News and Events: Spring/Summer 2022
Artwork by Sebastian Sacco
We’re happy that so many people got a break from city life and a stressful time in our houses in the last year, and we’re looking forward to seeing everyone at some upcoming public events. Reduced size tours will be starting again this season. More on that soon. Here’s to a rejuvenating summer.
Young Architects Update
After deferring a year due to Covid, Sebastian Sacco (CCMHT intern and 2020 Young Architects Award recipient) is just finishing his first year in architecture at Pratt Institute and some of his projects were selected by a professor for the schools’ archive. We hope the time he spent in the modern houses was an inspiration in spite of the fact that he was often scraping paint and filling potholes. Wishing him continued success!
Hatch - Open House
May 14th, 10am- 3pm (rain or shine) Free and open to the public
309 Bound Brook Way, Wellfleet (GPS is sometimes misleading)
Join us for a visit to the iconic Hatch House overlooking Cape Cod Bay. Built in 1962 and designed by Jack Hall, the experimental, modular house is owned by the Cape Cod National Seashore and was restored by CCMHT in 2013. This is a rare chance to see the house's interior.
Details:
Parking is on the right side of the paved road in front of the Atwood Higgins House (269 Bound Brook Island Road, Wellfleet). It’s a 15 - 20 minute walk to Hatch.
Walking:
Continue past the Atwood Higgins on Bound Brook Island rd. and walk about 5 min.
Take a right onto Bound Brook Island Way (look for Hatch sign) Driveway is on the left after many twists and turns. People with mobility concerns can be dropped off by car, but there is very limited parking. Please don’t abuse this.
You can also park at Ryder Beach in Truro and walk to the house in about a 15-minute brisk walk. Walk over dune to the beach and proceed south about 10 min. til you see the HATCH sign on the left.
This event is part of the Cape Cod National Seashores’ month-long Spring Fling which includes many great hikes, lectures and performances hosted by Organizations that partner with the Seashore.
Lecture
Founding Director Peter McMahon will be doing a lecture/ book signing as part of the
Tales of Cape Cod series.
Monday August 15, 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30, dessert reception.
Route 6A (3046 Main Street) in the Olde Colonial Courthouse, Barnstable Village. Parking is available at St. Mary’s Church across the street. Or at the Sturgis Library a block west or the Barnstable House a block west.
$10 for members and $15 for nonmembers at the door or at Talesofcapecod.org
New Books
Congratulations to John Taylor Williams for the long awaited publication of The Shores of Bohemia, his deep dive into the artists and political thinkers/ activists in Wellfleet in the first half of the 20th century. Williams has deep roots in Wellfleet and his late wife, the painter Noa Hall, was the daughter of Jack Hall, designer of the Hatch House. An audio version will be available soon narrated by Wellfleet’s own, Jeff Zinn.
Since Cape Cod Modern was published there have a been a series of books on the Outer Cape modernists, by close family members, that you may enjoy. They include:
To the Life of the Silver Harbor: Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy on Cape Cod by Reuel Wilson, 2008
A remembrance by Wilson of his famous literary parents and their life in Wellfleet.
The Restless Hungarian: Modernism, Madness, and The American Dream by Tom Weidlinger, 2019
A bio of the important structural engineer, Paul Weidlinger, by his son, who gathered research while retracing his father’s footsteps through Hungary, London, Bolivia and across the US. Paul Weidlinger designed the family’s Wellfleet house, which was the third restoration finished by CCMHT.
Upper Bohemia: A Memoir, by Hayden Herrera, 2021
Mostly a childhood memoir about growing up in Wellfleet, Mexico, Maine, NYC and Cambridge (in rapid succession) by the daughter of Jack Phillips, who was the pater familias of the modernist colony in Wellfleet/Truro
The Paper Palace: A Novel, by Miranda Cowley Heller, 2021
A novel that takes place around the ponds by a granddaughter of Jack Phillips.
Sleeping Sperm Whales
mayfield brooks returns
2020 artist-in-residence, mayfield brooks, came back for a return stay this winter at the Kugel Gips House with a collaborator to continue work on their piece Whale Fall and to screen a film of a performance at the Water’s Edge Cinema in Provincetown.
After returning home to Brooklyn mayfield wrote….
“The Cape was incredible in February. We tracked some whales on a whale tracking app then went out to Provincetown and hiked to the lighthouse to see if we could spot them but we did not see any from the shore. We also visited the Whaling Museum in New Bedford and made some important discoveries about Whales and the town's history and links to Cape Verde and the Azores. Very exciting research is emerging from this trip!
Thanks again for a wonderful visit and I hope we can reconnect when you get back. I am very much interested in anything I can do to support the CCMHT residency since it has been so abundantly instrumental for my work.”
For a good article on the 2020 residency, go to: