History Archives

Provincetown History Snippets: How Did They Renovate Town Hall?

March 26, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: What is The S-4?

March 23, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: Who is William F. Boogar Jr.?

March 16, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: Who Was The Nauset?

March 3, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: What was Norman Mailer’s Ptown?

February 23, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: What is Helltown?

February 16, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: Library on the Move?

February 8, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: What is the HMS Somerset III?

January 31, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: Fight Smart, Harm Few

January 25, 2019

History

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...

Provincetown History Snippets: Sassafras and Colonization

January 17, 2019

History

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...