Chatham Railroad Museum

Rail service reached the elbow of Cape Cod when the Chatham Railroad opened between Harwich and Chatham on November 21, 1887, and the Victorian Railroad Gothic-style depot on Depot Road stayed in use until 1937, when freight service ended and the line was abandoned. Proposed for demolition in 1957–58, the station was bought in 1959 by Phyllis Graves Cox for use as a museum, restored over the following year, and reopened as the Chatham Railroad Museum in July 1960; in 1978 the building joined the National Register of Historic Places as the Chatham Railroad Depot. Its collections run from the New York Central model locomotives used at the 1939 New York World's Fair to original, still-working Western Union telegraph gear, lanterns, signs, timetables, menus and promotional literature, while a restored 1910 caboose, donated by the New York Central in 1962, sits on the grounds outside.