Dune Shacks of the Peaked Hill Bars: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Cape Cod National Seashore
NPS Northeast Regional Office. 2025. Dune Shacks of the Peaked Hill Bars: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Cape Cod National Seashore. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 650111. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Located on the outer tip of the Lower Cape, along the back shore of Provincetown and Truro in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, the landscape of the Dune Shacks of the Peaked Hill Bars Historic District is approximately 1,500 acres and contains 19 dune shacks, 18 of which are owned and managed by the National Park Service. The property is significant for its association with the development of American art, literature, and theater; for its representation of a rare, fragile property type; and for its historical associations with the productive life of poet Harry Kemp. The rustic dune shacks are situated within a rolling windswept landscape that remains mostly devoid of forest cover, allowing for uninterrupted views to the Atlantic Ocean. Additionally, the district includes a network of vehicle trails, footpaths, outhouses, outdoor seating, clotheslines, erosion control features, signs, birdhouses, and found object artwork.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- NPS Northeast Regional Office
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CACO , NER
- Keywords
- American Impressionism, Art Colonies, coast guard stations, domestic, dune, Dune Shacks, Eugene O'Neill, Fiction, Fishing, Harry Kemp, Historic Vernacular Landscape, John Reed, Lifesaving, Literature, Mabel Dodge, Mary Heaton Vorse, Natural area, New Realism, Novel, painting, Performance, performing arts, Playwriting, poetry, Province Lands, Provincetown, Recreation, Regionalism, residential, Susan Glaspell, The Peaked Hills, Theater, Truro, Vernacular architecture