437 Commercial Street, Poor Richard’s Landing, by David W. Dunlap (2013).
Poor Richard’s Landing, by David W. Dunlap (2013).
An entire chapter of Time and the Town was devoted to Clan Avellar, which included Angelina Jacinta (Soares) Avellar, or “Mother Avellar”; Antone, made famous by Gerrit Beneker in a World War I poster; and Justin, owner of Hindu. Their home, No. 437, is a half Cape. The French doors were added in 1971, when Harvey Dodd opened a gallery here. At that time, the second floor was extended to meet No. 439, forming a breezeway to Avellar’s Wharf. In 1960, George Harvender and Floyd Linder bought the wharf and renamed it Harvender’s Landing. Richard Lischer bought it in 1965 and renamed it Poor Richard’s Landing. Ilona Royce Smithkin and Karen Katzel bought it in 1991. It’s managed by Sarah Thompson and Diane Stafford. Dodd was succeeded by John Lucas’s J. Lucas Gallery, Alex Carleton’s Foc’sle store, and Shirl Roccapriore’s Oils by the Sea Gallery.
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.
Standish House
Now home to Scott Rodgers and Jon Hubanks, 455 Commercial Street was constructed in the early 20th century as a berth not for a whom, but for a what: Tamerlane. This sailboat took its name from a whaling bark captained by Joshua Baker Winslow on three voyages out of New Bedford, in 1854, 1858, and 1865. Provincetown’s Tamerlane was owned by Captain Winslow’s grandson, Henry Joshua Winslow (1880-1963), and his wife, Grace (Davenport) Winslow (1877-1970). The Winslows built and spent summers in the gambrel-roofed house next door, 
Three generations of very gifted Richters — Mischa (1910-2001), his son Dan (b 1939), and Dan’s sons Sacha (b 1968) and Mischa (b 1971) — have traveled in Provincetown orbits at some point or other. This was the home of Mischa grand-père for the last 23 years of his life. (A profile appears on 
So who are the Beachcombers? Think: Century Association and Skull & Bones — in a camel costume. That is, an arts organization that takes its mission and itself quite seriously, but that can’t help indulge sometimes in hijinks that would have been more or less appropriate for a boys’ summer camp. It is no coincidence that it was founded two years after the Provincetown Art Association across the street, and by many of the same people. As the art colony grew in the early 20th century, it needed both a place to exhibit its work seriously and a place to fraternize privately. Its 1916 constitution said its purpose was “to promote good fellowship among men sojourning or resident in or about Provincetown who are engaged in the practice of the fine arts or their branches” or “who are intimately connected with the promotion of the fine arts” — defined to mean painting, etching, engraving, sculpture, architecture, designing, illustrating, writing, music and acting. Officers, committees and events were given maritime names. 
Kibbe Cook – Mary Heaton Vorse House
E. & E. K. Cook & Company Wharf
Salt works reconstruction (Unfinished)
This has long been the most conspicuous house along Cooks’ row and that was apparently just the object of the wife of Capt. Daniel Cook, who built it — over his other relatives’ objections — on a parcel that was barely large enough to contain its bulk. “This domineering lady insisted that she must be on the front street,” Mary Heaton Vorse wrote in Time and the Town. “She wished, she said, ‘to see the sun rise over the sea from the eastern chamber.'” Having alienated the seven other Cooks who lived nearby, the captain was supposed to have told his wife once construction was finished: “There. Now eat it! Ain’t nothin’ else to eat.” And there wasn’t even sunrise to be seen from the eastern chamber, as the story of 
Check out this sweet little house, on a generous front yard, from the east side of the lot — about the vantage of the photo. Chances are, you’ll be struck by just how claustrophobic 
The ardently independent spirit of Harry Kemp lives on, in the person of George Bryant (b 1937). And Bryant lived for nearly 35 years in this house. Like Kemp, Bryant has marched indefatigably to the tune not simply of a different drummer, but of a different band entirely. He is architect, home inspector, consultant, public servant, gadfly, and — above all — historian. By turns sweet, funny, impatient and irascible, Bryant’s approach is not welcomed by everyone in town. But Provincetown without him is inconceivable. His living memory — an encyclopedic amalgam of personal lore, structural provenance, illuminating history and dark rumor — is the mortar that helps hold local history together. [See, for example, “
Charley Austin Cook Wharf
MacMillan House
Capt. Sylvanus Cook, ship owner and fish dealer in the firm of H. & S. Cook (not to be confused with E. & E. K. Cook), lived here in the late 19th century, when it was denominated 435 Commercial Street. This was the seventh of eight houses in the Cooks’ row.
On the afternoon of 14 May 2008, I took this picture of a pile of lobster trap buoys in front of 485 Commercial Street. Obviously, they had caught my eye, but they hadn’t excited much more interest than that. I squeezed off only one frame. I had no idea at the time that I was recording history. Five months later, when The Banner published a poignant essay by Dennis Minsky, “Todd Silva Is Leaving Provincetown,” I understood that I had been witnessing the last stand of “one of the last watermen on the waterfront.” Commercial Street had lost a working lobsterman, Todd Silva (b 1960), the skipper of the Pam & Todd. 
Sylvia Tarvers Weston has kindly provided some fascinating information in the 
Former Eastern School House | 
Building Provincetown 