The Town of Harwich is a resort and residential community located on the south side of the Cape peninsula, with an extensive shoreline on Nantucket Sound. Harwich is an affordable, diverse community with many new facilities like the community center, good schools, and relatively low taxes. The town has excellent beaches along Nantucket Sound, on Pleasant Bay, and on many of the town's fresh water ponds. The town's harbors, Wychmere, Saquatucket, and Allen's, are some of the most beautiful on the Cape. The website of the Harwich Harbormaster provides a thorough overview of the town.

Harwich was settled around 1665, and incorporated in 1694. Its early economy included agriculture and maritime industries, and its history has included boom and bust cycles from the earliest days of the community. When the whaling industry collapsed with the discovery of oil, the community's emphasis shifted to cod fishing. By 1802, 15 to 20 ships were shore fishing and another four ships were cod fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador, and by 1851, there were 48 ships employing 577 men and bringing in thousands of tons of cod and mackerel. The eventual decline of the fishing industry in Harwich by the latter part of the 19th century was caused by increases in the size of ships which eventually outstripped the shallow port's ability to house them.

Residents turned to the development of cranberry bogs and resorts for summer visitors, working side-by-side with Portuguese immigrants. The first resort hotel opened in 1880 and both the cranberry and the tourist industries remain substantial parts of Harwich's economy in the present. In 1775, when Separatists and Baptists outnumbered Orthodox Congregationalists, Harwich burghers felt independent enough to refuse to support a minister with public tax monies and they continued refusing to do so for 18 years. The town showed religious diversity from the first, including residents who are Baptists, Methodists, Reformed Methodists (anti-Episcopal), Wesleyans and Catholics, among others.

Commercial, motel and condominium development has been intense along the Route 28 corridor and suburban development has significantly decreased the remaining agricultural landscape, but the town retains much of its 19th century character, including period Portuguese farmhouses.

(Narrative in part courtesy of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development.)

Harwich Officials and Phone Numbers

Town Meeting

Finances   

State Report of Harwich's Finances

Employment and Wages

Valuation (Real Estate) Certification Statistics

Natural Resources   

Office of the Harwich Harbormaster Tom Leach, our harbormaster, has created one of the great sites on Cape Cod.

Shellfish Information

Cranberry Valley Golf Course 183 Oak St., Harwich 508-430-7560
18-hole, par 72, 6,945 yards Spikeless; Greens fee: $40 weekdays, $50 weekends.

Harwichport Golf Club Forest Street and South St., Harwichport  508-432-0250
9-hole, par 34, 2,538 yards Spikeless; No Tee times;  Greens fees: $21.

Real Estate   

Schools   

Harwich Public Schools Web Site

Harwich School and District Profiles

Miscellaneous   

Harwich Historical Commission

Harwich Chamber of Commerce

Harwich Weather

Real-time Weather Conditions from Harwich Middle School (This site is cute, but often down.)

Cape Cod's best source for finding the right house in the right town right now.

508-432-3411