Brax History

The harbor we face is named for the Saquatucket, one of the area’s Native American groups (part of the Wampanoag Tribe). The busy harbor was once a stream called Andrews Creek or River, for local farmer Andrew Clarke, who used salt hay from the marsh to feed his sheep. A watermill was built on one of its feeder brooks, Carding Machine Brook, in 1820.

In the early twentieth century, a small bridge was constructed over the creek “not more than 500 feet distant from the point where the said creek flows into Vineyard Sound,” according to a Harwich Authorization Act in 1907.

Not much changed until 1963, when Richard Wales, then Chairman of the Waterways Commission, took up the cause.

“Wales really loved the town,” says Leach. “He really pushed for the harbor to be built.”

Wales succeeded in getting the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers to come aboard.

“The project cost over $2.5 million,” says Leach. “And we managed to work it out that the town only paid around 10 percent of the costs. So we got an amazing harbor that lasted for four decades for around $250,000.”

Saquatucket Harbor opened as a municipal marina in 1970, and a few years later the Bourne House, which had been used as a dormitory for Snow Inn waitresses, was relocated to the property, turned to face the water, and refashioned by the Brackett Family into Brax Landing Restaurant.

(Source:  https://capecodfishermen.org/the-three-harbors-of-harwich)