Hardy House

The Half Way House in Chatham is a small structure, about five feet square, with a simple ridge roof, wood-shingle walls, an off-center doorway, and a stovepipe, standing on the inner beach at Pleasant Bay. It is significant as the last remaining of the original twelve halfway houses that were part of Cape Cod's comprehensive lifesaving service, placed midway between life saving stations so that patrols could walk between them and leave a tag to prove their presence. This house stood opposite the Old Harbor Life Saving Station and, according to tradition, first served as a Massachusetts Humane Society Hut of Refuge stocked with food, clothing, and blankets for shipwrecked sailors before the Life Saving Service took over in 1872. It has been moved at least twice (about 1920 and again in 1944) as Nauset Beach grew, and was later used for storage and in connection with a boat rental service.

Hardy House is a landmark in Chatham, Barnstable County. It is one of 6,558 landmarks documented in Barnstable County, among 6,897 historic sites cataloged across the county on MassRoam.

The site sits at 41.6730, -69.9491 near Chatham. The nearest cataloged historic site is Gould, James House (landmark), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Hammond, Stephen House, Gould, David House, and Lewis, Alan House.

This record is drawn from public historical records. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.