Duarte’s Mall
The Old Colony depot saw a second life as a bus station in the 1940s. In 1950, Joseph Duarte replaced it with a garage and service station for Duarte Motors, his Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealership. (The rear of the building is a modestly handsome International-style pavilion.)
Freight operations were moved to part of the railyard closer to Center Street. The freight agent, Ralph Tinkham, worked out of an old caboose until 1960, when the service was abandoned. The caboose was destroyed in 1961. Between Conwell and Howland Streets, a new street — Harry Kemp Way — was built on the Old Colony line. The right-of-way continues alongside Route 6, where one can conjure the scene described by Ross Moffett of a train steaming on a “half hidden course through the pine woods, as though to enter Provincetown surreptitiously.”
Picture essay
Building Provincetown 