Historic Coast Guard Boathouse Due Back In Town

CHATHAM – The historic Stage Harbor Coast Guard boathouse is expected to arrive back in town as soon as next week.

The boathouse, which previously sat on the shore of Stage Island, has been undergoing exterior renovations in New Bedford in preparation for its new role housing the town’s shellfish upwelling system at 90 Bridge St. Officials anticipate that the boathouse will be barged to Chatham next week, but the exact timing is highly dependent on the weather.

“Many things have to line up” for conditions to be right for the journey, Natural Resources Director Greg Berman said in an email.

The boathouse provided support services for the Chatham Coast Guard Station for decades, including housing the Gold Medal Lifeboat CG36500, which was used in the famous Pendleton rescue in February 1952. The rescue was portrayed in the 2016 film “The Finest Hours.”

Local preservationists saved the boathouse from demolition in 2009 when the land on which it stood was slated for development. After spending years in a shipping yard in Quincy and some time on the shore in Hull, the boathouse was suggested as a new home for the upwelling facility, which is being relocated from the harbormaster’s building to 90 Bridge St. Repurposing the structure preserves a piece of the town’s history and provides more than adequate space to house the shellfish grow-out program as well as provide storage for town waterways departments.

In January, the Robert B. Our company put the boathouse on a barge and took it through the Cape Cod Canal to a drydock in New Bedford. Exterior renovations to prepare the boathouse for placement on pilings at the Bridge Street site have been completed and now await an engineering inspection, according to Jack Farrell, who is working on the project with boathouse owner David Doherty. Once the inspection is complete, Doherty will sign ownership over to the town.

The recent blizzard caused some delays in the process, but the hope is that the boathouse will be transported back to Stage Harbor between March 16 and 20, according to Farrell.