629 Commercial Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).
Harmony is not just a lovely name. It recalls Lily (Perlmutter) Harmon, the artist who bought this property in 1956 and whose daughter, Jo Ann Hirshhorn, still owns it. Best known for portraits in the Social Realist tradition, Harmon studied at the Yale School of Art, the Académie Colarossi in Paris, and the Art Students League. She came to town in 1929 to study with Henry Hensche. In 1934, she married Sidney Harmon, a movie and theater producer. In 1945, she married the financier and art collector Joseph Hirshhorn, with whom she adopted two infant daughters. He was the founding donor and namesake of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. Harmon’s autobiography, Freehand, was published in 1981. She died 17 years later.
More than 2,000 buildings and vessels are searchable on buildingprovincetown.com. The Building Provincetown book is available for purchase ($20) at Town Hall, Office of the Town Clerk, 260 Commercial Street, Provincetown 02657.
