Campaigners seeking to save Marcel Breuer’s 1949 Wellfleet Cottage residence on Cape Cod have launched a $1.4 million fundraising effort aimed at saving the home from an expected demolition that’s likely to come in the next few years.

The Cape Cod Modern House Trust is spearheading the effort and says the home they have agreed to purchase from Breuer’s son is in danger adding to the tally of historic designs in the area they have been unable to save through preservation since 2016.

The house was at one time a haven and meeting place for Bauhaus alumni and intellectuals associated with Breuer and his wife Connie. The architect himself designed a large art studio addition in 1961 before adding another apartment and darkroom for his photographer son Tamas in 1968. The Trust says its sale will include all of the home's original furnishings (including pieces from the Eames' and Eero Saarinen), art collection, and private library, which will all be made available to public view after the refurbishing. Breuer’s ashes are buried on the 4.2-acre as well.

“It’s on a huge piece of property,” the New York Times quoted one local preservation advocate as saying to an assembly meeting in July. “If it’s sold, the impact of development is going to drastically change that entire part of Wellfleet [and] Truro ponds and woods. It would be a great, great loss to the Outer Cape, beyond the house itself.”

Earlier last year, the surprise demolition of Breuer’s Geller I house was done overnight, to the collective shock of the preservation community. The Trust is looking to avoid this fate through the raising of funds ahead of the agreement's deadline in the early spring of 2024. The rest of the total $2 million cost will be paid for by a mortgage, and the Trust says it has plans to turn the property into an all-year preservation residency for scholars if their effort is successful.

“We have lost many significant Modern homes due to increasing land values and lack of stewardship including Breuer’s Geller house on Long Island in 2022. There is so much to be studied and learned from these modest places and our cultural legacy cannot be replaced. Everyone who cares about the legacy of the 20th century should support this effort to save Breuer’s own house and his final resting place. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to protect such an important home and make it open to the public,” Docomomo US' Executive Director Liz Waytkus said at the end of a press statement.

Donations to the Breuer House project can be made here.