Provincetown History Snippets: Where was The Provincetown Asylum?

November 2, 2018

History

In the 1800s, it seemed no town was complete without an asylum or almshouse. In some cases, these institutions purported to treat mental illness; in reality, most were designed to warehouse those who couldn’t function in town; there was no social safety net for the poor and those who couldn’t work.

In 1806, a private home used as a hospital since the smallpox epidemic was converted into a poorhouse/asylum and then in 1870 Provincetown’s Town Asylum was built on Alden Street; it’s now known as the Grace Gouveia Building. It stayed an asylum until 1956.

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