Chatham, Cape Cod, Celebrates Its 300th Birthday

 

Chatham is a charming historic seaside town on Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts. Located at the elbow of the Cape, halfway between Falmouth and Provincetown, Chatham features a quaint and walkable Main Street with numerous family-owned and operated shops, restaurants, and businesses. Chatham has a rich seafaring history, a railroad museum, and summer concerts held in a gazebo on Main Street. As a result, real estate in Chatham is highly desirable and it vies with Osterville as the top high-end real estate market on Cape Cod.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Chatham to its 2007 list of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations, an annual list of unique and lovingly preserved communities in the United States. The Trust called Chatham “…an authentic, old-fashioned town that has never forgotten its sense of place…”

Native American tribes who lived in the area before European colonization include the Nauset, specifically the Manomoy or Monomoy people. Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer, landed in Chatham in 1606, contacting and skirmishing with the Nauset, now commemorated by Champlain and Battlefield Roads. English settlers first settled in Chatham in 1665, and the town was incorporated in 1712, naming it after Chatham, Kent, England. Facing the Atlantic to the east and Nantucket Sound to the south, it was a natural location to become a center for shipping, fishing, and whaling. Like Nantucket and Edgartown, 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.

The Chatham 300 Committee is hosting a year long celebration of the history, character, environment, and other qualities that have made Chatham so special for the past three centuries through a diverse series of gatherings, concerts, lectures, festivals, artistic endeavors, exhibits, and other large and small scale events. Check the link for a list of 300th celebration activities.

LandVest is proud to represent special properties in Chatham and surrounding Cape Cod towns. Our featured listing is the Queen Anne Inn, which offers a unique opportunity for the investor and developer to create a 7 unit luxury townhouse development. All of the planning and conservation permits are in hand for a development that, because of increasingly strict zoning, will be that last of its kind in the central village area. A detailed description of the development concept is available at www.queenannetownhouses.com

Click on the photos below for more information on two other special listings in surrounding towns:

 

LandVest has a wonderful selection of listings on Cape Cod with more in the works and there are always private listings percolating in the background. Check us out at www.landvest.com or call Stewart Young at 617-357-8930 or syoung@landvest.com