Wellfleet Chose the Land Over an 1802 House

Two and a half acres on Lieutenant Island Road in Wellfleet. Half an acre of high ground, two acres running down to a marsh. One house, a Cape built in 1802 and enlarged in the 1940s. One dirt road in.

On Oct. 2, the town's historical commission had the power to make anyone who wanted that house gone wait 18 more months. It voted unanimously not to, the Provincetown Independent reported.

The people asking weren't developers. They were the family that has spent decades keeping this land the way it is.

46.5 acres, then the last 2.5

Charles Ernst bought the property in 1952. His son David and David's wife, Rachel, inherited about 20 acres and built the family's holdings up to 49. Then David put 46.5 of those acres under a conservation restriction and left the last 2.5, house included, to his children.

Those children, Elizabeth Ernst Thompson and her brother Rodney Ernst, want to sell that last piece to the Wellfleet Conservation Trust for less than it would bring on the open market. Thompson explained it in seven words, according to the Independent: "We want to follow in that tradition."

"Either/or"

The catch is in the money. The state grant that would help the trust buy the land requires the property to be free of all structures. Not just the 1940s wings. All of it.

Mark Robinson, executive director of the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, called it an "either/or" choice and made the case for the land. The parcel, he said, is the last missing link on the southern shore of Loagy Creek. Take the house away and you also take away one house, one septic system and one lawn draining toward the creek.

A restorer on the board

The commissioners looked for a reason to keep it, and the record shows how that went.

Kevin Sheehan, a commissioner who restores historic houses, said the oldest section is post-and-beam, while the later additions are stick-built and carry no historic value. "A lot of the architectural details are gone," he said, and recreating them would be prohibitively expensive. Al Kraft looked at the road. "I don't think there's any way to get the building out of there intact." A Connecticut restoration specialist, William Gould, reviewed photographs and wasn't interested.

The chair, David Kornetsky, checked with town counsel, who advised that the commission could weigh one public benefit against another, but could not lift a delay early once it imposed one.

Russell Franks said what the vote meant: "I don't think the house is anything special, and I think the benefits outweigh the detrimental nature of demolition."

Not seen from any public road

One more line from Robinson stays with you. "This is a property that is not seen from any public road, and I think that should be considered."

It cuts both ways. A house nobody drives past is a house few people will miss. It is also a house few people ever got to see.

CLC readers have heard the other side of this argument before. In August 2025, preservation advocate Inga Walker made it in this newsletter, in "Stop Tearing Down Cape Cod's History." Wellfleet's commission weighed the same kind of loss on Oct. 2 and chose the marsh.

Spring 2028

None of it happens fast. The grant application goes to the state Department of Conservation and Recreation in spring 2028, with an award expected that fall. The land transfer would have to happen between January and June 2029. An 18-month delay, had the commission imposed one, would have run out in April 2028.

The commission's record holds the construction details, the road and the grant terms. What it doesn't hold is anyone's memory of the house from the inside, or from the water. If you have one, hit reply and tell us what it looked like.

330 Lieutenant Island Road | Wellfleet
Private property, not open to the public.
Status: Historical commission declined an 18-month demolition delay on Oct. 2, 2026. Sale to the Wellfleet Conservation Trust depends on a state grant; land transfer targeted January to June 2029.