67 Bradford Street

9 Court Street, the Captain’s House of the Brass Key Guesthouse, 67 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

The deluxe Brass Key Guesthouse has grown by accretion into a large compound. The expansion was the work of Michael MacIntyre and his husband, Bob Anderson, who died in 2004. They also refurbished Land’s End Inn. Thomas Walter, Kenneth Masi, and David Sanford, the owners of Crowne Pointe, acquired the property in 2007. It includes:

8 Carver Street, the Queen Anne House of the Brass Key Guesthouse, 67 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

8 Carver Street, the Queen Anne House of the Brass Key Guesthouse, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

¶ The Queen Anne House, 8 Carver Street. This eclectic confection was the Cottage Inn in the 19th century. It was later home to Moses Nickerson Gifford, president of the First National Bank and son of James Gifford, namesake of the hotel up the street. Andrew Turocy III bought the house in 1981 and operated it as Roomers.

10 Carver Street, the Victorian House of the Brass Key Guesthouse, 67 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

10 Carver Street, the Victorian House of the Brass Key Guesthouse, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

¶ The Victorian House, 10 Carver Street, was built around 1865 in Second Empire style. It belonged to William Henry Young, the first president of the Provincetown Art Association and founder of what is now the Benson Young & Downs Insurance Agency. His wife, Anna (Hughes) Young, was a founder of the Research Club. It is for their son, Lewis A. Young, who died in World War I, that the Veterans of Foreign Wars post was named. Subsequent owners included Arthur and Martha (Alves) Roderick, who raised four children here before selling it in 1978.

¶ The Gatehouse and Shipwreck Lounge, 12 Carver Street, was home in the 1960s to Joseph and Virginia (Souza) Lewis, proprietors of the Pilgrim House. Lewis was a founder of the Portuguese-American Civic League. This building and 10 Carver were known together in the 1970s and ’80s as Haven House, run by Don Robertson.

Gus McCleod at George’s Inn, by David Jarrett (1971).

¶ The Captain’s House, 9 Court Street, was built in 1830 in the Federal style and is the most imposing building in the complex. It played an important role in the development of the gay and lesbian business community as George’s Inn, opened in 1964 by George Littrell. In the late ‘70s, it explicitly sought gay patrons only. Littrell was an early leader in the Provincetown Business Guild; in effect, the gay Chamber of Commerce. The inn closed in 1982. Littrell died in 2000.

70 Bradford Street

70 Bradford Street, the Bradford-Carver House, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

Capt. Joseph Enos ran the Bradford Market in this mid-19th-century house in the 1940s. Twenty years later, it was the home of Irving McDonald, who wrote three novels, intended for Catholic boys, that charted the adventures of Andy Carroll at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. He taught a “Communist Conspiracy” course at P.H.S. The property was later Steele’s Guest House and is now the Bradford-Carver House, operated by Kenneth Nelson.

72-82 Bradford Street

70-82 Bradford Street, Crowne Pointe Historic Inn and Spa, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

The Crowne Pointe Historic Inn and Spa occupies a commanding spot in what appears to be giddy Queen Anne style, though the turret is actually a much later addition. Known in the 1950s as Lynn House and in the ’80s as the Dusty Miller Inn, it was reopened in 1999 and is owned by the proprietors of the Brass Key: Thomas Walter, Kenneth Masi, and David Sanford. The Crowne Pointe, too, is a compound: the Mansion, 82 Bradford; the Abbey and Garden Residence, 80 Bradford (formerly the Sea Drift Inn); the Wellness Spa, 78 Bradford; and the Captain’s House, 4 Prince Street.

89 Bradford Street

Grace Gouveia and Mary Goveia, 89 Bradford Street, courtesy of Susan Leonard.

Grace Gouveia, pictured at No. 89 with her mother, Mary Goveia, was born in Olhao, Portugal. Her father, Charles, was a Grand Banks fisherman. She recalled: “My mother would get word that the vessel was sighted off the back side, and without stopping for anything, she’d grab me by the hand, and take me down to the beach, where other women were gathered. They waited in silence … to see if the boat was coming in at half-mast. Once they saw it was not half-masted they knelt and blessed themselves, and went home to prepare for their men. If the ship came in at half-mast, as it often did, there was weeping and wringing of hands, and prayers were offered.” Gouveia taught for 27 years, joined the Peace Corps, and helped establish the Council on Aging, which was housed until recently in the Grace Gouveia Building. The house was built in 1847.

90 Bradford Street

90 Bradford Street, the Fairbanks Inn, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Other inns may come across like museums, but Eben House actually was one. The Federal-style, brick-sided home was built in 1776 by Capt. Eben Snow. It was purchased in 1826 by David Fairbanks, a founder of the Seamen’s Bank, and in 1865 by a tin merchant, Charles Baxter Snow Sr., and his wife, Anna (Lancy) Snow. It passed to their daughter, Gertrude (Snow) DeWager, and her husband, Dr. E. A. DeWager, staying in the family until 1953. Stan Sorrentino, the owner of the Crown & Anchor and a collector of American folk art, reopened it in 1975 as the David Fairbanks House, filled with more than 1,000 examples of antique folk art. From 1985 to 2014, it was the Fairbanks Inn, run by Alicia Mickenberg and Kathleen Fitzgerald. At press time, it is being transformed into a luxury property by Kevin O’Shea and David Bowd of the Salt House Inn, renamed in its builder’s honor.

94 Bradford Street

94 Bradford Street, Marine Hall, courtesy of Salvador R. Vasques III (ca 1929).

Village Hall was built in 1832 as a secular meeting place. It was renamed Marine Hall after Marine Lodge No. 96 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was chartered here in 1845. They bought the building the next year. The Masons also gathered here. The first meeting of the Board of Trade (now the Chamber of Commerce) was convened here in 1870 by John Atwood Jr. In 1886, The Advocate began printing here on steam-driven presses. The Odd Fellows built a new headquarters next door in 1895, after which this served as a Christian Science Church. It was demolished decades ago. The graves of Odd Fellows are often carved with three links, for friendship, love, and truth.

96-98 Bradford Street

96-98 Bradford Street, AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Detail of Provincetown AIDS Support Group sign, 96-98 Bradford Street, courtesy of Bill Furdon.

Less than a decade and a half after its first appearance in town in 1982, AIDS had claimed more than 385 lives, one-tenth of the permanent population, Jeanne Braham and Pamela Peterson wrote in Starry, Starry Night. By then, the Provincetown AIDS Support Group had established its front-line quarters in the Queen Anne-style Odd Fellows Hall, used from 1895 to 1955 by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, one of whose missions was visiting and caring for the sick. PASG was founded in 1983 by Alice Foley, the town nurse; Preston Babbitt, proprietor of the Rose & Crown; and others. Its services include case management, transportation assistance, food and nutrition programs, H.I.V. prevention and screening, and housing. By merger in 2001, it became the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod. Foley died in 2009; Babbitt in 1990, of AIDS.

97 Bradford Street

97 Bradford Street, Romeo’s Holiday, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

With its pink facade, the eight-room Romeo’s Holiday guest house is easy enough to see from across the street. But it’s worth getting closer to inspect the Ken and Barbie poolside tableaux, staged with dolls around a goldfish pond in the sliver of a front yard. The house was built in the mid-19th century. Stan Klein, the proprietor, said there was once an after-hours club on the property in which Judy Garland “delighted her followers” and that the building had been a guest house at least since the mid-1970s, known for a time as Pete’s Buoy.

100 Bradford Street

100 Bradford Street, New England Telephone and Telegraph Company central switchboard, courtesy of Duane Steele and Mary-Jo Avellar.

Mary-Jo Avellar and Duane Steele, 100 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2012).

Provincetown had hand-cranked telephones until 1938, when 100 Bradford was built as the switching center for the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, allowing customers to lift their receivers to summon an operator. Until 1966, 16 telephone operators stood by, greeting callers: “Number please.” After the town converted to direct dialing, this was briefly the Chrysler Glass Museum, home of Walter Chrysler Jr.’s collection of Sandwich glass. The Advocate moved here in 1975. It undertook an expansion and modernization in 1977, designed by John Moberg of Mobic Design-Build, with a newsroom, composing room, and two darkrooms. The newspaper was acquired by Duane Steele and Mary-Jo Avellar, who still live here.

102-104A Bradford Street

Elizabeth Gabriel Brooke, 104 Bradford Street, courtesy of Elizabeth Gabriel Brooke (ca 1979).

Elizabeth Gabriel Brooke, proprietor of the Provincetown Hotel at Gabriel’s and founder of the Women Innkeepers of Provincetown, says hers is the oldest continuously-run woman-owned inn in the country, having opened in 1979 as the Gabriel Apartments & Guest Rooms. It has “welcomed everyone for many years,” she adds. First, Brooke, Laurel Daigle Wise, and Christina and William Davidson acquired Nos. 104 and 104A, the abandoned Lighthouse Apartments for fishermen and transients. (No. 104 once housed the Cape & Vineyard Electric Company and, before that, Provincetown Light and Power.) Brooke acquired No. 102A in 1995 and the handsome, Federal-style No. 102 in 2000, and rebuilt both from basement to attic. Through 2013, this was known as the Ashbrooke Inn at Gabriel’s.

Town Green (Bas Relief Park)

Town Green, Bas Relief, by Det. Rich Alves, Provincetown Police Department (2015).

Town Green, Bas Relief, by Det. Rich Alves (2015).

Town Green, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

The centerpiece of Town Green is Signing the Compact, better known as the Bas Relief. The park and monument date from 1920, the 300th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ landfall. The 170-foot-wide park property, once occupied by houses, was taken by the state to create a vista of the Pilgrim Monument. The bronze relief, 16 by 9 feet, was designed by Cyrus Dallin and cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company. It had a haunting quality in the winter of 2015. Nearby are a memorial to five Mayflower passengers who died while the ship lay in the harbor, and a tablet with the compact’s text, in which some see early stirrings of American democracy. Years ago, other stirrings in the densely wooded park involved sexual escapades, some of whose participants ended up in jail — just across Bradford Street in Town Hall.

109 Bradford Street

109 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

109 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

Napoleon “Gene” Poyant didn’t have much of a commute from this 1840s home, tucked behind the former Congregational Church of the Pilgrims. Poyant served in the Coast Guard during World War II, stationed at Race Point, falling in love with Provincetown in the process. In the 1950s, he ran Gene’s Pastry Shoppe, on what had been the church’s front yard on Commercial Street. It became one of the liveliest spots in town after 1960, when he opened Café Poyant, one of the first sidewalk cafés in town. The portrait artist Harvey Dodd completed the tableau. In the mid-’60s, Poyant sought to rid the town of beatniks. “Mark my words,” he warned, “we won’t have a decent town for long.”

115 Bradford Street

115 Bradford Street, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

This lovely and consequential house from around 1875-1885 has been in the foreground of thousands of pictures taken from the Pilgrim Monument. The decorative truss and vergeboard (pictured) are unmistakable. Walter Chrysler Jr. made his home here while running the Chrysler Art Museum. Roslyn Garfield, lawyer, real estate broker, and civic leader, had her office here. Staying here as a renter, Urvashi Vaid wrote Virtual Equality. This was once the office of the Provincetown Business Guild, founded in 1978 as a group of gay-run and gay-friendly establishments. Since 2001, it has been the headquarters of the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, an organization devoted to research, public education, and conservation — best known for its work with marine mammals. It was founded in 1975 by Charles “Stormy” Mayo, Barbara Mayo, and Graham Giese.

116 Bradford Street

116 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

As its name suggests, the Burch House, circa 1840-1850, was home to the Burch family for many years. It was owned by J. M. Burch in the early 20th century and occupied by Huldah Theodora (Anderson) Burch until her death in 1959. Her only child, Jean Nichols, conveyed the property in 1962 to Herbert Cronin. As the purposefully modest 17-room Burch House, it stressed its inexpensive, informal nature, and was a popular guest house among gay visitors. It is also an especially fine example of the Greek Revival style, with a front facade of flushboard siding intended to evoke the smooth surface of a temple front.

118 Bradford Street

118 Bradford Street, Clarendon House, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Local tradition typically grants to 119 Bradford the distinction of having served as the original King Hiram’s Lodge. But this nobly proportioned, Federal-style house may also be a candidate. An 1836 map shows a Methodist church — not a Masonic lodge — where No. 119 stands now. And an 1890 guide book states that the old lodge passed to the heirs of Thomas Atkins, as this building had. In 1939, Eloise Browne bought the property and opened the Eloise Browne House. John Kelly gave it the name Clarendon House in the 1980s, after a street in Boston. Sidney Royal III succeeded him. Dale Chin and James Furlong bought the place in 2002, spruced it up considerably, and maintained it as a seven-room guest house until 2013.

129 Bradford Street

129 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Bryant House, as this property was known for many years, was opened by Mary Ann (MacKenzie) Bryant of Nova Scotia in 1914. At first it was a restaurant specializing in seafood, roasts, chops, and steaks. Her daughter-in-law, Marie-Louise (Kopp) Bryant, expanded it into a guest house, which she ran until 1949. Marie-Louise’s son, George Bryant, is an architectural historian and legendary local iconoclast. This was l’Hotel Hibou in the 1970s; Eddie’s Pastry Shop, run by Eddie Moran, in the ’90s; and, more recently, the Monument Barber Shop. It’s now the summer home of Alan Cancelino and Scott Perry of New York.

130 Bradford Street

130 Bradford Street, Sajivan Gulf Oil, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

130 Bradford Street, Gulf Oil station, courtesy of the Provincetown History Preservation Project (1977).

At downtown’s heart are two service stations. Like many older Gulf Oil buildings, the Sajivan Inc. dealership at No. 130 has a Colonial Revival motif. Hubert and Laura Summers owned it until 1958 and ran a popular restaurant, It’s Hubert’s, which doubled as the bus terminal. Marcey’s Service Station followed, under Edward “Marcey” Salvador, who gave his nickname to the Marcey Oil Company. He sold the station to James Cordeiro, who turned it over to his son Neil. Cumberland Farms used to run the convenience store. The parking lot next door, once site of the Central School House, is where Linda Silva, a state social-services investigator, was killed in 1996 by Paul DuBois, who blamed her for losing custody of his children.

132 Bradford Street

132 Bradford Street, Old Colony Railroad passenger depot, courtesy of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.

365 Old King’s Highway, North Truro, Old Colony Railroad freight depot from 132 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

Provincetown was firmly joined to the mainland in 1873, when the Old Colony Railroad inaugurated service from Boston. The depots stood here but the tracks continued to Railroad Wharf, to serve the fishing fleet. Four trains crawled daily up and down the Cape. They brought thousands of visitors, including New Yorkers who’d taken overnight boats to Fall River before switching to the train. Old Colony was subsumed into the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad in 1893. The last regularly scheduled passenger train ran in 1938. The passenger depot was replaced in 1950 by Duarte Motors, now the Duarte Mall. The freight depot was moved to 365 Old King’s Highway in North Truro, where it stands.

133 Bradford Street

Gene Greene, standing, Terrace Restaurant, 133 Bradford Street, by David Jarrett (1981).

A set of cascading brick terraces runs alongside this house, built in the mid-19th century, creating what would seem to be an ideal setting for romantic summer dining. The property was purchased in 1976 by Gene Greene and Alton “Al” Stilson, proprietors of the Ranch guest house at 198 Commercial. Greene ran this property as the well-regarded Terrace Restaurant. It was more recently l’Uva Restaurant. The chef, Christopher Covelli, was also the proprietor of Christopher’s by the Bay. L’Uva closed after the 2007 season. In 2011, Krista Kranyak reopened the space as Ten Tables, which only lasted three seasons. It is now Backstreet, under chef Raul Garcia, formerly of Edwige.

135 Bradford Street

135 Bradford Street, Fine Arts Work Center, courtesy of the Fine Arts Work Center (1971).

Once owned by the New Haven Railroad, this was the home of the stationmaster, A. E. Slade. It served as the first, ramshackle Fine Arts Work Center from 1969 to 1972, before the center moved to 24 Pearl. Tenants have included the Cheshire Cats clothing boutique; the restaurants Meetinghouse, Cape Inn, Different Ducks, and Tropical Joe’s, where the Kinsey Sicks played; the Cyber Cove and Mail Spot Express business centers; Neal Kimball of Kimball Residential Design, who bought and restored the original section of the building in 2006; and, currently, Dr. Scott Allegretti’s Provincetown Dental Arts.

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.

136 Bradford Street

Laura Darsch, Maghi Geary, and Kim Oliver, Provincetown Florist, 136 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2013).

136 Bradford Street, Provincetown Florist, by David W. Dunlap (2013).

This Second Empire-style house, built around 1870-1875, loomed large over the Old Colony railyard. Menalkas Duncan, a prominent leather crafter — and Isadora Duncan’s nephew — bought it in 1955 and used it as the Duncan Sandal Shop. It’s since been an office, the Provincetown Fabric Shop, and a flower shop, which Maghi Geary (center) and Laura Darsch (left) acquired in 1988 and renamed Provincetown Florist. Their employee of longest standing is Kim Oliver (right), whose father worked at Duarte Motors next door. Their love of the business and of dogs, their professionalism, and their artistry are evident. Customers have included Bea Arthur, Sebastian Junger, José Quintero, Barbra Streisand, and Lily Tomlin.

141 Bradford Street

141 Bradford Street, Bradford Natural Market, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

That an old automotive garage is now a market for organic and natural products tells you much about the transformation of Provincetown. It was built around 1935 for Joseph Duarte’s Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealership, Duarte Motors, which later moved across the street. Vannoy Motors also did business here. Lembas Health Foods, established by Barbara Edwards and eprds, moved here from 3 Standish. In 2006, it became B Natural, the Bradford Natural Market, under Rodney “R. J.” Johnson and Jim Sheehan. Since 2011, it’s been 141 Bradford Natural Market, owned by Joe Freitas and Chris Getman. A small branch, 141 To Go, is at 148 Commercial.

142 Bradford Street

Top: “Rooms for Tourists, by Edward Hopper, courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery (1945). Bottom: 142 Bradford Street, Sunset Inn, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

Looks just like an Edward Hopper painting, doesn’t it? That’s because it is an Edward Hopper painting: Rooms for Tourists. At the time Hopper painted his tranquilly evocative nighttime scene, in 1945, James Carter and his family were living in this Italianate-style house, which was built around 1850-1860. It has been the Sunset Inn at least since the early 1960s. James Gavin and Keith Brickel bought the property in 1972. The Sunset Inn was an early member of the Provincetown Business Guild. Gavin ran it until 1997, when it was acquired by Joel Tendler. The lodging house license was transferred in 2002 to Adrian Padilla.

150 Bradford Street

150 Bradford Street, Nelson’s Market, courtesy of Tom Boland (1950s).

150 Bradford Street, Far Land Provisions, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

Far Land Provisions opened in 2004; its name combining those of Jim Farley and Tom Boland, who was then chairman of the Historic District Commission. Cozy, aromatic, and temptingly cluttered, it is a beacon of life in winter months. The building, constructed in 1952, has long played that role, as the L & A Supermarket — that would be Leo and Arlene Morris; Nelson’s Market, founded in 1933 at 349 Commercial and run by Clarence and Mabel Nelson; McNulty’s Market, Tim and Pam McNulty; and Bradford’s, Brad McDermott and Charles Pagliuca. As Nelson’s, the store provisioned much of the fishing fleet, delivering directly to the wharf. Its phone number, 45, is preserved as the root of Far Land’s (508) 487-0045.

151 Bradford Street

151 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

Study of Capt. Caleb Rich, by Charles Hawthorne.

One of Charles Hawthorne’s Selectmen of Provincetown was Capt. Caleb Lombard Rich, who lived here. Capt. Ferdinand “Fred” Salvador registered the deed on this Second Empire-style house on 15 February 1944, evidently intending it as a birthday present for his wife, Philomena Valentine (Cordeiro) Salvador, who was born on Valentine’s Day. Born in Olhao, Portugal, Salvador was a leading fisherman from the 1920s through the ’70s. With his brother, Louis, who abutted him on 11 Johnson, he operated Shirley & Roland and Stella. He skippered C. R. & M., named for his children, Carol Ann (Salvador) Silva, Richard, and Michael; and Michael Ann, which was still working in 2007 as Chico-Jess. Later owners were responsible for the marvelously unrestrained interior décor.

152 Bradford Street

152 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

152 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

For almost all of its existence, this sweet Queen Anne-style cottage from the late 19th century was in the hands of the Pine family: Joseph S. Pine in the early 20th century; Mary Rogers Pine, who ran the Rogers Dining Room for 35 years, until her death in 1946; followed by her daughter, Grace Pine, who sold cut flowers and potted plants here. More recently, it was the three-room Gracie House bed-and-breakfast, run by Debra Ann Messenbrink and Anna Maria Lutz.

156 Bradford Street

156 Bradford Street, Elephant Walk Inn, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Sears, Roebuck sold mail-order house kits with all the lumber, fixtures, and plans you needed to do it yourself. Assembled in 1917, this is one of several in town. It was a boarding house in the 1940s, run by Amelia Emily (Francis) Davis, where naval and civilian engineers stayed during submarine tests off Long Point. Alden “Pete” Steele and Clotilda “Tillie” Steele bought it in 1965 and ran it as the Casa Brazil Lodge, then sold it to Frederick and Phyllis Klein, who ran it as Frederick’s. Investors led by David Brudnoy purchased it in 1983 and created a condo, rechristening the front building Elephant Walk, after an Elizabeth Taylor movie of the same name. Len Paoletti, former proprietor of the Victoria House, owned the property from 1985 to 2003, when he sold it to Michael Clifford.

158 Bradford Street

158 Bradford Street, Admiral’s Landing, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

This 1850s house was, for a time in the mid-1950s, the Casa Brazil rooming house. (That business moved next door, to No. 156.) Through the 1970s and mid-’80s, it was owned by Dorothy Nearen and Marilyn Cubberley, and called Wave’s Landing Guest House. Under Steve Irving, who acquired it in 1988, it became Admiral’s Landing — a slightly more masculine-sounding name and one that would be higher up in alphabetical tourism listings. Peter Bez and Chuck Anzalone bought the place in 1995. It was sold in 2010 to Robyn and Audri Bazlen-Weglarz.

160 Bradford Street

160 Bradford Street, Seasons, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Once surrounded by maple trees, this gambrel-roofed house was built around 1860 for a Captain Small. From the 1960s through the early ’80s, it was the Maples guest house, run by Postmaster William Cabral and his wife, Ruth, who “cooked food for many a starving artist when the Fine Arts Work Center opened up,” her granddaughter Doreen Alsen recalled. It was renovated in 1984 as Plums Bed & Breakfast Inn, by Michael Wright. She (yes, she) was among the first Women Innkeepers of Provincetown, “whose goals were to create safe women-oriented spaces … and assist one another in all ways,” Karen Christel Krahulik wrote in Provincetown: From Pilgrim Landing to Gay Resort. It was acquired in 1999 by John Mirthes and Rick Reynolds, who run it as Seasons, an “inn for all” — gay, lesbian, and straight.

170 Bradford Street

170 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

170 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

For some Wellfleet children in the 1800s, this Federal-style building was school. After being floated down to Provincetown, it was purchased in 1896 for $285 by Antone Gaspar, a fisherman from Faial in the Azores. Antone’s son Joseph, born in the house in 1900, replaced a kitchen that had a sand floor with a new one, in knotty pine. Joseph inherited the house on the stipulation that his brother, Manuel, could remain here until he died, which he did — at the kitchen table. Joseph’s son, Warren, also lived here, as did his grandson John Gaspar Jr. The Gaspars sold the property in 1970. The next owners allowed it to deteriorate so far that it was given a cameo role in the 1995 comedy, Lie Down With Dogs, as a scary guest house. It was demolished in 2011 and replaced with a pretty simulacrum.

175 Bradford Street

175 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

The commanding view from this 1920s bungalow has been enjoyed by occupants as diverse as Marion Haymaker, a town librarian who shelved “inappropriate” books in hiding spots in the stacks, and Dini “Musty Chiffon” Lamot, of the band Human Sexual Response. In between, from 1958 to 1988, it was owned by Osma Couch Gallinger Tod, the author of nine books on weaving, basketry and other crafts; her daughter, Josephine (Couch) Del Deo, whose husband, the artist Sal Del Deo, used the house as a winter studio; and their daughter, Giovanna Del Deo. Tenants included Norman Mailer, the artist Jan Müller, and Robert Hatch, a critic at The Nation. The property has been owned since 1999 by Reed Boland.

178 Bradford Street

178 Bradford Street, Snug Cottage, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Snug is the word for this 1825 house, now an eight-room inn. In the 1960s, A. Philip Tarvers Jr. had his real estate business here. By the mid-70s, it was the Bradford Gardens Inn, among the earliest women-owned guest houses. It was purchased in 2000 by James Mack, who renamed it Snug Cottage. As a Unitarian Universalist chaplain, Mack is empowered to officiate at weddings, an amenity not many guest houses could offer. He’s married to Jon Arterton, founder and arranger of the Flirtations, a gay a cappella group, and founder and director of the Outer Cape Chorale. The couple sold Snug Cottage in 2010 to William Wilkins and Brian Wilkins.

180 Bradford Street

180 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

“Untitled (Summer Garden),” by E. Ambrose Webster, courtesy of the Provincetown History Preservation Project.

James Bakker, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

A board-and-batten Gothic Revival-style compound, remarkable occupants, and a view over Lovett’s Court make this an important landmark. It was built around 1850 by Capt. Caleb Cook, who made watch lubricant in the corner building. E. Ambrose Webster acquired it in 1900. His painting school was at 463 Commercial, but his own studio was here. His widow, Georgianna (Rodgers) Webster, leased it to Gordon Hamm. The property passed to her nephew, Karl Rodgers Sr., whose daughter, Delorma (Rodgers) Morton, owned it until 2008. They rented part of the property to the sculptor William Boogar Jr. and his wife, Alice; and to the artists Bert Yarborough and Paul Bowen. It is now owned by James Bakker, the president of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.

194 Bradford Street

194 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Ice coupon (ca 1920), courtesy of Stephen Borkowski.

Ice. To generations accustomed to electrically-powered refrigeration, it’s impossible to convey how important ice was in a community whose livelihood depended on the most perishable foodstuffs. If you were a fisherman or (a homemaker), you needed ice. And chances were good that you dealt with Joseph De Riggs, who came here from Faial in the Azores, or his son Charles De Riggs. A home customer might buy a book of coupons for, say, 5,000 pounds of ice, in “denominations” ranging from 10 to 100 pounds, redeeming the coupons when the iceman came. This gambrel-roofed house from the early 20th century served as headquarters of the De Riggs Ice Company. The ice house stood on East Harbor (Pilgrim Lake) until the early 1940s, when it was destroyed in a storm.

198 Bradford Street

198 Bradford Street, garage door, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

The artist Isaac Henry Caliga of Boston and his wife, Elizabeth Howland, who came to town in 1912 to study with Hawthorne, lived here. Their house originated as a fish shed built around 1880 by the H. & S. Cook Company. It was turned into a barber shop, opposite Town Hall, before being rolled out here. Caliga died in 1944 and Howland in 1960. Her sister, Ruth (Howland) DeWitt, remained here until her death in 1965. The property is now owned by Gaby Rilleau, whose father, Roger, was a renowned sandal maker. Rilleau believes the garage doors, painted in the style of Peter Hunt, may be the work of a Caliga-DeWitt family member who ran the Peasant Door shop.

208 Bradford Street

208 Bradford Street, Berta Walker Gallery, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

208 Bradford Street, Berta Walker Gallery, by Stephen Borkowski (2015).

Berta Walker, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

At the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, built by Freeman Forbes “Bob” Dodge and run by him from the 1950s to the ‘70s, one could find unusual pottery, driftwood lamps, and Blenko glass. As the Berta Walker Gallery, it is among the leading artistic showcases in town. Walker was the founding director of the Graham Modern Gallery in New York; daughter of Hudson and Ione (Gaul) Walker, early leaders of the Fine Arts Work Center; granddaughter of the writer Harriet Avery and the musician Harvey Gaul; and great-granddaughter of Thomas Walker, benefactor of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Her gallery, specializing in important local artists, opened in 1990 at 222 Commercial before moving here. The artist Sky Power is the director. This is a live-in shop, part of a condominium complex developed in the 1980s by Kent Coutinho.

211 Bradford Street

211 Bradford Street, courtesy of the Provincetown History Preservation Project.

To say simply that this was Cesco’s Italian Restaurant misses the point that Cesco, the “Spaghetti King of Cape Cod,” was a phenomenon, still recalled in the name Cesco Lane. (You’ll see it spelled Chesco, too.) Mary Heaton Vorse’s step-brother, Fred Marvin, a student of Charles Hawthorne, met Francesco “Cesco” Ronga in Naples and took him on as a “valet.” To our eyes, it looks like a longtime love affair cloaked in a fairly thin veil. They were devoted to one another more than 40 years until Marvin’s death in 1942, Amy Whorf McGuiggan told me. Cesco’s restaurant, where the Beachcombers was founded in 1916, passed to Patricia Hallett after Cesco’s death in 1947. The artist Harvey Dodd lived here in the ’60s, and the sculptor Richard Pepitone ran an art school here in the ’70s.

212 Bradford Street

Harvey Dodd mural (1968) at 212 Bradford Street, East End Marketplace, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

Even neighborhood grocery stores summon history in Provincetown. The East End Marketplace is a descendant of the Patrician Shop, which was opened in 1949 by Cyril Patrick — he of Patrick’s News Store — and his wife, Philomena “Phil” (Jason) Patrick, who was also his partner in the Noel Shop. With Manuel Cabral’s Bonnie Doone and Basil Santos’s Captain’s Galley, the Patrician was one of the first big commercial enterprises on Bradford. It was a general store, but with Eva Perry as cook, its lunch counter gained a reputation as having the best Portuguese soup on Cape Cod, Peter Manso said, as well as a mean lobster roll and a good old-fashioned banana split. After an interim as TeddySea’s Market, it became the East End. Furthering its local legacy is a bird’s-eye view of the Cape tip, painted by Harvey Dodd in 1968, a detail of which is pictured above.

214 Bradford Street

214 Bradford Street, Foley House, by David W. Dunlap (2013).

Alice Foley, courtesy of The Provincetown Banner.

“This house is proof that we are family here in Provincetown,” said Alice Foley (pictured) in 1996 at the dedication of Foley House, an assisted-living, congregate home for 10 otherwise homeless people living with H.I.V. and AIDS — the only program of its kind on the Cape. Foley cofounded the Provincetown AIDS Support Group (now the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod). Its housing director, Irene Rabinowitz, worked on this project with the Provincetown Housing Authority. The effort began as a renovation, but the contractor demolished the existing structure in 1995. The house then had to be reconstructed. There are 10 bedrooms, each with a refrigerator and microwave oven, and two kitchens.

226 Bradford Street

226 Bradford Street, King’s Highway Stagecoach Stop, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

226 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

A terrific vestige of early times, this three-quarter Cape is known as the King’s Highway Stagecoach Stop and is said in popular lore to have been built around 1775 in Truro to serve stagecoaches on their way from Eastham along the King’s Highway, when King George III was sovereign around these parts — to the extent that anyone ever was. The Provincetown Historic Survey is more guarded, putting the construction date range as 1790 to 1820. In the 1930s, the designer and sculptor Saul Yalkert and his wife, Ruth Dyer, meticulously restored the building.

236R Bradford Street

236R Bradford Street, Farfalla, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Hidden deep in the woods — a fantasy spot for generations of neighborhood kids who called it “Mushroom House” — is one of the few serious works of mid-century Modernism in Provincetown. It is “Farfalla,” butterfly, in Italian; so named in 1953 by its 23-year-old architect, Donald Jasinski, and Warren Hassmer, with whom he spent summers in the cottage. They also named the nearby hill “Fair Phoebus.” The analogy to a flying creature is apt, since this little building (about 250 square feet) prefigures Eero Saarinen’s T.W.A. Flight Center at Kennedy Airport. Hassmer sold the property in 1995 to Richard “Rick” Wrigley, the developer of the Provincetown Bungalow Haven complex on adjoining property, as well as a large home on Fair Phoebus Hill. Wrigley recently power-washed Farfalla, and installed electricity and Internet service, intending to use the restored structure as his summer studio.

238 Bradford Street

238 Bradford Street, the Provincetown Theater, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

Margaret Van Sant and Jane Macdonald, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

David Schoolman, by Jay Critchley.

The 130-to-145-seat Provincetown Theater opened in 2004 in what had been the Provincetown Mechanics and Cape End Motors garage, under a complete renovation by Brown Lindquist Fenuccio & Raber. It is maintained and managed by the Provincetown Theater Foundation, founded in 2000 to sustain, encourage, and promote performing arts. Board members Margaret Van Sant, of CTEK Arts, and Jane Macdonald are pictured. Initial support included a grant from the David Adam Schoolman Trust, named for the proprietor (pictured) of Land’s End Inn, who died in 1995. Open year-round, the theater offers its own productions, presents movies, operates as a workshop, is rented by companies like CTEK and the Gold Dust Orphans, and is a venue for the International Film Festival and Tennessee Williams Festival.

241 Bradford Street

241 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2012).

Provincetown Vocational School (1963), courtesy of the Provincetown History Preservation Project.

It’s one of the largest buildings in town and — arguably — one of the ugliest. But No. 241 had a small role at a critical moment of national history. This warehouse was constructed as part of the Naval Mine Test Facilities, commissioned in 1942, which became a busy military post during World War II. The land had belonged to the Connell family. “The Navy took it with the promise of paying for it,” Jack Connell said in 2014. “We are still waiting.” In 1948, the town acquired a long-term lease from the United States for $1 and rehabilitated the structure as the Provincetown Vocational School. The “voke” program was conducted here for 15 years before moving to the high school. Arnold Dwyer, of Arnold’s Radio and Cycle Shop, purchased the building for storage.

242 Bradford Street

242 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Glenn Milstead, by Paul J. Asher-Best (ca 1977).

No one calls lower Bradford Street “Cape Row,” but they could. It’s home to a remarkably cohesive ensemble of Cape houses, at Nos. 228, 230, 252, 258 and 260. The ruddy house at No. 242, a venerable full Cape, was built about 210 years ago. In the late ’60s, Benito Norcisa and his wife, Pamela, moved their Penny Farthing restaurant here, from 237 Bradford. For a time, their tenants included a number of John Waters stars: Glenn Milstead — the luminous and profane Divine; Channing Wilroy; and Cookie Mueller. Milstead even operated a shop here, called Divine Trash.

250 Bradford Street

250 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Though Mark Rothko is not commonly associated with Provincetown, he was indeed here for a few years, beginning in 1958, when he bought this house. He couldn’t sail, he didn’t like the beach and he sunburned badly, James Breslin noted in Mark Rothko: A Biography. In 1963, Rothko sold this place to the artists Tony Vevers and Elspeth Halvorsen. By then, Vevers was well established, having had a solo show at the seminal Sun Gallery in 1958. He was one of the founders of the Long Point Gallery and was deeply involved in the Provincetown Art Association and Museum. In Provincetown Arts, the artist Tabitha Vevers said this was “where my father’s enduring love of life, and the sometimes humble beauty of the world around him, came together as art.”

256 Bradford Street

256 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

Herman Maril’s plan for his studio addition at 256 Bradford Street.

David Maril, by David W. Dunlap (2012).

The most important surviving civic building from Long Point, its post office, was built around 1830. What we see from the street was originally the rear of the structure. Its distinguished second life was as the studio of the painter Herman Maril, whose work was championed by the collector Duncan Phillips. Maril, a professor at the University of Maryland, acquired this property in 1958. Working with the artist Chester Pfeiffer, he added a second-floor studio a year later, with north-facing windows, extending over a patio. (That’s Maril’s drawing of the project.) He died in 1986. His wife, Esta, a children’s psychiatric social worker, died in 2009. Their son David, a newspaperman and president of the Herman Maril Foundation, owns, uses, and cherishes the house. The studio is virtually untouched.

258 Bradford Street

258 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

The connoisseurs speak: “Probably the most intact of the Capes,” said Eric Dray (whose own home can be seen in the distance). “A lovely and virtually perfectly preserved example of a turn-of-the-century Cape Cod summer cottage,” said Daniel Towler. The century in question is the 19th, because this handsome building dates to 1801, the Provincetown Historic Survey said. Its state of preservation may be credited, in some measure, to continuity of family ownership between 1914 and 1996: from W. Creighton and Isabelle Lee, to August and Gladys MacLeod (Isabelle Lee’s niece), to John and Isabel (MacLeod) Walker.

258A Bradford Street

258A Bradford Street, Tree Tops, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

The lovely name of this house — Tree Tops — aptly describes its commanding position overlooking the East End. It was built in 1910 and operated until 1952 as Tree Tops Gift Shop and Piazza Tea Room, whose original proprietor was Zoe Morse. It promised patrons “luncheon, tea and supper on porch overlooking the harbor,” with “indoor tables for rainy weather.” Peter Manso, the author of Ptown, was one of the subsequent owners. The house was purchased in 2007 by Eric Dray, an organizer of the Provincetown Historic District and chairman of the Historical Commission, who painstakingly renovated it.

264-268 Bradford Street

264 Bradford Street, Mount Pleasant House, by David W. Dunlap (2008).

264 Bradford Street, the Oaks, by David W. Dunlap (2014).

With its deep, picturesque, wrap-around porch, Mount Pleasant House is immediately recognizable as the Victorian-era guest house it once was. It sits on one of the largest undivided lots in town, which has been owned for many years by Arnold and Ruth Dwyer and their family. It runs one-fifth of a mile to Route 6 and 80 yards along Bradford, all the way down to the garage at No. 268. Mount Pleasant was built around 1890, not long after the Old Colony Railroad opened up the town to tourism. It was run by Mary Days at the turn of the century. John Francis, of Francis’s Flats at 577 Commercial, owned the land. Ross Moffett and Bruce McKain had studios on this property as, more recently, did Rick Fleury, whose landscape paintings include a Dialogue series inspired by the works by Mark Rothko, who lived nearby.

268 Bradford Street, garage and studio, by David W. Dunlap (2011).

Behind Mount Pleasant stand a small cottage called the Oaks and a smaller cottage known appropriately as the Acorn. The Oaks was a restaurant opened here in 1915 by Christine Ell, a year after Polly Holladay opened Polly’s, at 484 Commercial. Both proprietors also ran popular restaurants in Greenwich Village and all four establishments drew the Village Bohemian crowd, led by Eugene O’Neill. The Oaks was more like a speakeasy, Leona Rust Egan wrote in Provincetown as a Stage, serving whiskey distilled in Truro. O’Neill likened it to “tiger piss.” Later, Polly Burnell said, Adele and Lester Heller used the Oaks for visitors working at the Provincetown Playhouse on the Wharf.

284 Bradford Street

284 Bradford Street, by David W. Dunlap (2013).

There are few townscapes as joyfully expressive as the works of Kenneth Stubbs, who attended the Corcoran School of Art before coming to town in the 1930s to study with his friend E. Ambrose Webster. In 1960, Stubbs and his wife, Miriam, bought this property, originally part of a farm, from Mischa and Helen Richter. Stubbs died in 1967 but the family still owns the small compound. The main house was built around 1900. A garage was converted into Stubbs’s studio and is now one of two cottages that the family rents out, mostly to artists, like Billy Jarecki. In the wetlands out back are traces of a pond that drew ice-skaters two or three generations ago, Miriam told me.

“Untitled (Provincetown,” by Kenneth Stubbs, courtesy of the Provincetown Art Association and Museum.