Old Harbor U.S. Life Saving Station

Provincetown, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The Old Harbor U.S. Life Saving Station, built in 1897 and now located at Race Point Beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts, is a Victorian shingle-style maritime rescue structure that originally stood at Nauset Beach near Chatham. Operated by the United States Life-Saving Service and later the Coast Guard, it served as a lifesaving station until its decommissioning in 1944. After decades of private residential use, the building was acquired by the National Park Service in 1973 as part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Threatened by coastal erosion, it was cut in half and barged to Provincetown in 1977, then meticulously restored and refurnished to reflect its turn-of-the-century operational state. The museum opened at its new location in 1978 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.