Two years later, facing the threat of imminent destruction from extreme beach erosion, it was removed, cut in half, and floated by barge to Provincetown.

"[3][4] This style resulted from a gradual evolution to replace the simple pitched-roof structures of 1872, and featured a large truncated, or jerkin-head gable roof.

[3] The Duluth departed even further from the norm by adding a large, rectangular, off-center, four-story lookout tower between the sections on the front of the building.

[5] During its first five years of operation, crews from this station rescued 21 persons by surfboat, and extracted an additional 13 people by breeches buoy.

This barrier beach is a high wave-energy environment that bears the brunt of severe winter storms in the Atlantic Ocean.

That makes the location and configuration of the beach extremely variable, due to the natural processes of rapid erosion and accretion of sand.

Heroism of the highest order was made manifest by the acts of the small crews who manned the surfboats and set up the elaborate breeches buoy equipment to save lives in unbelievably terrible weather.

[1]In the fall of 1977, the National Park Service moved the station by cutting it in half, loading it onto a barge, and floating it to Provincetown.

[2] In 2008, the station underwent a major rehabilitation, with an allocated budget of $489,000 to perform significant repairs to the interior and exterior of the building.

[2] The Park Service has restored and furnished the station as it would have existed at the turn of the twentieth century, complete with the original Race Point surfboat and dory.

In addition, every Thursday in July and August at 6 p.m., park rangers conduct a live demonstration to reenact the historic "Beach Apparatus Drill",[7] a weekly exercise used by the United States Life-Saving Service to train for the rescue of shipwrecked mariners.