Tag Archives for CCNS Province Lands

Cape Cod National Seashore | Province Lands

Superintendent’s house

Superintendent's house, Beech Forest, by Nancy Marie Thibeault (1973).

Superintendent’s house, Beech Forest, by Nancy Marie Thibeault (1973).

On the east side of the parking lot at Beech Forest Trail are stone steps that led to the home of Henry and Eva Helmer. He was the superintendent of the Province Lands from the 1940s to the 1960s, when they were under state control. The house was razed years after his death in 1966. The tranquil one-mile trail runs through a variety of natural settings around Blackwater Pond. The comfort station, from 1964, was designed by F. Clifford Pearce Jr. The inviting Lily Pad Dock was built in the mid-1990s. The poet Mary Oliver drew much inspiration from this pond and its environs. If you should find a pencil secreted in the crook of a tree branch, it’s hers.

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.

CCNS Province Lands | “Hippie House”

 

This fascinating structure, nestled on a wooded hillside north of Shank Painter Road, embodied the best traditions of outlaw construction in Provincetown: it was built where it shouldn’t have been, without any evident authorization to be there, of materials no one would use to build a house, by a person or persons unknown, at some indistinct time in the past, to serve an undefined purpose, which it did with surprising robustness. More pictures and history»

Cape Cod National Seashore | Province Lands

Province Lands bound stones

Province Lands bound stone B, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

Province Lands bound stone B, by David W. Dunlap (2010).

In 1692, the Province of Massachusetts Bay subsumed Plymouth Colony, including the colony’s common acreage on Cape Cod, which came to be known as the Province Lands. Provincetown was established within the Province Lands in 1727. Its residents were soon buying and selling parcels of property, ignoring the minor detail that the state owned the land inalienably — at least in theory. After decades of tension, the matter was resolved by the Statutes of 1893, Chapter 470, which effectively split the settled town from a 3,200-acre area north and west. The irregular border was marked at 15 intervals by tall granite markers, incised with the legend “STAT. 1893 CHAP. 470,″ “P. L.” and a letter designation. Two of the easiest to find are Bound B, at the entrance to the National Seashore on Province Lands Road, just behind the National Park Service sign; and Bound I, in the yard at 111 Race Point Road.

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.

CCNS Province Lands | Visitor Center and Amphitheater

 

The signature National Seashore building is the hexagonal Province Lands Visitor Center of 1967-69, which replaced the Grand View Tower of 1955. It was designed by Benjamin Biderman of the Park Service’s Eastern Office of Design and Construction. F. Clifford Pearce Jr. also worked on the job. More pictures and history»

Cape Cod National Seashore | Province Lands

Province Lands Visitor Center

Province Lands Visitor Center, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

Province Lands Visitor Center, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

The signature National Seashore building is the hexagonal Province Lands Visitor Center of 1967-69, which replaced the Grand View Tower of 1955, a rudimentary but well-loved viewing platform. The center was designed by Benjamin Biderman of the National Park Service’s Eastern Office of Design and Construction. F. Clifford Pearce Jr., who designed the Race Point bathhouse and Beech Forest comfort station, also worked on this job. Plate-glass windows on the main level and a wrap-around upper deck take great advantage of the siting. The low-slung, shingled roof seems a perfect Cape Cod expression of the Mission 66 construction program. Biderman also designed the 700-seat Province Lands Amphitheater of 1968, near the Visitor Center.

Province Lands Amphitheater, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

Province Lands Amphitheater, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

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.

Cape Cod National Seashore | Province Lands

Provincetown Airport

Provincetown Airport, by Hugo Poisson, courtesy of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.

Provincetown Airport, by Hugo Poisson, courtesy of the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.

Provincetown Airport, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

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.

CCNS Province Lands | Municipal Airport (PVC)

 

More than 300 acres were taken out of the Province Lands to permit construction of the Provincetown Municipal Airport (PVC), a project begun in 1947. Burns & Kenerson were the original architects. The single runway — 7/25 — is 3,500 feet long. The first scheduled flights to and from Boston, operated by John C. Van Arsdale (1919-1997), began in late 1949 on Cessna Bobcats. More pictures and history»

Cape Cod National Seashore | Province Lands

Smallpox Cemetery

Smallpox Cemetery, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

Smallpox Cemetery, by David W. Dunlap (2009).

The most touching place in the Province Lands is the Smallpox Cemetery, not far east of Bound F, through lowlands around Duck Pond. (Best advice: bring garden shears for the catbrier.) This is the vicinity of the Pest House, built around 1848 to contain and isolate smallpox victims. At the burial ground were 14 headstones, numbered but nameless. At least four survive. Provincetown Massachusetts Cemetery Inscriptions, by Lurana Higgins Cook, Hugh Francis Cook, Anne Gleason MacIntyre and John Stuart MacIntyre, tentatively identified the burials. The story of the man under No. 6 speaks eloquently and sadly to the hardships of the time. Antone Domingo was an Azorean mariner. He died in 1872. He was already a widower. And he was only 22.

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.

CCNS Province Lands | “Tiresome Tabernacle”

 

The Tiresome Tabernacle was built by the artist Jay Critchley in 2001 not far from the new Wastewater Treatment Plant, 200 Route 6. A commentary on energy wastefulness and environmental recklessness, it consisted originally of an eight-foot stack of used car tires atop a five-foot platform in a sunken pit. The platform remains, looking like a mysterious altar. More pictures and history»