Provincetown Airport
Provincetown Airport, by Hugo Poisson, courtesy of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.
Provincetown Airport, by David W. Dunlap (2009).
More than 300 acres of the Province Lands were taken to create the Municipal Airport (PVC), begun in 1947. Burns & Kenerson were the architects. Runway 7/25 is 3,500 feet long. The first scheduled Boston flights, operated by John Van Arsdale, began in 1949 on Cessna Bobcats. Van Arsdale ran the airport, operated sightseeing flights, and held the air-mail contract. His greatest legacy was Provincetown-Boston Airline, founded in 1949, with a fleet of DC-3s (bottom). His sons John Jr. and Peter expanded PBA into the largest commuter airline in the U.S. It closed in 1988. The next year, Daniel Wolf’s Cape Air stepped in. It serves Logan with 10-passenger Cessna 402s (top). The terminal was renovated in 1998 by TRA-BV. An armillary sphere by Anita Berman honors “Old Man Van.”
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.
