{"nrhp_refnum":"78000423","name":"Half Way House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Andrew Harding La.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chatham","county":"Barnstable County","state":"MA","lat":41.67426844400006,"lon":-69.94718382999997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-07-21","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Communications","Social History"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A small shingled shelter, about five feet square, on the inner beach at Pleasant Bay in Chatham, Massachusetts, near the foot of Andrew Harding Lane. It served as a halfway house for Cape Cod lifesaving patrols and was built before about 1920.","why_significant":"It is the last remaining of the original twelve halfway houses that were part of the Cape Cod lifesaving service. Halfway houses sat midway between life saving stations, where patrols left tags to prove they had walked their routes. The form evaluates its significance as local.","narrative":"Near the foot of Andrew Harding Lane on the Pleasant Bay beach in Chatham, a tiny shingled hut about five feet square marks a piece of Cape Cod's lifesaving past. It is the last survivor of twelve halfway houses placed midway between life saving stations. Patrols walked from a station to the hut, left a tag to prove they had been there, and returned; the next patrol collected the tag. Their task was to watch for stranded or distressed vessels and sailors. Oral tradition holds that the building began as a Hut of Refuge of the Massachusetts Humane Society, stocked with food, clothing and blankets. The Coast Guard took over the service in 1915 and later stored gear here after foot patrols ended following World War II. Shifting sands of Nauset Beach forced moves around 1920 and in 1944. Later it passed to private ownership, serving a boat rental business and retired Coast Guard men as a gathering place.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as in good condition and used for storage; it was reshingled in 1930 and 1975 and has been moved at least twice.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:54.790625-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/4/7941/63794104/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/78000423.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000423/5e6c5935e7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000423/5e6c5935e7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Jerry Johnson","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Half_Way_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Jerry Johnson</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Half_Way_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63794104","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_Way_House_(Chatham,_Massachusetts)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5641761"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/barnstable-county/half-way-house-78000423/"}