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.
Eastham is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, Barnstable County being coextensive with Cape Cod. The population was 5,752 at the 2020 census.
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 Nauset Archaeological District is a National Historic Landmark District in Eastham, Massachusetts. Located within the southern portion of the Cape Cod National Seashore, this area was the location of substantial ancient settlements since at least 4,000 BC.
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.
Barnstable's Old Gaol is a historic colonial jail in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built c.1690, it is the oldest wooden jail in the United States of America.
The Highland House is a historic hotel building, now serving as a museum, located at 6 Highland Light Road within the Cape Cod National Seashore in Truro, Massachusetts. It is located in the Cape Cod National Seashore near the Highland Light in the Truro Highlands Historic District. The present two story wood-frame building was constructed in 1907 by Isaac Small, whose family had been serving tourists in the area since 1835.
The Marconi Wireless Station Site in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, USA is the site of the first transatlantic wireless communication between the United States of America and Europe, on January 18, 1903. At this location, now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, inventor Guglielmo Marconi erected a large antenna array on four 210-foot (64 m) wooden towers, and established a transmitting station powered by kerosene engines that produced the 25,000 volts of electricity needed to send signals to a similar station in Poldhu, Cornwall, United Kingdom. The first transmission received on the continent of North America by Marconi was at Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador in 1901; Glace Bay, Nova Scotia was the site of the first such two-way transmission, in 1902.
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 Edward Penniman House and Barn is a historic site in Eastham, Massachusetts, on Fort Hill, which is currently protected by the Cape Cod National Seashore and home to Indian Rock.
The Cape Cod Modern House Trust is a non-profit historic preservation organization working to preserve and interpret Modern period houses built on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The organization describes its mission to ''promote the documentation and preservation of significant examples of Modernist architecture on the Outer Cape."
The Ruth and Robert Hatch Jr. House is a historic house at 309 Bound Brook Way 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. This single story wood-frame house was built in 1961 on Bound Brook Island to a design by local architect Jack Hall. Extremely rustic in appearance, its exterior is sheathed in vertical boards and its windows have working shutters but no glass, resulting in a sharply vertical appearance. The structure consists of three rectangular sections of different sizes that are based on modular 7' by 7' squares; the main public living space is 35' by 49', the master bedroom is 7' by 21', and the guest bedrooms are in a block that is 7' by 14'. The house, which is within the bounds of the Cape Cod National Seashore, was sold by the Hatches to the National Park Service, but they retain occupancy rights.
The Samuel and Minette Kuhn House is a historic house 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 1960 to a design by Nathaniel Saltonstall, founder of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art. The Kuhns were exposed to Saltonstall's work when they stayed at The Colony, another property he designed that is located nearby on Griffins Island. The house incorporates Bauhaus design principles of simplicity and economy, and is based around the idea of square modules, which are repeated on small, medium and large scales, affecting the room shapes and sizes, windows, and interior furnishings and decorations. The house, which is within the bounds of the Cape Cod National Seashore, was sold by the Kuhns to the National Park Service in 1973, but they retained right of occupancy for 25 years. The Park Service began using the property for employee housing in 2003.
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.
