b'Chapter ThreeIt has to be one of the oldest commercial sites in Chatham. With a pedigree going back at least to 1840, the Old Mill Boat Yard has changed hands now and again, but in its strategic location on a shoulder of land thrusting south into Stage Harbor, it has given boat owners, both private and otherwise, access to that waterway for all those years. And when an out-of-towner wanted to remake it in a major way, neighbors were jolted into action.Largely, that was how what is now Friends of Chatham Waterways came to be.As it happens, the Old Mill Boat Yard did not always wear that name. As far back as 1840, it simply was a marine railroad, one of the few then available in the whole area. Rails running into the water enabled an operator to haul out a boat for maintenance or storage. An 1858 map names the site a wharf. In making their 1890 map of Chatham, the two George Eldridges labeled it the railway wharf, and by 1928 it was being described as the steamboat wharf.In years that followed, Alton Kenney took it over and designated it Chatham Marine Railway. Thats how it stayed until he decided in 1970 that it was time to retire. He only had to reach to the Mill Pond for a likely buyer.The Old Mill Boat Yard, a fixture on Chathams landscape since the mid- 19th century.Today, it is Town-owned, thanks to FCW volunteers efforts, and houses the Harbormasters office. Courtesy of Nancy Ennis Geiger35'