham is a census-designated place in the town of Chatham in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,667 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Chatham is located at ....

 and West Chatham
West Chatham, Massachusetts
West Chatham is a census-designated place in the town of Chatham in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,446 at the 2000 census.-Geography:West Chatham is located at ....

.

History

Native American tribes who lived in the area before European colonization include the Nauset
Nauset
The Nauset tribe, sometimes referred to as the Cape Cod Indians lived in what is present-day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, living east of Bass River and lands occupied by their closely related neighbours, the Wampanoag...

, specifically the Manomoy or Monomoy people. "Manamoyik" was a Nauset
Nauset
The Nauset tribe, sometimes referred to as the Cape Cod Indians lived in what is present-day Cape Cod, Massachusetts, living east of Bass River and lands occupied by their closely related neighbours, the Wampanoag...

 village located near present-day Chatham. Explorer Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain
Samuel de Champlain , "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608....

 landed here in 1606, contacting (and skirmishing with) the Nauset. English settlers first settled in Chatham in 1665, and the town was incorporated in 1712, naming it after Chatham, Kent, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Located at the "elbow" of Cape Cod, the community became a shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

, fishing
Fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, and whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 center. Chatham's early prosperity would leave it with a considerable number of 18th century buildings, whose charm helped it develop into a popular summer resort.

Chatham is home to the Chatham Lighthouse, which was established by President Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

 in 1808 to protect the ships circling the Cape. Originally consisting of two lights, the pair were moved back and rebuilt in 1877. The second was moved to Eastham to become the Nauset Light in 1923, after both were upgraded to rotating lights. Today, the keeper's house is home to a Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...

 station which tends the light.

Although urban sprawl
Urban sprawl
Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a multifaceted concept, which includes the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density and auto-dependent development on rural land, high segregation of uses Urban sprawl, also known as suburban sprawl, is a...

 has started to invade the country and even parts of Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

, the town of Chatham still boasts a quaint and walkable Main Street
Main Street
Main Street is the metonym for a generic street name of the primary retail street of a village, town, or small city in many parts of the world...

. Main Street is home to numerous family-owned and -operated shops, restaurants, and businesses. The main shopping area features pedestrian-friendly crosswalks, on-street parallel parking, and some parking lots that are off Main Street. During the summer, concerts are held in a gazebo
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal, that may be built, in parks, gardens, and spacious public areas. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall, roofed, and open on all sides; they provide shade, shelter, ornamental features in a landscape, and a place to rest...

 on Main Street, and not far from the shops is where the Chatham Anglers baseball team plays.

Historical sites and museums

  • Atwood House (1752)
  • Chatham Railroad Museum (1887)
  • Old Grist Mill (1797)
  • Caleb Nickerson House (1772)
  • Josiah Mayo House (c. 1820)

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 24.4 square miles (63.2 km²), of which, 16.2 square miles (42.0 km²) of it is land and 8.2 square miles (21.2 km²) of it (33.55%) is water. The town's villages include Chatham proper, Chatham Port, North Chatham, South Chatham, and West Chatham. Chatham is bordered by Harwich
Harwich, Massachusetts
Harwich is a New England town on Cape Cod, in Barnstable County in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. Barnstable County is coextensive with Cape Cod. The town is a popular vacation spot, located near the Cape Cod National Seashore. Harwich's beaches are on "the Sound side" of Cape...

 to the west, Pleasant Bay and Harwich to the north, the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

 to the east, and Nantucket Sound
Nantucket Sound
Nantucket Sound is a roughly triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean offshore from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is long and wide, and is enclosed by Cape Cod on the north, Nantucket on the south, and Martha's Vineyard on the west. Between Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard it is connected to the...

 to the south. The town is 56 kilometers (35 mi) south of Provincetown
Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,431 at the 2000 census, with an estimated 2007 population of 3,174...

 and east of the Sagamore Bridge
Sagamore Bridge
The Sagamore Bridge in Sagamore, Massachusetts carries U.S. Route 6 across the Cape Cod Canal, connecting Cape Cod with the rest of Massachusetts, USA....

, 32 kilometers (20 mi) east of Barnstable
Barnstable, Massachusetts
Barnstable is a city, referred to as the Town of Barnstable, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the county seat of Barnstable County. Barnstable is the largest community, both in land area and population, on Cape Cod. The town contains seven villages within its boundaries...

, and 137 kilometers (85 mi) southeast of Boston.

The mainland portion of the town is typical of Cape Cod, with several ponds, brooks, rivers, harbors, and inlets around the town. The town includes two narrow strips of land, the northern of which is the southern part of the Cape Cod National Seashore
Cape Cod National Seashore
The Cape Cod National Seashore , created on August 7, 1961 by President John F. Kennedy, encompasses on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion...

, which serve as a barrier between the Atlantic and the mainland. There are several islands, including Strong Island, Tern Island (which is a sanctuary), Morris Island, Stage Island, and Monomoy Island
Monomoy Island
Monomoy Island is an 8 mile long spit of sand extending southwest from Chatham, Cape Cod off the Massachusetts mainland.- History :It was taken over by the US government just before World War II...

 (a 7-1/4 mile long island south of the corner of the town which is home to the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge).

Transportation

All five roads that exit Chatham cross into Harwich. The two state routes that pass through the town are Route 28 and the southern end of Route 137
Route 137 (Massachusetts)
Route 137 is a north–south state route on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It is located within the towns of Brewster, Harwich and Chatham.Route 137 begins in Brewster at the intersection of Route 6A and Long Pond Road...

. Route 28 circles through the center of town before exiting and heading toward Route 6A
Route 6A (Massachusetts)
Route 6A is the name for parts of former U.S. Route 6 on Cape Cod. Most of "6A", as the locals call it, is also known as the Old King's Highway...

, joining that route until the roads end at the Orleans Rotary.

Rail no longer extends to the town; the route is now a portion of one of the several bicycle paths that pass through the town.

The town is the home to the Chatham Municipal Airport, which provides local service to other small airports on the Cape and Islands. The nearest national and international air service can be reached at Logan International Airport
Logan International Airport
General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport is located in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts . It covers , has six runways, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the 19th busiest airport in the United States.Boston serves as a focus city for JetBlue Airways...

 in Boston.

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 6,625 people, 3,160 households, and 1,886 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 408.4 people per square mile (157.7/km²). There were 6,743 housing units at an average density of 415.7 per square mile (160.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.03% White, 1.77% Black or African American
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, 0.18% Native American, 0.27% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.92% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.82% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.00% of the population.

During the summer months (generally Memorial Day through Labor Day), the population of the town triples to approximately 20,000, not counting the additional transient tourist population hosted by the town's many hotels, inns, motels, and bed and breakfasts. While the tourist industry is very strong in Chatham, fishing still represents the town's main industry.

There were 3,160 households out of which 15.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.2% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 6.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.3% were non-families. 34.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.00 and the average family size was 2.52.

In the town the population was spread out with 13.3% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 19.8% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, and 34.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 54 years. For every 100 females there were 89.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.4 males.

The local K-12 school system has approximately 700 students, making for average high school grade sizes between 30 and 40 students.

The median income for a household in the town was $45,519, and the median income for a family was $56,750. Males had a median income of $41,064 versus $30,365 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the town was $28,594. About 1.9% of families and 4.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 3.7% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Chatham is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives
Massachusetts House of Representatives
The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...

 as a part of the Fourth Barnstable district, which includes (with the exception of Brewster) all the towns east and north of Harwich on the Cape. The town is represented in the Massachusetts Senate
Massachusetts Senate
The Massachusetts Senate is the upper house of the Massachusetts General Court, the bicameral state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Senate comprises 40 elected members from 40 single-member senatorial districts in the state...

 as a part of the Cape and Islands District, which includes all of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket except the towns of Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich, and a portion of Barnstable.

The town is patrolled by the Second (Yarmouth) Barracks of Troop D of the Massachusetts State and the Chatham Police Department. Chatham also provides Chatham Fire Rescue, a 24 hour fully staffed fire department.

On the national level, Chatham is a part of Massachusetts's 10th congressional district
Massachusetts's 10th congressional district
Massachusetts's 10th congressional district is a political constituency that includes parts of the South Shore of Massachusetts, and all of Cape Cod and the islands. With a population of 635,901 and a land area of , it is the most populous of Massachusetts's ten congressional districts and the...

 and is represented by William R. Keating
William R. Keating
William Richard "Bill" Keating is the U.S. Representative for . From 1999 to 2011 he was District Attorney of Norfolk County. He is a member of the Democratic Party and a former Massachusetts state representative and state senator....

. The state's senior (Class I) member of the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

, re-elected in 2008, is John Kerry
John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

. The junior (Class II) Senator is Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown is a United States senator.Scott Brown may also refer to:-Sportsmen:*Scott Brown , American college football coach of Kentucky State...

.

Chatham is governed by the open town meeting
Open town meeting
An open town meeting is a form of town meeting in which all registered voters of a town may vote . This form of government is typical of smaller municipalities in the New England region of the United States....

 form of government, led by an executive secretary and a board of selectmen
Board of selectmen
The board of selectmen is commonly the executive arm of the government of New England towns in the United States. The board typically consists of three or five members, with or without staggered terms.-History:...

. The town operates its own police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 department, which is headquartered (along with the fire department) near the center of town. There is also a branch firehouse in South Chatham. The town has four post offices, all located at various points along Route 28. The town is home to the Eldredge Public Library, named for its benefactor and designed by a student of H. H. Richardson. The town operates several piers, beaches, boat landings and recreation areas throughout town. The nearest hospital is Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis.

Education

Chatham operates its own school system for the town's 700 students. The Chatham Elementary School serves students from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, the Chatham Middle School serves students from fifth through eighth grade, and Chatham High School
Chatham High School (Massachusetts)
Chatham High School is a small public school located in the Cape Cod town of Chatham, Massachusetts. Chatham serves roughly 700 students in grades 9-12. Chatham's mascot is the Blue Devils and the school's colors are Royal Blue and White....

 serves grades nine through twelve. Chatham's athletics teams are known as the Blue Devils, and wear blue and white. Additionally, high school students may attend Cape Cod Regional Technical School
Cape Cod Regional Technical High School
Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, also known as Cape Tech and Lower Cape Tech and sometimes abbreviated as CCT, is a public vocational and technical high school located in Harwich, Massachusetts....

 in Harwich free of charge. Other private schools are located in nearby Brewster and Harwich.

Notable residents

  • Zered Bassett
    Zered Bassett
    He was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts, grew up in Chatham, Massachusetts, and currently resides in Manhattan, New York.He appears in the DVS shoe co. video "Skate More" and the Zoo York Skateboard Company video City of Killers and "Vicious Cycle". Since then, Zered has also been given his first DVS...

    , pro skateboarder, grew up in Chatham
  • Shirley Booth
    Shirley Booth
    Shirley Booth was an American actress.Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950...

    , actress
  • Louis D. Brandeis, Supreme Court justice
  • Bernard Cornwell
    Bernard Cornwell
    Bernard Cornwell OBE is an English author of historical novels. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe which were adapted into a series of Sharpe television films.-Biography:...

    , best selling author
  • Franklin Cover
    Franklin Cover
    Franklin Edward Cover was an American actor most noted for starring on the sitcom The Jeffersons. His character, Tom Willis, was half of one of the first interracial marriages to be seen on prime-time television....

    , late actor
  • Jamie D'Antona
    Jamie D'Antona
    James Joseph D'Antona is a professional baseball infielder.D'Antona played college baseball for Wake Forest University where he had a .354 career batting average and 58 home runs. In , he was the ACC leader in slugging percentage, home runs, and RBI...

    , professional baseball player
  • David Drumm former CEO of Anglo Irish Bank
  • Todd Eldredge
    Todd Eldredge
    Todd James Eldredge is an American figure skater. He is the 1996 World Champion and a six-time national champion .-Biography:...

    , champion figure skater
  • Bobby Hackett
    Bobby Hackett
    Robert Leo "Bobby" Hackett was an US jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late thirties and early forties.-Biography:...

    , musician
  • Julie Harris
    Julie Harris
    Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...

    , actress
  • Joseph C. Lincoln
    Joseph C. Lincoln
    Joseph Crosby Lincoln was an American author of novels, poems, and short stories, many set in a fictionalized Cape Cod. Lincoln's work frequently appeared in popular magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post and The Delineator...

    , author of Cape Cod Stories
  • Joseph Lord
    Joseph Lord
    Joseph Lord was a Puritan pastor, physician, and biologist in colonial America in the late 17th century and early 18th century...

    , Puritan pastor
  • Martha MacCallum
    Martha MacCallum
    Martha MacCallum is an American news anchor on the Fox News Channel. She joined the network in 2004, and is based in the New York City bureau. She previously hosted The Live Desk with Trace Gallagher at 1:00 p.m. ET. Currently, she co-hosts with Bill Hemmer America's Newsroom at 9:00 a.m...

    , Fox News Channel anchor
  • Harry Connick Jr., Singer, Songwriter and Actor
  • Sandra Day O'Connor
    Sandra Day O'Connor
    Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...

    , Supreme Court Justice; has a residence in Chatham
  • Sara Pennypacker
    Sara Pennypacker
    Sara Pennypacker, born in Massachusetts, is an author of children's literature who was awarded the Golden Kite Award for Pierre In Love.She has written thirteen children's books, including the those in the Clementine and Stuart series...

    , children's book author
  • Christopher Seufert
    Christopher Seufert
    Christopher Seufert is a documentary film producer and director, and photographer based in Boston, Massachusetts. His production company is Mooncusser Films....

    , film director/photographer
  • Archelaus Smith
    Archelaus Smith
    Archelaus Smith , was a tanner, shoemaker and early settler of Barrington, Nova Scotia. He was born in Chatham, Massachusetts to parents Deacon Stephen Smith and Bathsheba Smith . He was christened in the Congregational Church, Chatham, Massachusetts on 23 Apr 1734...

    , Nova Scotia pioneer
  • Bob Staake
    Bob Staake
    Bob Staake is an American illustrator, cartoonist, children's book author and designer. He lives and works in Chatham, Massachusetts on the elbow of Cape Cod....

    , cartoonist & illustrator
  • Tisquantum (Squanto)died in Chatham,MA and is buried
    Burial
    Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...

     in an unmarked grave
    Grave (burial)
    A grave is a location where a dead body is buried. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as graveyards or cemeteries....

     on Burial Hill, overlooking Ryder's Cove.
  • Allen St. Pierre
    Allen St. Pierre
    Allen St. Pierre is the Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws , a non-profit organization that wishes to remove the criminal penalties for and legalize cannabis. St. Pierre was hired by NORML's Board of Directors in 1991 when he worked as a Communications...

    Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, grew up in Chatham

External links

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