{"nrhp_refnum":"75000158","name":"Marconi Wireless Station Site","other_names":[],"category":"site","location":{"address":"1 mi. NE of Cape Cod National Seashore","address_restricted":false,"city":"South Wellfleet","county":"Barnstable County","state":"MA","lat":41.91399429300003,"lon":-69.97169606999995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1975-05-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Engineering","Science","Communications","Invention"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The site of Marconi's wireless station, about one mile northeast of Cape Cod National Seashore headquarters in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Station construction began around 1901, and only ruins of concrete bases and brick fragments remain.","why_significant":"The station sent the first wireless message from the United States to Europe on January 18, 1903. The nomination calls it the only nationally significant historic site within Cape Cod National Seashore. It also credits Marconi with making wireless telegraphy practical.","narrative":"On a coastal bluff in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, the ruins of Guglielmo Marconi's wireless station mark the origin of the first wireless message sent from the United States to Europe, on January 18, 1903. The station, nearly complete by November 1901, had its original circle of 20 poles destroyed by a storm, and four 210-foot wooden latticed towers replaced them in 1902. Two kerosene engines, an alternator, a Tesla transformer and a spark-gap transmitter produced 30,000 watts. The station mainly sent news to ships at sea and ran until 1917. Wartime censorship, cliff erosion and the vacuum tube, which made spark-gap transmission obsolete, led to dismantling in 1922. What remains includes the concrete base of the transmitter house, part of a concrete corridor, brick fragments from the powerhouse and an exposed tower base. The site is now part of Cape Cod National Seashore and is used for interpretation.","period_of_significance":"20th Century (1901-1922 per the construction and operation dates given)","architect_builder":"Carl Taylor, chief builder of Marconi stations","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Ruins; unoccupied, used for interpretation within a park. The form recommends preservation.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:53.516718-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/96/7940/63794096/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/75000158.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000158/bf711936c7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/75000158/bf711936c7-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marconi_site.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Marcbela (Marc N. Belanger)</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marconi_site.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794096","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Wellfleet_Marconi_Station","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1353744"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/barnstable-county/marconi-wireless-station-site-75000158/"}