![]() Many of the shacks date back decades before the dunes became part of Cape Cod National Seashore. The remaining members of the Chanel family have no issue with Salvatore’s occupancy of the shack, Romolo says. Romolo said the shack was passed to one of Chanel’s daughters, who left Provincetown more than a decade ago and recently passed away, likely prompting the park service to question the shack’s occupancy. In a use plan for the historic dune shacks published by the park service in 2011, the Chanel shack is listed with a “Reservation” that extends through the “life of daughter.” The transfer of the property to the Del Deo family has not been acknowledged by the park service, Romolo said. According to Romolo, she attempted to pass ownership of the dune shack to the Del Deo family upon her death in 1983. One of these tenants was Frenchie Chanel. “When the land became federal property in the 1960s, tenants of the shacks were granted a variety of lifetime estates, either through the current occupant’s lifetime or the lifetime of their children,” the park service said in a statement. The tenants were granted a variety of lifetime leases, according to the park service, which now owns 18 shacks. In the 1960s, the land that makes up the Cape Cod National Seashore became federal property. “They were going to uproot the oldest continuous family living on the dunes and disconnect them from the community, and then later on evict everybody else.” “What the park service seemed to be doing was attempting a kind of coup d’état,” said Romolo. But the property is likely to be offered for lease by park service in the future. “Our shack was not even on the list of properties that we could bid on presently,” said Romolo. The shack occupied by Salvatore was not part of the eight shacks offered up to the public for lease by the park service, which frustrated his son. “Federal regulation requires that the lessee pays, at minimum, fair market value rent,” the park service website says. Lease proposals can be submitted through July 3, according to the National Park Service announcement. The park service has opened those eight historic properties to 10-year lease proposals, according to their website, and moved to make them available to new prospective occupants – a plan that has earned criticism from some locals. The eviction notice came shortly before the National Park Service announced a leasing program for eight other dune shacks. But with the help of family friend Michela Murphy, whose family now owns Sal’s Place, the Del Deos were able to extend the eviction notice by 60 days, until June 27, Murphy said. Salvatore was originally ordered to vacate the property in 30 days. Salvatore has deep ties within Provincetown, including his founding of two local restaurants, Sal’s Place and Ciro & Sal’s, and his late wife was active in preserving the historic shacks. Salvatore’s dune shack is one of more than a dozen such small dwellings on the Cape Cod National Seashore, which has a long and storied history as a home for activists and artists, said Romolo. He says Chanel willed the property to his family years ago. “I responded to the park and explained to them that this was first of all horrible policy and secondly an error,” Romolo told CNN in a phone interview. The eviction notice came as a shock to the Del Deo family, said Romolo Del Deo, Salvatore’s son. Del Deo to grant him additional time to make necessary arrangements to vacate the dune shack,” the National Park Service said in a statement. ![]() Del Deo has been occupying the property without a permit since the passing of the individual who held a life estate for use of that dune shack. The land the shack sits on became federal property in the 1960s, and arrangements made with Jeanne “Frenchie” Chanel, the shack’s original owner, have since expired, according to the park service. Salvatore received an eviction notice from the National Park Service in March. “Frenchie’s Shack,” named for Del Deo’s friend who built the rustic dune dwelling in 1942, is where the nonagenarian has spent part of the year since 1946, according to his son, and it’s where he thought he would spend the rest of his life. Salvatore Del Deo is a 94-year-old artist and Korean War Veteran who has made a dune shack in Provincetown, Massachusetts, his part-time home for the past 77 years. ![]()
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