A Town With(out) A View

Over the past couple of decades I've seen a lot of breathtakingly beautiful, and previously public, viewscapes in Chatham disappear.  Most are, not surprisingly, along the water -- primarily Chatham Harbor.  The huge house built just south of Water Street, where Clint Hammond's modest home once stood, comes to mind.  Where once the public strolling along Shore Road could see the a wide view of the water both before and after the older house, the new structure stretched across almost the entire parcel. There are other examples of locations where once the public could glimpse the harbor, ocean or Nantucket Sound from a public way, only to have selfish property owner with no sense of community build a monstrosity that blocks the viewscape.

The new view from Barcliff Avenue looking toward Chatham Harbor.

It's happening again.  A few months ago a house that stood for centuries overlooking Aunt Lydia's Cove was moved to West Chatham and a new house is now under construction on the site.  Just before construction began, a fence went up along Shore Road -- not a see-through chainlink fence, but a canvas-covered barrier.  While this sort of thing might be commonplace in the city or suburbs, it's pretty unusual here.  There are no doubt safety, security and insurance reasons, but it turned out to be the first shot across the bow of the public's view at this location.

The house now under construction,  even in its skeletal form, sits smack in the middle of the view the public previously enjoyed from Barcliff Avenue.  The final product will likely be another Polhemus Savery DaSilva behemoth, a Frankensteinian hodgepodge of architectural styles and pretentiousness that's out of sync with its natural and man-made environment.  I know nothing of architecture or the firm's process in developing projects like this; I do know that in my view, most of their buildings are ostentatious and look as much like Cape Cod as a 20-story steel-and-glass office tower.

I run by the spot multiple times a week and I've watched the house go up.  As I head up Barcliff, away from the water, I always look back to see how much of the harbor and outer beach still remains visible.   It looks like a sliver may remain open, depending upon the final landscaping and ornamentation on the McMansion.  But nothing like the panorama at the end of Water Street or Seaview Street.

Another piece of Chatham is being removed from the public.  What will be the next disappearing view?

Disclaimer: The opinions in this blog post are those of the author and do not reflect the newspaper he works for, his publisher, editorial staff or the office cat.

A Better Legacy For Chatham 300

Don't get me wrong. I think the Chatham 300 folks did a great job orchestrating the town's tercentennial celebration last year.  Granted, it wasn't all as exciting as it looked on paper, but coming up with enough things to fill 300 days worth of celebrating ain't easy, especially in a sleepy seaside resort town.

A few weeks ago the group held one final reception and announced several "legacy" gifts.  Turns out there's quite a bit of money left over, so the steering committee decided to give $35,000 to the recently formed Chatham Foundation for an annual $3,500 grant for a deserving Chatham project.  Another $40,000 will go to help jump start the Chatham Foundation's endowment.  Unspecified financial gifts will also be given to Monomoy Community Services and the Chatham Historical Society, to assist in preserving and archiving all of the documents generated by the 300th celebration.  The amounts will be determined once Chatham 300 closes its books.

Now, it's a little startling that this non-profit organization was able to solicit enough money for the nearly year-long celebration that in the end, there was close to $80,000 left over.  That's a boat load of cash.  And the final figure will be higher, as they've already indicated by the unspecified gifts to MCS and the historical society.

With that in mind, a different approach would have ensured a more enduring legacy for Chatham 300.

First, a refund of the initial $10,000 in seed money provided by the town would be a great gesture, showing the type of responsibility that wins non-profit organizations accolades.

Small gifts to MCS and the historical society would provide the direct community benefit the Chatham 300 folks seemed to be aiming for, but the majority of the remaining funds, say $50,000 to $70,000, could have been better invested to be used in 2062 as seed money for the 350th anniversary celebration.  That would have been a legacy, one that future residents and officials of Chatham would have appreciated.  At modest interest of 3 percent, over 50 years that sort of money would generate between $290,000 and $300,000.  Not a great deal of money in 2062 dollars, probably, but surely enough so that a Chatham 350 committee would not need seed money from taxpayers.

I don't mean this as a criticism of the Chatham 300 folks; they are all good people who volunteered a mess of time for the town they love.  The Chatham Foundation may be a great organization with a wonderful mission and lofty goals.  But it's an unknown entity with a vague mission that duplicates other nonprofits in town. Time, of course, will tell, but I'm willing to bet that most of the corporate sponsors and individual donors to Chatham 300 would rather have seen their money benefit the next generation celebration.