(2009)
Margo-Gelb Shack | Dune Shack 8.
The site of the 1872 Peaked Hill Bars station (the one occupied by Eugene O’Neill) was acquired in the 1940s by the painters Boris Margo and Jan Gelb. Margo built a new shack. It fell into the sea. Then he and his nephew, Murray Zimiles, built the shack that still stands. Beginning in 1947, Margo was the host of an annual “Full o’ the Moon” beach party to which the whole town was invited. He built a driftwood sculpture, up to 40 feet high. After the rising of the moon, the sculpture would be set ablaze as revelers danced, sang, played music, and read poems. Though Margo bequeathed the shack to Zimiles, it was taken by the government and turned over in 1995 to the Outer Cape Artist in Residence Consortium.
¶ Adapted from Building Provincetown (2015).