Atwood House Museum: Planning Your Visit

When to Visit:

• The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 4 PM, from June until September; weekdays in July and August it’s open from 10AM to 4PM. See the detailed schedule here.


• Groups: see the Group tour page.
  School groups: please contact the museum at 508-945-2493.


• Coming to do Research in the Archives or Library? See the Research Procedures page. You need not come when the museum is open to visitors; in fact, the best time to come for research purposes is off-season.

Getting to the Museum:

• By car: Put the above address into your GPS, or get more detailed driving directions on our Location & Directions page.


• Walk or bike from town or surrounding area: The museum is one-half mile south of the Chatham town center. Take Stage Harbor Road from the traffic circle at the top of Main Street; follow it past Oyster Pond; just stay on Stage Harbor Rd. until you arrive at the Atwood House Museum on your left. There are sidewalks for the first 4/10 mile, then you need to walk on the grass shoulder of Stage Harbor Rd.
  Alternatively, come out of town on Cross Street; at the end of Cross Street take a left on Stage Harbor Rd, and the Atwood House Museum is a quarter-mile further down Stage Harbor Rd on your left.
  View a local map of this section of Chatham.
  Biking this area is easy.


• The GPS location of the museum is: N 41° 40.396 W 069° 57.914
      (Latitude: 41.673274     Longitude: -69.965237)

At The Museum

• Visiting Time: Plan to spend an hour or two in the Museum; of course it is fascinating enough to spend twice that amount of time, but most visitors spend an hour or more inside the Museum. Spend another half-hour on the grounds exploring the North Beach Camp, and Chatham's Twin Light.


• Special Exhibits: Three Special Exhibits are on display during the 2012 season:
  • Visions of Chatham Past: An Exhibit of Personal Stories
  • The Raptor’s Eye: The Natural World of Robert Verity Clem
  • Chatham To China


• The Museum Galleries: See the Museum layout on this floorplan view that is also the starting point for a virtual tour of the Museum.


• Tour the Old Atwood House. Tours are with a docent, and are included with admission to the Museum.


• Spend some time in the Gift Shop.

Spend Time in Chatham:

• The Chatham Chamber of Commerce has a great list of links for Historic Places in Chatham .