Anyone looking to live in remote, rustic style on the Cape now has their chance, with the eight of the region’s historic “dune shacks” now up for ten year leases.
“The opportunity to submit a proposal to lease any of these eight properties is competitive and is open to all interested persons and businesses,” the National Parks Service said in an announcement.
The eight properties, located in the Peaked Hill Bars National Register of Historic District in Provincetown and Truro, are described as “small, weathered” structures — set up for people who don’t mind hiking into their beach house and pumping water out of a well.
The shacks are available for between $2,000 and $16,000 a year and range from a 120 square foot, one-room structure to a 2.3 acre lot with a 590 square foot shack and separate guest cottage.
The historic properties are “often built on pilings to adjust for the ever-moving sand dunes surrounding these properties,” the parks service wrote, and mostly have “limited” running water, plumbing, and electricity. There are no paved roads leading to the dune shacks, meaning people may reach them by foot or 4×4 vehicle.
The original dune shacks have a long history dating back to a number of structures built around the Peaked Hill Bars lifesaving station in the late 1800s, according to the New England Historical Society. Most of the surviving structures were built around the 1920s when artists began to move into the area.
The primitive residences have attracted a range of artists and writers over the last century, including so-called “Poet of the Dunes” Harry Kemp, Henry David Thoreau, Jack Kerouac, Jackson Pollock, Tennessee Williams, Norman Mailer and Ann Patchett. The place reportedly turned out some of the many artists most famous works, according to the historical society, including part of “On the Road” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
In the last several years, at least two are still available for short-term artist residencies through the Provincetown Community Compact.
For the 10-year leases, residents will be expected to “occupy and maintain the dune shack as a traditional dune shack,” NPS detailed, including performing a repairs and routine maintenance required.
The parks service will guide site visits by appointment on June 15 and accept the first round of proposals on July 3. Leases begin on Sept. 1.
