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Photograph of Race Point Light
Photograph by Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Race Point Light Station

Built in 1816 in the Renaissance Revival architecture. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.

From the record

“Race Point Light is a historic lighthouse on Cape Cod, in Provincetown, Massachusetts; it is on the National Register of Historic Places. The original tower, first illuminated in 1816, was replaced in 1876 with the current 45-foot-tall (14 m) tall iron-plated tower and a new keeper's dwelling.”

Wikipedia article Race Point Light, CC BY-SA 4.0.

one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1987 · category: Structure · built in 1816, Renaissance Revival architecture.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 3 structuress, 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. Race Point Beach, Provincetown, 02657
  • When was it listed? 1987-06-15
  • Category. structure
  • Also known as. Lighthouses of Massachusetts TR
  • Township. Provincetown town
  • When was it built? 1816
  • Architectural style. Renaissance Revival architecture
  • National Register reference number. 87001482 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

30 words

This property stands in Provincetown Town. History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890, published 1890 gives that township a chapter of its own.

The chapter covers the township.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Provincetown Town - 30 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

18 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 18 fires within 5 miles of Race Point Light Station between 1992 and 2020, burning about 6 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined9
Recreation and ceremony4
Smoking3
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
14 September 2020Fireworksunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 September 2020Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreRACE POINT SOUTH BLOWOUT FIRE
11 September 1995Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreHERRCOVE
6 August 1992Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreARTSDUNE
3 July 2017Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreBEECH FOREST FIRE_1738
3 July 1992Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreBREAKPROVI
26 July 2004Smokingunder an acreCape Cod National SeashoreHRCOVEDUNE
23 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Specimens collected near this property

12 of 3,649 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 3,649 specimens collected within 10 miles of Race Point Light Station between 1827 and 1975: 3,365 Animalia, 115 Plantae, 91 Unrecorded, 55 Chromista, 23 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. K. Harrison, A. K. Harrison, G.C.H., A. M. Ottley and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
A photograph of the species Aralia hispida, not of this specimenAralia hispida Vent.1827A. M. Ottley
A photograph of the species Brevoortia tyrannus, not of this specimenBrevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe, 1802)1853Atwood, Nathaniel E.Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Scophthalmus aquosus, not of this specimenScophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill, 1815)1856not recordedProvincetown
A photograph of the species Aspidophoroides monopterygius, not of this specimenAspidophoroides monopterygius (Bloch, 1786)1860Smithsonian InstitutionProvincetown
A photograph of the species Prionotus carolinus, not of this specimenPrionotus carolinus (Linnaeus, 1771)1860Harvard MuseumProvincetown
A photograph of the species Ammodytes americanus, not of this specimenAmmodytes americanus DeKay, 18421864Blake, John HenryCape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Pholis gunnellus, not of this specimenPholis gunnellus (Linnaeus, 1758)1864SmithProvincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Gammarus mucronatus, not of this specimenGammarus mucronatus Say, 18181871U.S. Fish CommissionCape Cod. low water
A photograph of the species Chiridotea coeca, not of this specimenChiridotea coeca (Say, 1818)1872Smith & HagerProvincetown
A photograph of the species Idotea balthica, not of this specimenIdotea balthica (Pallas, 1772)1872U.S. Fish CommissionProvincetown
A photograph of the species Jaera albifrons, not of this specimenJaera albifrons Leach, 18141872U.S. Fish CommissionProvincetown
A photograph of the species Periphylla periphylla, not of this specimenPeriphylla periphylla (Péron & Lesueur, 1810)1872Smith & HagerProvincetown

All 3,649 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this property

8 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Provincetown, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2020: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
August 2018FloodProvincetown$15,000At 4:05 PM EST, the basement flooded at the Provincetown Fire Department. Water rose almost to the electrical panel. The flooding was aggravated by a failed water pump.
August 2008LightningProvincetown$10,000A housing complex on Bayberry Avenue was struck by lightning and caught fire. Damage was limited to the outside of the building.
August 2018FloodProvincetown$1,000At 4:50 PM EST, Bradford Street in Provincetown was flooded near the old High School. Flooding was able to remove a crosswalk sign and have it float down the road.
July 2016Thunderstorm WindProvincetown$1,000A beach sign was blown down on the east side of Race Point Road near Ocean View Hill.
October 2020Thunderstorm WindProvincetown-In Provincetown at 645 PM EDT, the office received a report of a wind gust to 63 mph, but the source was unable to be identified.
August 2018FloodProvincetown-At 4:21 PM EST, the intersection of Pearl Street and Bradford Street was flooded and required traffic mitigation.
July 1998Thunderstorm WindProvincetown-no account filed
May 1996Thunderstorm WindProvincetown-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Barnstable County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

From the nomination file

2,440 words on record

When this property was proposed for the National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is, and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain. It is reproduced in full on its own page, word for word and never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s typewriter's.

The whole case file for this property - 2,440 words, 17 pages, reproduced complete.

Quoted from the National Register nomination for reference 87001482, 17 pages, held by the National Archives in Record Group 79. See the catalogue record.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
US Post Office--Provincetown Main2.9 miles1987
First Universalist Chruch2.9 miles1972
Provincetown Public Library3.0 miles1975
Center Methodist Church3.0 miles1975
Hawthorne Class Studio3.1 miles1978
Wood End Light Lookout Station3.8 miles1987

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 87001482 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Barnstable CountyAll 145 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.