Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi was an Italian inventor and electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave–based wireless telegraph system. This led to Marconi being credited as the inventor of radio, and he shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy".
Cape Cod is an arm-shaped peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The name Cape Cod, coined in 1602 by Bartholomew Gosnold, is the ninth oldest English place-name in the U.S.
The Cape Cod National Seashore (CCNS) encompasses 43,607 acres on Cape Cod, in Massachusetts. CCNS was created on August 7, 1961, by President John F. Kennedy, when he signed a bill enacting the legislation he first co-sponsored as a Senator a few years prior. It includes ponds, woods and beachfront of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecoregion. The CCNS includes nearly 40 miles (64 km) of seashore along the Atlantic-facing eastern shore of Cape Cod, in the towns of Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans and Chatham. It is administered by the National Park Service.
Wellfleet is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, and is located halfway between the "tip" and "elbow" of Cape Cod. The town had a population of 3,566 at the 2020 census, which swells nearly sixfold during the summer. A total of 70% of the town's land area is under protection, and nearly half of it is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Wellfleet is famous for its oysters, which are celebrated in the annual October Wellfleet OysterFest.
The Marconi National Historic Site and the Marconi Wireless Station National Historic Site are two National Historic Sites located on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Both sites commemorate the efforts of Guglielmo Marconi to transmit transatlantic radio signals between North America and Europe in the first decade of the 20th century. The two sites are located within approximately 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of one another, and are connected by the Marconi Trail.
WCC was the busiest coast station in the public ship-to-shore radio service for most of the 20th century.
Nauset Light, officially Nauset Beach Light, is a restored lighthouse on the Cape Cod National Seashore near Eastham, Massachusetts, erected in 1923 using the 1877 tower that was moved here from the Chatham Light. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The tower is a cast-iron plate shell lined with brick and stands 48 feet (15 m) high. The adjacent oil house is made of brick and has also been restored. Fully automated, the beacon is a private aid to navigation. Tours of the tower and oil house are available in summer from the Nauset Light Preservation Society which operates, maintains and interprets the site. The tower is located adjacent to Nauset Light Beach.
The Cape Cod Rail Trail (CCRT) is a 25.5-mile (41.0 km) paved rail trail located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The trail route passes through the towns of Yarmouth, Dennis, Harwich, Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet. It connects to the 6-plus mile (10 km) Old Colony Rail Trail leading to Chatham, the 2 mile Yarmouth multi-use trail, and 8 miles (13 km) of trails within Nickerson State Park. Short side trips on roads lead to national seashore beaches including Coast Guard Beach at the end of the Nauset Bike Trail in Cape Cod National Seashore. The trail is part of the Claire Saltonstall Bikeway.
Marconi Beach is part of the Cape Cod National Seashore in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The beach is named for Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi. In 1903, the first transatlantic wireless communication originating in the United States was successfully transmitted from nearby Marconi Station; a message from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt to King Edward VII of the United Kingdom. The beach was also used by the former Camp Wellfleet for artillery and rocket testing.
The Highland Light is an active lighthouse on the Cape Cod National Seashore in North Truro, Massachusetts. The current tower was erected in 1857, replacing two earlier towers that had been built in 1797 and 1831. It is the oldest and tallest lighthouse on Cape Cod.
The Atwood–Higgins Historic District encompasses a historic property with deep colonial roots in Cape Cod National Seashore. Located on Bound Brook Island on the west side of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, the centerpiece of the district is the Thomas Atwood House, built c. 1730. The property is emblematic of Cape Cod's colonial origins and its later transformation into a summer resort area. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976; the district was listed in 2010. The property is open for guided tours by the National Park Service on a seasonal basis.
The Marconi–RCA Wireless Receiving Station is a historic district at the junction of Old Comers Rd. and Orleans Rd. in Chatham, Massachusetts. It and its companion transmitter station at Marion were used for WCC, the busiest ship to shore radio station for most of the 20th century. The district includes eight red brick buildings constructed by Marconi in 1914 to house the station's operations; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, and is now home to the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center museum.
The John Newcomb House is a historic house in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. It is best known as the house described by Henry David Thoreau in the chapter on the "House of the Wellfleet Oysterman" in his 1865 book, Cape Cod. The house is located in Cape Cod National Seashore, on a sandy lane off Gull Pond Road to the east of Williams Pond in northern Wellfleet. The Cape style house is presumed to have been built by John Y. Newcomb.
The Samuel Smith Tavern Site is a historic archeological site in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. It encompasses the remains of a late 17th-century tavern operated by Samuel Smith, owner of Great Island, which shelters Wellfleet Harbor. The tavern site is located within the Cape Cod National Seashore, and is accessible via the Great Island Trail. The site was excavated in 1969–70, recovering thousands of artifacts, including clay pipes, drinking artifacts, a harpoon, and a chopping block fashioned from whale vertebrae.
The Three Sisters of Nauset are a trio of historic lighthouses off Cable Road in Eastham, Massachusetts. The original three brick towers fell into the sea due to erosion in 1890 and were replaced with wooden towers on brick foundations in 1892. The Sisters were decommissioned in 1911 but one of them, the Beacon, was moved back from the shoreline and attached to the keeper's house. It continued to operate but was replaced by a new steel tower, the Nauset Light, in 1923.
The Peter Kugel House, also known as the Kugel-Gips House, is a historic house at 188 Way 626, Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in Cape Cod National Seashore. It is one of a modest number of surviving houses in Wellfleet that combine elements of Modern architecture with traditional Cape Cod architecture. This house was built in 1970 to a design by architect Charlie Zehnder, who took his design inspiration for it from the Fallingwater estate designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Anthony and Allison Sirna Studio is a historic artist's studio at 60 Way #4 in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. It is one of a modest number of surviving buildings in Wellfleet that combine elements of Modern architecture with traditional Cape Cod architecture. The studio was built in 1960 to a design by Victor Civkin; it has a trapezoidal plan with nine large vertical window bays. The building is within the bounds of the Cape Cod National Seashore, and is owned by the National Park Service.
The Paul and Madeleine Weidlinger House, also known simply as the Weidlinger House, is a historic house at 54 Valley Road in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. It is one of a modest number of surviving houses in Wellfleet that combine elements of Modern architecture with traditional Cape Cod architecture. The single story wood-frame house was built in 1954 by designer Paul Weidlinger for his family's use. It is located on a steep grade overlooking Higgins Pond, with one end projecting over the grade. A deck wraps around three sides of the house, and large glass doors give views of the surrounding landscape. The house, which is within the bounds of the Cape Cod National Seashore, was donated to the National Park Service in 1973 by Madeleine Weidlinger. The house is the subject of a 2012 lease agreement between the Park Service and the Cape Cod Modern House Trust.
The Vera and Laszlo Tisza House is a historic house at 2 Deer Trail in the remote northeastern part of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, within the Cape Cod National Seashore. It is one of a number of surviving houses in Wellfleet that combine elements of Modern architecture with traditional Cape Cod architecture. The house was designed by Olav Hammarstrom, a protégé of Eero Saarinen, for Vera and László Tisza. The house is a T-shaped one-story structure with a central breezeway that provides views of the surrounding woodlands to much of the house. The main block, which is divided by the breezeway, measures 41 by 25 feet, with a 31 by 14 foot section added perpendicular to its north end. A flat roof, covered with rolled asphalt, extends for two feet beyond the edges of the house, and has exposed rafters that are visible both inside and outside the house. There is a recessed porch on the south side of the main block.
