Race Point Lighthouse

Race Point Light Station stands on Race Point Beach within the Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown, serving as the main light guarding the entrance to Provincetown Harbor amid rolling sand dunes. The complex, largely built in 1876, consists of a 40-foot white cylindrical cast-iron and brick tower with a ten-sided lens room and an elegant Italianate iron balcony railing, along with a 1.5-story wood-frame keeper's dwelling, a brick garage that originally housed the steam fog-whistle machinery, and a small brick oil house. A light has marked this treacherous point since 1816, when more than a hundred wrecks occurred in the surrounding waters over the following decades; the current automated light alternates red and white flashes every five seconds. The station retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship, and as one of the few intact nineteenth-century light-station complexes it was listed under the Lighthouses of Massachusetts thematic group, meeting National Register Criteria A and C at the state level.

Race Point Lighthouse is a landmark in Provincetown, 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 42.0623, -70.2431 near Provincetown. The nearest cataloged historic site is Race Point Lighthouse Caretaker's Cottage (landmark), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Race Point Garage, Race Point Oil House, and Old Harbor U. S. Lifesaving Station.

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