August 21

If you are looking for The Cape Cod Modern House Trust site, check it out HERE.

Modernist homes on Cape Cod dating back to the 1940s and ’50s are the subject of a new tour. The Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill is bringing back their Modernist House Tour this coming Sunday, August 24. The event will allow participants to tour several modernist houses in Wellfleet and Truro, including the Chapel of St. James the Fisherman, the Comfort House in Wellfleet, the Lilly Saarinen House, the Grossman Residence and the Hatch Cottage. This tour is organized in conjunction with the Cape Cod Modern House Trust. Read more HERE.

December 5

The Nautilus Motor Inn's Dome Restaurant was built in 1953. The 54’ diameter geodesic dome was designed by students in a studio taught by Buckminster Fuller at MIT and is the oldest Fuller dome still in existence. There are plans to demolish the Motor Inn to build retirement condos, preserving the Dome skeleton. Visit the Inn’s site here.

Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Historic Resources Committee members Wendy Price and Sally Zimmerman are working on a regional database for Modernist houses and their architects. They intend to consolidate the fragmented (and incomplete) knowledge that historians, archivists, advocacy groups, and historic commissions have garnered and assemble it to aid research into New England's Modern Movement houses. A complementary pilot project is underway at the MHC where Betsy Friedberg and Michael Steinitz are working with architectural historian Judith Hull to identify significant early and mid-20th century houses among the MACRIS entries. Learn more about the BSA here.

November 7

The Saarinen Residence is up for sale. Read and see more here.

The Saarinen House
520 Black Pond Road
Price: $3,299,000
From the Real Estate Listing:

The Saarinen House on Herring Pond is owned by the children of acclaimed architect Eero Saarinen (designer of the St. Louis Arch and the TWA terminal at JFK airport) and has been enjoyed for many years by the architect's wife and family. This 3 bedroom contemporary is designed to capture views of the pond from every room. Walk to the private dock from the 2 level deck. Swim out to the float or kayak this beautiful pond deep in the National Seashore. This is the only home directly on Herring Pond, sited on a wooded lot which offers maximum privacy. The main house consists of living/dining, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. There is a separate suite attached by a breezeway to the main house with kitchen/living room, 1 bedroom, 1 full bath plus its own deck. This home's unique design and setting make the Saarinen House an incomparable find.

November 6

My mother-in-law just handed me a news clipping, not sure of the publication source:

Cape Cod Modern House Trust is expected to receive a lease from the Seashore and has gone before the town's Community Preservation Committee to ask for $150,000 to restore one such house, the Gips House.

Charlie Zehnder designed the house, off Long Pond Road.

Once (Peter) McMahon started researching modern hosues he found a lot more than expected, 85 on the Outer Cape.

"There were all these famous modern architects here," he says. "It's an amazing list of people who were here."

People often miss the homes, he says, because they are set in the woods and blend in with their surroundings.

Zehnder was famous locally for his modern homes, but others who designed in the area - Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and Eero Saarinen, for example - had international reputations.

McMahon hopes to start work on the Gips house... So far he has put about $10,000 of his own money into the effort, and is accepting donations.

He hopes to turn the houses into a Modernist House Archive of sorts, complete with a scholar in residence.

The second house they plan to work on is the Hatch house, designed by Jack Hall.

November 5

Named one of the best-designed homes of 1959 by Architectural Record, the Carl Murchison Residence by Walter Gropius’ TAC firm is up for sale for the first time. Despite a house full of custom furnishings, many of which were designed by Design Research, a furniture company founded by a TAC partner, and a $12 million price tag, preservationists fear its demolition upon changing hands. Read more here.

September 29

Following the passing of the last family member, Provincetown’s Murchison Residence (ca 1959) is on the market for the first time. Featuring pool, staff residence, fur vault, original furnishings and built-in, 360-degree views, this Gropius/TAC masterpiece will sell for $10-12 million. The broker is Rose Kennedy at Thomas Brown Real Estate, Truro office. Her phone number is 508-487-1112 or via email.

August 18

The daughter of Jean Kaeselau sent me some images of her father's work on the Cape. Images are to the right.

Cape resident Chris Szwedo also sent in some images from his travels around. Images are to the right.

January 6

"Saving the Early Modernist Cottages of Cape Cod" added to the READING section.

December 30

If you have the August 2005 issue of Architectural Record handy, look on page 60 for the article "Saving the Early Modernist Cottages of Cape Cod" by Mildred F. Schmertz, FAIA. If I can obtain permission, I will try to add it to the READING section.

December 29

Someone's blog post concerning Modern sites on Cape Cod - blueverticalstudio.com

December 28

A man builds a house for himself and his family on Cape Cod in the woods by a lake near the sea, and everything in his house seems to be made of natural fiber, of wood, skin, hemp, fur; and the wind carries clean air and every sound is muted. No war seems to have been - only airplanes with their trails of sounds and vapor remind you of the bustling trivia outside this sanctuary. - Memorial to Georgy Kepes, January 4, 2002

December 27

One of our visitors this week shared this web archive of Gina Coyle's expired URL www.capecodmodern.com. Check it out. Because it is an archived site, I cannot readily transfer the images and information here, but maybe one of you can aid in that endeavor? If so, email me.

December 26

Review of the PAAM Show can be read here.

December 25

This site has been located within my other site, www.modernsandiego.com for the past several months . With the recent museum exhibition at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and publication of A Chain of Events: Modernist Architecture on the Outer Cape; Marcel Breuer to Charles Jencks, I realized that interest in this topic may be growing.

December 24

Please check out the site and contact me and others in the Discussion Forum to learn more and share information and stories.