Chatham Radio/WCC was the site of a major maritime wireless communications center and one of the 20th century’s premier wireless telegraphy stations. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America built the Chatham receiver station in 1914 as one of many stations created by Guglielmo Marconi during the early expansion of his global communications network. It formed part of an extensive system of transmitting and receiving wireless stations linking Japan, Hawaii, and the United States to Europe. The operations building served as the station’s communication hub, where operators forwarded messages to and from Norway. After RCA took over in 1920, the station was re-commissioned and became the largest ship to shore wireless telegraphy station in the United States.