History

Spotlight

A Builder Says $1.5 Million. Chillingsworth Hasn't Said May.

Nov 5, 2026

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5 min read

A Builder Says $1.5 Million. Chillingsworth Hasn't Said May.

Its 2026 season ends Nov. 28. Nitzi Rabin relayed a builder's estimate to the Select Board and made no commitment about reopening in May.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Harwich Gained More Than 100 Revolutionary Soldiers After 2022

Nov 5, 2026

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4 min read

Harwich Gained More Than 100 Revolutionary Soldiers After 2022

The town counted 284 veterans in 2022. Its roster now runs to RW 449, and one note shows how hard the counting gets.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

$80 a Barrel in 1998. About $22 at the Last Big Thacher Harvest.

Oct 29, 2026

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4 min read

$80 a Barrel in 1998. About $22 at the Last Big Thacher Harvest.

Ray Thacher Jr. keeps a two-acre bog by his home. He says the trust that bought the 50 acres takes over in January.

Arthur Radtke

Wellfleet

Oct 29, 2026

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6 min read

Before the Playwrights Arrive, Wellfleet Weighs the Porches

Three 1948 cottages go before Wellfleet's Historical Commission on Nov. 5, a public step toward a 2028 playwrights' center.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Her Story Starts Decades Before the House Did

Oct 28, 2026

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5 min read

Her Story Starts Decades Before the House Did

Frommer's put Orleans' 1875 inn on its most-haunted list. Its ghost reportedly worked there in the early 1800s, the list says.

Arthur Radtke

The Drift

Oct 22, 2026

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19 min read

🐚 don’t put it back in the water

The first rule for this season’s beach find is the one that feels wrong.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

The Play Starts Before You Find Your Seat

Oct 22, 2026

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7 min read

The Play Starts Before You Find Your Seat

Kids in Holmes-era clothes work the aisles before curtain, a Chronicle critic writes. The theater is in season 75. Through Nov. 8.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

There's a Castle in the Truro Woods and It Came From Boston

Oct 22, 2026

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7 min read

There's a Castle in the Truro Woods and It Came From Boston

A granite tower from Boston stands in the North Truro scrub with no path to it, a famous legend attached and a 1981 federal file.

Arthur Radtke

Chatham

The Prize-Winning Chowder Has Flour. The Oldest One Had Wine.

Oct 22, 2026

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9 min read

The Prize-Winning Chowder Has Flour. The Oldest One Had Wine.

Mac's menu says no flour. The Lobster Pot's prize bowl has a little. A 1751 recipe used claret and no milk. Pick your side.

Arthur Radtke

Wellfleet

Oct 15, 2026

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3 min read

Wellfleet Chose the Land Over an 1802 House

A family spent decades conserving land on Lieutenant Island. The last 2.5 acres come with a house the state grant won't allow.

Arthur Radtke

Chatham

The Famous Wellfleet Oyster Started Out as an Import

Oct 15, 2026

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11 min read

The Famous Wellfleet Oyster Started Out as an Import

OysterFest fills Main Street this weekend. The shell from your first dozen has a year at the transfer station ahead of it, and the town's founding oyster story has a neighbor's name penciled in the margin.

Arthur Radtke

Chatham

Oct 1, 2026

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11 min read

Same Word on the Board. $18 Apart.

Mac's prints both on one board in Chatham. One came out of the tidal mud in 1916, the other out of Ipswich because it could survive a freezer, and one of the windows closes Monday.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Before the Beer License, Brewster Asked About the Onion Rings

Sep 24, 2026

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7 min read

Before the Beer License, Brewster Asked About the Onion Rings

One question was asked at a Brewster hearing. One line went into a Provincetown lease. Both were about what the new owners can't touch.

Arthur Radtke

Wellfleet

$830 a Month for a Seashore Studio. The Repairs Could Run $250,000.

Sep 24, 2026

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11 min read

$830 a Month for a Seashore Studio. The Repairs Could Run $250,000.

Three empty historic houses on the National Seashore are up for lease. The government lists every fault. It won't price a single one.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Sep 24, 2026

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10 min read

He Wanted to Sell Cape Cod Air in a Can

He never found a can for it. He found uses for a fruit stand, a doomed house and a chicken coop, and one still opens at 9.

Arthur Radtke

Wellfleet

Sep 17, 2026

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3 min read

He Called the Titanic to Say Wellfleet Had Messages Waiting

A routine batch of Cape Cod wireless traffic, a young operator with his coat off, and the question that turned Carpathia toward the ice.

Arthur Radtke

Chatham

Two Eastham Lighthouses Sold for $3.50. One Tower Became the Kitchen.

Sep 17, 2026

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3 min read

Two Eastham Lighthouses Sold for $3.50. One Tower Became the Kitchen.

The Three Sisters were retired, auctioned, turned into a cottage off Cable Road, and finally walked back together into the pines. The lighthouse that replaced them came from Chatham.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

A Brewster Captain Asked Robespierre for a Meeting. The Reply Said 10 A.M.

Sep 17, 2026

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4 min read

A Brewster Captain Asked Robespierre for a Meeting. The Reply Said 10 A.M.

Elijah Cobb lost his flour to revolutionary Paris, rode 74 hours to get it back, and watched the man who helped him go to the guillotine. Then he went back to his paperwork.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Harwich Got Its Town Hall From a West Harwich Coffee Man for $1

Sep 17, 2026

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3 min read

Harwich Got Its Town Hall From a West Harwich Coffee Man for $1

Caleb Chase left West Harwich, built one of America's great coffee brands, and handed the town the Exchange. Seventy-one years later, Harwich had to choose between the building and Bell's Neck.

Arthur Radtke

Wellfleet

The Clock Is Lying to You. Two Bells Means Nine O'Clock.

Aug 28, 2026

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7 min read

The Clock Is Lying to You. Two Bells Means Nine O'Clock.

Wellfleet's town clock keeps ship's time — and the man who built the mechanism by hand later asked them to tear it out.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

They Floated Their Houses Across the Harbor. Some Are Still Wearing the Badge.

Aug 28, 2026

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6 min read

They Floated Their Houses Across the Harbor. Some Are Still Wearing the Badge.

A village of two hundred people packed up Long Point and rowed home — and a ten-minute walk in the West End will show you where the houses landed.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Every Day of the Year, He Sat Down at 5:15

Aug 28, 2026

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3 min read

Every Day of the Year, He Sat Down at 5:15

Napi's began as a Wednesday night dinner party, got built out of tin garages, stayed open through forty-nine Provincetown winters — and then ended somewhere nobody expected.

Arthur Radtke

Spotlight

Aug 20, 2026

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9 min read

Forty-Eight Years of Carnival Themes

From a one-night party in 1978 to a disco under the sea this afternoon — including the eleven straight years Provincetown didn't bother naming one at all.

Arthur Radtke

Chatham

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

Aug 20, 2026

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8 min read

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

Thirty-five years ago this week, Hurricane Bob came up Buzzards Bay and took the summer with it. We're collecting your stories — and running them next Thursday, with your name on them.

Arthur Radtke

Wellfleet

There's a Federal No-Go Zone in Cape Cod Bay, and Almost Nobody Out Here Knows It

Aug 20, 2026

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10 min read

There's a Federal No-Go Zone in Cape Cod Bay, and Almost Nobody Out Here Knows It

A bomb squad blew something up in Orleans on Tuesday. The reason it was sitting on the beach involves a Liberty ship they shot at for years, an artillery range along the Wellfleet cliffs, and a thousand-yard circle of water you are still not legally allowed to enter.

Arthur Radtke

History

A Builder Says $1.5 Million. Chillingsworth Hasn't Said May.

Harwich Gained More Than 100 Revolutionary Soldiers After 2022

$80 a Barrel in 1998. About $22 at the Last Big Thacher Harvest.

Before the Playwrights Arrive, Wellfleet Weighs the Porches

Her Story Starts Decades Before the House Did

🐚 don’t put it back in the water

The Play Starts Before You Find Your Seat

There's a Castle in the Truro Woods and It Came From Boston

The Prize-Winning Chowder Has Flour. The Oldest One Had Wine.

Wellfleet Chose the Land Over an 1802 House

The Famous Wellfleet Oyster Started Out as an Import

Same Word on the Board. $18 Apart.

Before the Beer License, Brewster Asked About the Onion Rings

$830 a Month for a Seashore Studio. The Repairs Could Run $250,000.

He Wanted to Sell Cape Cod Air in a Can

He Called the Titanic to Say Wellfleet Had Messages Waiting

Two Eastham Lighthouses Sold for $3.50. One Tower Became the Kitchen.

A Brewster Captain Asked Robespierre for a Meeting. The Reply Said 10 A.M.

Harwich Got Its Town Hall From a West Harwich Coffee Man for $1

The Clock Is Lying to You. Two Bells Means Nine O'Clock.

They Floated Their Houses Across the Harbor. Some Are Still Wearing the Badge.

Every Day of the Year, He Sat Down at 5:15

Forty-Eight Years of Carnival Themes

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

There's a Federal No-Go Zone in Cape Cod Bay, and Almost Nobody Out Here Knows It

Celebrate Lower Cape

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