An elderly artist in Cape Cod is being kicked out of a dune shack bequeathed to him by the owner years ago, a property he has helped maintain for the better part of eight decades.
The artist Salvatore Del Deo, 94, has lived in the shack, one of 19 along Provincetown's northwest shore, for 77 years.
The shack was given to him by a family friend and he had hoped to celebrate his 95th birthday there.
But, that hope may be thwarted by the National Park Service, which has ordered Del Deo to vacate the cottage because an heir of the original owner had died, thereby ending an agreement that allowed occupancy of the residence on National Seashore land.
According to the Park Service, Del Deo does not maintain a legal claim to the shack.
Salvatore Del Deo, 94, a painter and artist who has cared for the same dune shack for 77 year. In 1983, the shack was bequeathed to him by its original owner
The National Park Service is now attempting to evict Del Deo, arguing that the heir to the property has passed and so the land is now given back to the state
Romolo Deo, Salvatore's son, appealed the notice on behalf of his father and was granted a 90-day extension, which is now coming to an end.
Del Deo was told he has until June 27 to remove his personal belongings and vacate the premises.
'I thought that I would spend my last days there,' Del Deo told the Boston Globe.
The elderly gentleman is a celebrated painter who has lived a long life in Provincetown, Massachusetts, originally as a successful restauranteur.
The Park Service has indicated it will enter the small cottage into a bidding contest, where members of the public will be able to bid for long-term leases of public land.
Romolo, an internationally recognized sculptor, said officials have so far dismissed his arguments against the Park Service's aggression.
The Del Deos' possession of the dune shack is itself a story that dates back many years in Provincetown history.
Del Deo came to Provincetown in 1946 after studying art at the Rhode Island Institute of Design. He quickly befriended Jeanne 'Frenchie' Schnell, who had come to Provincetown via New York and Paris.
When Del Deo married his wife Josephine in 1953, Schnell offered the newlyweds her beach shack as a honeymoon suite. When Schnell eventually died in 1983, she bequeathed the small structure to the care of the Del Deos, who have paid property taxes and maintenance costs since.
In the 1960s, the Park Service took land on which the shack sits by eminent domain but offered the owners lifetime leases. A real estate officer for the National Park Service informed the Del Deos that the 2016 death of Adrienne Schnell, Frenchie's daughter and heir, meant the occupants had to leave.
'We’re not even allowed to bid [on the shack] right now. We don’t know when that might be possible, or under what conditions,' said Romolo.
He added the legal structure and penalty for resisting a federal order of the sort his father has been handed is so costly that he has no choice but to comply.
'We’re not their enemy. But we are being treated like their enemy. And we wish that they wouldn’t treat us that way … like, you know, something that needs to be eradicated and replaced,' he said.
The Park Service, he added, as ignored Schnell's other living heir, a daughter in Tennessee, who also wants the Del Deos to stay on as stewards of the property.
This week, close to two dozen protestors arrived at the dune road entrance on Route 6, waving handwritten signs.
Online, a change.org petition arguing that Mr. Del Deo should be allowed to remain in place has garnered more than 5,000 signatures.
The dune shack is one of 19 on the northwest shore of Provincetown that the state claimed by eminent domain in the 1960s and is now trying to snatch back from their occupants
The National Park Service has told Del Deo that he has until June 27 to vacate the property. His son, Romolo Del Deo, is attempting to help his father fight the order
Romolo says his family has been touched by the community's outpouring of support: 'I’m still hoping that someone in a position of authority essentially goes to whoever is blundering their way through this policy,' he said.
'We will try to continue to get the message through to somebody who’s capable of halting this travesty.'
The elder Del Deo said he is prepared to be disappointed by the eventual outcome of the situation, saying: 'I’ve had a wonderful life. So if this has to be, it’s to be ... But I’d like to finish my life being able to go out there.'
He said he hopes others in his situation get to keep their properties as well, but added that he doesn't 'want to be the one to be sacrificed on the altar of pleasure, because somebody else has more money than I do. I don’t have any money. But I built that shack with my own hands. My son helped me and my friends helped me. And we did it.'
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