Provincetown History Snippets: How Did They Renovate Town Hall?
During the mid-to-late 1800s, towns in Massachusetts started building municipal halls complete with auditoriums as a way to end the practice of meeting in churches (to officially separate “church and state”) and Provincetown Town Hall was built with a large auditorium...
Provincetown History Snippets: What is The S-4?
In one of the saddest chapters of Provincetown history, six remaining survivors inside a sunken U. S. Navy submarine tapped out a message to divers working to free them: “Is there any hope?” There wasn’t. The submarine, the S-4, had just completed a...
Provincetown History Snippets: Who is William F. Boogar Jr.?
He loved birds. He also loved bronze, and the combination made for exceptional art created by William F. Boogar, Jr., a noted sculptor who studied in Provincetown with Charles Hawthorne and settled here permanently in 1933. He worked in the lost-wax method in his...
Provincetown History Snippets: Who Was The Nauset?
When they came ashore at what would become Provincetown, Mayflower passengers first encountered a native tribe called the Nauset. Part of the Algonquin, the Nauset lived on Cape Cod from Bass River east. They were non-nomadic and peaceable; there were no conflicts...
Provincetown History Snippets: What was Norman Mailer’s Ptown?
This week we’re bringing you a different history snippet: Norman Mailer’s own words about the town, taken from Tough Guys Don’t Dance: The northern reach of Cape Cod, however, on which my house sat, the land I inhabited—that long curving spit of...
Provincetown History Snippets: What is Helltown?
Helltown was a settlement south of Hatches Harbor, with 33 buildings, a fleet of 30 dories, and a working population of about 125 fishermen. When Mary Heaton Vorse asked a captain why it was called Helltown, he answered, “because of the helling that went on there.”...
Provincetown History Snippets: Library on the Move?
If you’re looking at the Provincetown Public Library, then you’re looking back in time! It started life as the Center Methodist Episcopal Church and was impressive for its time, with a 162-foot tower housing a bronze bell. The spire was damaged during the...
Provincetown History Snippets: What is the HMS Somerset III?
The British man-of-war Somerset III terrorized the Cape area for some years up to and during the American Revolution, and was often anchored in Provincetown Harbor, where “boats frequently landed, and the officers helped themselves to water, provisions, and anything...
Provincetown History Snippets: Fight Smart, Harm Few
Last year, the wreck of the pirate ship Whydah gave up part of her captain: a leg bone found in concretion is widely believed by archaeologists to belong to “Black Sam” Bellamy, New England’s most famous pirate, who became wealthy not because of greed but through...
Provincetown History Snippets: Sassafras and Colonization
Sassafras was valued in England for the medicinal qualities of its roots (it was supposed to cure both syphilis and smallpox!), so much so that two ships were sent on the “Great Sassafras Hunt” to New England. One of the captains had previously sailed with...
Provincetown History Snippets: Who Was Ptown’s Original Bear?
Provincetown’s Donald Baxter MacMillan went on 30 expeditions to the Far North between 1908 and 1954. He was 34 years old on his first trip and a few days short of 80 when he completed his final journey. “While I would like to go into the Arctic for the adventure...
Provincetown History Snippets: Saving Sailors
In the early 1800s, winters saw an average of two wrecks off the Outer Cape every month. Many sailors made it to shore—and then froze to death right on the beach. In 1872 an efficient lifesaving service was put into operation, with stations every five miles on the...
Provincetown History Snippets: Who is Harry Kemp?
Called the “hero of adolescent Americans,” Harry Kemp was a poet and prose writer who lived and worked in Provincetown during the mid-20th century. What you might not know about him is that he was terminally frustrated with the myth that the Pilgrims first arrived in...