and a judgement of the Circuit Court of Appeals and a mandate 

 of said court was reached by which the Fays received all the 

 land west of the so-called "division line" near the corner of 

 North Street and Gosnold Drive. The agreement established a 

 40-foot strip immediately to the west of the line as a permanent 

 place of landing for all those people who had been conveyed such 

 a right in the preceding real estate transactions. The United 

 States was left with the remainder of the land deeded by J. S. Fay, 

 free of all restrictions set out in the original deed. The agreement 

 and judgement mentioned above were honored by the land court 

 (Land Court Case No. 5985) and the certificate No. 457 in favor 

 of the Fays was issued. 



Considerable confusion in the title of the U. S. Fisheries 

 property at Woods Hole was caused by the lack of clarity in the 

 original title and by the informal agreements made by Baird with 

 the selectmen of the Town of Falmouth. These parties agreed to 

 exchange a portion of the western end of vVater Street, owned by 

 the town, for an equivalent area of Fisheries land, 40 feet wide, 

 extending from Center Street to the water. This arrangement 

 enabled the Town of Falmouth to construct a wharf which is used 

 now as a public landing. The private exchange made between 

 Commissioner Baird and the Town of Falmouth remained without 

 proper legal action until 1956 when the real estate holdings were 

 reviewed by the Branch of Lands of the Regional Office of the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service (Ennis Abbiati's report on file in the Bureau 

 of Commercial Fisheries Regional Office in Gloucester) and the 

 necessary legal action was made to convey the title to a short 

 portion of Water Street owned by the Town of Falmouth to the U. S. 

 Government. 



The western end of the Commission's property along North 

 Street, consisting of approximately 1.0 3 acres in area, was for 

 many years rented by the Government to the Woods Hole Yacht 

 Club. In 1958 the parcel was declared surplus property and in 

 accordance with Private Law 85-367 was transferred for $6,000 

 to the Woods Hole Yacht Club with the provision that the conveyed 

 property is to be used only by the Club and for the purposes "to 

 which it is now put, namely, the usual activities of a non- commercial 

 yacht club. " The property cannot be transferred or assigned in 

 any manner to other parties without the prior consent of the U. S. 

 Government and cannot be used for any activities that may be 

 detrimental, as determined by the Government, to the operation 

 of the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Biological Laboratory. 

 The conveyance was made for only as long as the Woods Hole Yacht 

 Club remains in existence, and in case of its dissolution the 

 property with all improvements shall revert to the United States. 

 The deed executed by the Administrator of General Services has been 

 recorded on February 1, 1961, in the land records of Barnstable 

 County, Mass. in Book 1104, page 129. 



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