Historic Location • Seascape (Photograph)

I find that I keep returning to these photos I took on Cape Cod in December 2006. This one is of what used to be a Coast Guard station that is near Nauset Light in Eastham, Mass. It is now part of Cape Cod National Seashore and the building can be booked for use by groups up to 35 individuals as an educational facility. More information can be found at http://www.nps.gov/archive/caco/education/need.html

Here’s a quote from the information on the above web page:

The NEED Program at Cape Cod National Seashore is housed in a former U.S. Coast Guard station, located at Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. This attractive building is situated only a few hundred feet inland from the famous sandy Outer Beach, and offers accommodations for up to 35 overnight participants.

On the day I was there taking this photograph I was reminded of the harsh weather here at the seashore. This building faces due east across the full expanse of the Atlantic ocean. Any weather and waves coming off the Atlantic heading west hits this shoreline with full force. Yet the building presents an old world certainty of itself that seems quite strong and able in the face of the harsh environment around it.

And of course anyone who has lived near the ocean has probably wished, on at least one occasion, that they had a widow’s walk cupola on their roof like the one on this building where they could sit in all kinds of weather and watch the stars, or maybe other sorts of “observation”. One gets the sense from this building that it had the last century equivalent of a flight controller’s tower on its roof.