What to See in Chatham - Top Sights and Attractions

Lighthouse. Stage Harbor Light is a lighthouse in Chatham, Massachusetts. It was built in 1880. It was discontinued in 1933, replaced by a skeleton tower 200 ft west which remains an active aid to navigation. The original light helped to mark a vessel staging area anchorage in deep water south of Harding's Beach used during periods of low visibility by vessels waiting to round Monomoy Point and Pollock Rip Channel. The lighthouse also lined up perfectly with the Chatham Twin Lights, making an effective range for Chatham Roads, the deep water channel crossing Nantucket Sound from south of Bishop & Clerks Reef off Point Gammon at Hyannis to the staging area. The original light is now a private residence. It sits at the entrance of what is still a busy harbor, used primarily by Chatham-based fishing fleets, sailboats from the Stage Harbor and Monomoy yacht clubs, and private craft owners.^[4]

Park in Chatham, Massachusetts. Veterans Field is a baseball venue in Chatham, Massachusetts, home to the Chatham Anglers of the Cape Cod Baseball League. The ballpark is located in downtown Chatham along Massachusetts Route 28.

Nestled within a natural bowl of embankments that provides ample spectator vantage points, Veterans Field has been called a "panorama of beauty," and "a portrait right out of Yankee Magazine." The ballpark features a large adjacent playground, and draws from the bustling foot traffic of nearby Main Street shops. The grassy right field hillside seats fans on blankets and beach chairs, and is topped by the quaint backdrop of the town's fire house and the former rail station that is now the Chatham Railroad Museum. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, the town's geographic location frequently produces "fog delays" during evening ball games, an oddity that has come to be seen as symbolic of the unique flavor of baseball in Chatham.

A charter member of the original four-team Cape Cod Baseball League that began play in 1923, Chatham quickly got to work constructing a field that would host its town baseball team and other town events. In 1925, the plot of land for Veterans Field was acquired, and its name was settled upon "as a memorial to those from Chatham who served in the World War and all other wars." By the early spring of 1927, final grading of the field was being completed, and that season both the Chatham High School baseball team as well as the Chatham CCBL franchise began play at the park.

Various improvements to Veterans Field have taken place since its original construction. A 2008 grant from the Yawkey Foundation provided the impetus for significant upgrades to the lighting and outfield playing surface, as well as the installation of a brick backstop and protective netting.

In 1984, Veterans Field hosted a contest between the CCBL all-stars and the United States national baseball team, which was touring in preparation for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Veterans Field again hosted a CCBL-Team USA matchup in 2000, as the national team prepared for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. The 2000 event drew a reported 10,000 fans, the largest crowd to date ever to witness a sporting event on Cape Cod. The 2001 Hollywood romantic comedy Summer Catch was set in Chatham, and used Veterans Field in its portrayal of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Veterans Field hosted the CCBL's annual all-star game festivities in 1964, 1968, 1971, 1998, 2008, and 2016, and has seen Chatham claim CCBL championships in 1967, 1982, 1992, 1996, and 1998. The ballpark has been the summertime home of dozens of future major leaguers such as Thurman Munson, Jeff Bagwell, and Kris Bryant.^[5]