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Located at the "elbow" of the Cape, Chatham is famous for its walking main street, a two mile stretch of boutiques, galleries, and restaurants. Chatham has many miles of shoreline and some of the Cape's most beautiful harbors. Because it has so much shoreline on Nantucket Sound, fog can roll in on the prevailing southwesterly winds when towns to the west are sunny. Warm summer days with cool summer nights, beautiful warm Indian summers, and relatively mild winters make Chatham a comfortable place in which to live year-round or vacation.
Chatham was settled in 1656 by a handful of Pilgrims, whose surnames still dominate the town's census list. The town was incorporated in 1712. Originally a farming community, its inhabitants found deep sea fishing more lucrative, and today small boat deep sea fishing is an important source of the town's revenue. Covering an area of approximately seventeen square miles, Chatham is a combination of past and present: old fashioned and picturesque, yet affording the best in modern facilities.
The citizens of Chatham enjoy the special benefits of forward-looking zoning and current planning, and of both public and private conservation efforts. Property taxes are reasonable, but town water is expensive. Some of the town is on a public sewer system, and most of the town has town water. (Narrative in part courtesy of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.)
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