1. Ben Franklin
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-0655
Address: 631 Main St.
Description: This old-fashioned five-and-dime store carries a wide variety of merchandise, from art supplies and toys to greeting cards, mugs, and T-shirts. Kids gravitate to this shop because it sells baseball cards, model kits, and classics like Play-Doh and Silly Putty, and adults like it because it sells grown-up essentials such as desk blotters, calendars, and magazines. The shop is closed Sun in the off-season.
2. Chatham Candy Manor
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-0825, (800) 221-6497
Address: 484 Main St.
Description: People from all over the world have visited Chatham Candy Manor for the caloric concoctions that they make in small batches, then hand-dip every day in the same tradition started more than 50 years ago by the store’s founder, Naomi Turner. The selection is endless: chocolate-dipped fruits (including apricots, pears, and pineapples in dark or milk chocolate), hazelnut puree and chocolate treats shaped like scallops, and cranberry cordials (fresh fruit melded with bonbon crème and liqueur, then covered with pure chocolate). Even the barley lollipops are kettle cooked and poured by hand. Mail order is available; call for a brochure and price list. The shop is open daily.
3. Chatham Glass Company
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-5547
Address: 758 Main St.
Description: Glassblower Jim Holmes is the force behind the vibrant contemporary glass pieces you’ll find here. The bud vases evoke jeweled candied apples, and the kaleidoscopic bowls and sleek candlesticks would liven up any table. Holmes’s work is carried by several fancy department stores and featured in the collections of museums like the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Corning Glass Museum. If your taste is more traditional, this is also the place to order the small, colonial-style “bulls-eye” glass window panes that you may have been admiring in local historical homes. Look in on the working studio if you want to see how it’s all done. Open Mon through Sat.
4. Pentimento
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-0178
Address: 584 Main St.
Description: This shop has wonderful ambience—maybe it’s the fact that it sells indulgent items such as luxurious clothing from designers like Sigrid Olsen and Eileen Fisher, pretty blank journals, fine stationery, scarves, and jewelry. It also carries whimsical picture frames, bejeweled sandals, clever totes, and home accessories. Call for hours during the off-season.
5. The Whale’S Eye
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-3084
Address: 653 Route 28
Description: Housed in an old barn, the Whale’s Eye has an array of beautifully hand-painted furniture and mirrors. All the work is by Suzanne and John Rocanello, who opened the shop in the barn adjacent to their home in the late 1970s and soon after began marketing their creations at craft shows all over the Cape. At the shop you’ll see chests, boxes, tables, and mirrors, many painted with nautical scenes. The Rocanellos do a lot of custom work, and if you bring in a fabric swatch or wallpaper strip, they’ll be happy to use colors that will work with your decor. The shop is open daily in summer and a bit sporadically in spring and fall. It’s open by appointment only in the winter.
6. Yankee Ingenuity
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-1288, (888) 945-9123
Address: 525 Main St.
Description: Half gallery, half gift shop, Yankee Ingenuity carries unusual items in a wide range of prices, making it an ideal place for gift-shopping. You’ll find sports ball banks, cunning lighthouse ornaments, unusual mirrors, beautiful Cape Cod photography, clocks, desk accessories, oversize stuffed animals, even Tiffany-style lamps. The shop is filled with interesting and beautiful things, from Impressionist-print umbrellas to jewelry, letter openers, and desk sets fashioned from shells. It’s open daily.
7. Yellow Umbrella Books
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-0144, (800) 471-0144
Address: 501 Main St.
Description: Yellow Umbrella has been offering locals and tourists the latest in fiction and nonfiction best sellers, used books, and works by local authors since 1979. The store also has an extensive section of books about Cape Cod. It carries rare and out-of-print books, used hardcover and paperback books, and they will do special orders. Be sure to visit the outdoor bargain racks—any book is a buck. It’s open daily year-round.
8. House On The Hill
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-2290
Address: 17 Seaview St.
Description: You’ll find a delightful collection of baseball cards and sports memorabilia, political pins, toys, old advertisements, postcards, and Cape Cod memorabilia here, along with glass, china, and small furniture. The shop keeps regular hours from Memorial Day to Labor Day, usually until dusk, and is open by chance or appointment the rest of the year.
9. Maps Of Antiquity
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-1660
Address: 1409 Rte. 28
Description: Maps of Antiquity mostly offers 19th-century maps, but it also has some earlier ones, including those of Massachusetts townships and other New England states. European and world maps, railroad maps, coastal charts, and early U.S. maps are also part of the collection. If you can’t find a specific map in their inventory, the store may be able to order it. The shop is open seven days a week year-round.
10. Chatham Drama Guild
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-0510
Address: 134 Crowell Rd.
Description: The guild does four major shows a year in fall, winter, and spring. Productions range from musicals to comedy and mystery. Chathamania, a brand-new old-fashioned variety show, as well as more traditional productions such as Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, were featured during past seasons. Over the years the guild has staged productions in conjunction with Chatham High School, making an educational experience for the students as well as a grand experience for the general audience. Call for tickets and pricing.
11. Monomoy Theatre
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-1589
Address: 776 Main St.
Description: Monomoy Theatre’s season kicks off in June with a delightful mix of musicals, comedies, dramas, thrillers, and an annual Shakespeare play. Since 1957 the theater, operated by the Ohio University School of Theater Arts, has combined talented students with visiting professors, faculty, and professional guest artists. The season usually begins with a two-week musical followed by seven one-week plays. Season subscriptions are available. Theater tickets range between $18 and $25, depending on the showing.
12. Studio 878
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Telephone: (508) 945-8780
Address: 878 Main St.
Description: Studio 878 is a nonprofit educational organization that has become known for its unusual and exploratory performance collaborations. It offers professional training in dance from beginning through professional levels.
13. Creative Arts Center
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Address: 154 Crowell Rd.
Description: The nonprofit Creative Arts Center has two galleries hosting several shows a year, alternating exhibitions of students, members and faculty with regional displays featuring other Cape Cod organizations. The center, open daily in summer (and on weekdays from Sept through May), also offers a wide range of classes.
14. Chatham Jam & Jelly Shop
City: Chatham, MA
Category: Shopping
Address: 10 Vineyard Ave.
Insider Pick:
Description: Husband and wife Robin and Carol Cummings launched their jam business from their home kitchen in 1983. Today all the jams and jellies sold at this adorable Cape Cod cottage are still kettle-cooked in small batches from the tiny kitchen in the back. At any one time, the shop’s shelves are filled with more than 100 varieties of preserves from Cape Cod Rose Hip Jelly to Strawberry Rhubarb Jam to Cranberry Apple Butter.