History Archives

Provincetown History Snippets: What Happened to Billingsgate Island?

October 19, 2018

History

What happened to Billingsgate Island? It used to be a prosperous fishing town, but many on the Outer Cape today have never even heard of it. An unexpected storm in 1855 cut the island nearly in half; the lighthouse was moved and in 1888 a seawall was...

Provincetown History Snippets: What was The Beach Point Club?

October 19, 2018

History

Cottage communities are synonymous with Cape living, and right at the edge of Provincetown is the Beach Point Club, previously known as the Harbor Lights Village. It’s hybrid: some standalone cottages, some attached units, and in the back (toward the bay)...

Provincetown History Snippets: East Harbor? Pilgrim Lake?

October 5, 2018

History

Once a natural embayment deep enough to serve as winter quarters for Provincetown’s fishing fleet, the body of water across from Beach Point was once known as Eastern Harbor, then as East Harbor. It was diked in 1868 (so that the railroad connecting...

Provincetown History Snippets: How do you Get to Provincetown?

August 31, 2018

History

By the mid-18th century, the whaling industry was in decline and Provincetown had to find a new way to make a living, so it began cultivating tourism. By the 19th century people were traveling either by boat or stagecoach out to Ptown. In 1848 the first train...

Provincetown History Snippets: What is The Cape Cod School of Art?

August 24, 2018

History

The Cape Cod School of Art was the first outdoor summer school for figure painting, becoming over time one of the country’s leading art schools. The school was founded and directed by Charles Hawthorne, who gave weekly criticisms and instructive talks,...

Provincetown History Snippets: What’s That Tower on the Hill, Anyway?

August 17, 2018

History

It’s the Pilgrim Monument, built by Cape Cod’s oldest not-for-profit organization to commemorate the Mayflower Pilgrims’ first landing in November of 1620. President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1907 and three years later President William...

Provincetown History Snippets: Why Was Tennessee Williams in Ptown?

August 3, 2018

History

Tennessee Williams spent four summer seasons in Provincetown (1940, 1941, 1944, and 1947) where he wrote plays, short stories, and glowing poetry. He experienced a lot of drama offstage as well as on, falling in love, having his heart broken, surviving a...

Provincetown History Snippets: What’s With The Cod, Anyway?

July 27, 2018

History

In 1602 the Earl of Southampton defrayed most of the expenses for fitting out the ship Concord, which Gosnold commanded on a voyage of exploration to the New World. Gosnold reached the North American coast in lower Maine, then sailed southward to a peninsula...

Provincetown History Snippets: When Did Smallpox Hit Provincetown?

July 13, 2018

History

In 1848, when smallpox was still a powerful and frightening disease, a small treatment building called the pestilence house—known as the Pest House—was built a few hundred yards north of present day Route 6, meant to keep those infected safely away from...

Provincetown History Snippets: Shakespeare and the Mayflower

July 6, 2018

History

Stephen Hopkins was one of the Mayflower “Strangers,” and later settled both Plymouth and Jamestown. It’s believed that Shakespeare based a character on him! Though he wasn’t among the first Jamestown settlers, he did arrive within the first three...