Old Harbor U.S. Life Saving Station Tickets & Tours
The Old Harbor U.S. Life Saving Station is a historic maritime rescue station and museum, located at Race Point Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Built in 1897, it was originally located at Nauset Beach near the entrance to Chatham Harbor in Chatham, Massachusetts. It was used by the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS), and then by its successor, the United States Coast Guard (USCG), as the Old Harbor Coast Guard Station. The station was decommissioned in 1944, abandoned and sold as surplus in 1947, and was used as a private residence for the next twenty-six years.
About
The Old Harbor Station was built in 1897 by the United States Life-Saving Service. The design for this station was first created by USLSS architect George R. Tolman in 1893 for a prototype station on Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota. In all, the USLSS used that same design to build twenty-eight stations in the "Duluth style." This style resulted from a gradual evolution to replace the simple pitched-roof structures of 1872, and featured a large truncated, or jerkin-head gable roof. The rectangular floor plan was divided into two sections. One side of the building contained the living space, including a keeper's room, office, kitchen and mess room with sleeping quarters above for crew and rescuees. On the other side was a single-story, two-bay boat room. The Duluth departed even further from the norm by adding a large, rectangular, off-center, four-story lookout tower between the sections on the front of the building.