History Archives

Provincetown History Snippet: How to Get Here?

April 24, 2020

History

The idea of a Cape Cod canal, linking the bay to the sound, was studied as early as the 17th century, but it wasn’t until that the privately built canal merged the waters of the two bays. It was not a great success; too narrow and winding, the canal allowed...

Provincetown History Snippet: What is The History of The Underground Railroad?

April 17, 2020

History

It may seem odd that a place like Ptown would be a stop on the Underground Railroad, the network of secret routes and safe houses established during the early to mid-19th century used by enslaved African-Americans to escape into free states and Canada. After...

Provincetown History Snippet: What is the Inspiration of The Atlantic House?

April 10, 2020

History

The A-House tavern was built in 1798, with the hotel section (called the Union Hotel) added in 1812. But it served more than just drinks: the Atlantic House was part of a circuit court system, and a judge sat there regularly to serve justice. It was also the...

Provincetown History Snippet: What is the History of MacMillan Wharf?

April 3, 2020

History

Back in the days when Provincetown was a significant whaling capital, and then when its big Grand Banks schooners went out to Stellwagen and beyond for fishing, there were approximately 50 working wharves along the harbor. As these industries died out, the...

How Did the Spanish Flu Affect Provincetown?

March 27, 2020

History

The first recorded cases of virulent influenza in the United States occurred in Boston, making Massachusetts Ground Zero for the 1918 pandemic. On August 26th, several sailors at the Commonwealth Pier reported in sick with influenza. By the next day, there...

Provincetown History Snippet: What is The Viking Restaurant?

March 13, 2020

History

Restaurants with historic or distinctive names (and a reputation for good food!) always attract hungry diners. Located at 269 Commercial Street, across from Town Hall, the Viking Restaurant was originally called Christine’s Luncheonette when it was owned...

Provincetown History Snippet: Philbrick’s Mayflower

March 6, 2020

History

Join us at the Provincetown Public Library on May 14th at 6pm for a book club discussion of Nathanial Philbrick’s Mayflower. Excerpted from the book: The Mayflower was a typical vessel of her day: square-rigged and beak bowed, with high,...

Provincetown History Snippet: What was the History of The Ptown Wharves?

February 28, 2020

History

The first theatre groups in Ptown were the Wharf Theater and The Barnstormers; they opened in 1923 when Eugene O’Neill was still living out in the dunes. The Wharf Theater was destroyed in a storm in 1940, but that wasn’t the end of theaters on the...

Provincetown History Snippet: Who is Tennessee Williams?

February 21, 2020

History

Less than three weeks after his lover Kip died in 1944 in Manhattan, Tennessee Williams was back at Captain Jack’s Wharf. The fleet was in, the streets and beaches were crowded, but Williams resented them with their “Lord & Taylor t-shirts.” That...

Provincetown History Snippet: The Decade of the Cocktail

February 14, 2020

History

The 1950s in Provincetown were years of rampant homophobia, what one innkeeper called “the witch-hunt days.” In 1952, selectmen tightened liquor and entertainment licenses in an attempt to discourage “the habitual gathering-place of homosexuals of...