3 Franklin Street

3 Franklin Street Condominium

Built around 1880 and long the property of the Trovato family, this was [?] the boyhood home of Chief Michael Trovato (b 1955) of the Provincetown Fire Department. His parents were Joseph J. Trovato Sr. (b ±1924), an appliance dealer, and Charlotte Trovato (b ±1918). His siblings were Joseph Jr., who served in Vietnam and married Gail Marie Gaspie of Winthrop Street; Lynda Ann (b 1948), who married David Gonsalves of Brewster Street and now works as a health-care provider; and Stephen (1960-1995).

4 Franklin Street

4 Franklin Street Condominium

Built between 1850 and 1860, this was the home for a time in the early 1980s to the fisherman Gene Macara (b 1959), a son of Kenneth and Ruth Macara. It is now a six-unit condo. • Historic District Survey (1) • Historic District Survey (2) • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 1 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 2 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 3 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 4 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 5 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 6 ¶ Posted 2012-12-24

11 Franklin Street

 
The house dates at least to 1836, according to Historic District Survey research by Tom Boland. The house was in the Silva family for at least 90 years until Stephen L. Fletcher and Michael Walden purchased it in 1996.

12 Franklin Street

 
12 Franklin Street Condominium

Though much reconstructed, the base house on this property was constructed around 1830. The fisherman Joseph C. Brazil owned the place in the early 20th century. Mary A. Towne (b 1908), an assistant manager who was active in the Catholic Daughters of America, lived here at least from the 1950s through the 1980s. It is now a three-unit condo. • Historic District Survey • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 1 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 2 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 3 ¶ Posted 2012-12-25

† 15 Franklin Street

 

Known even in the early 1940s as one of the oldest houses in Provincetown, 15 Franklin Street — shown above in a photo by Ross Moffett — was in the hands of the Brown family for 85 years, from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

18 Franklin Street

18 Franklin Street Condominium

They call a lot of buildings “captain’s houses” in Provincetown. Sounds good for the transient trade. But 18 Franklin Street, unheralded as such, really was a captain’s house: Capt. Antone Almeida White (±1871-1943), who came to Provincetown from São Miguel in the Azores around 1890 and skippered three fishing schooners: the Natalie J. Nelson, which lost six dorymen in an awful 1917 storm; the William A. Morse; and the Harmony.

19 Franklin Street

Built between 1800 and 1830. Now owned by Lisa Pacheco and Barbara Robb. • Historic District Survey • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-25

21A Franklin Street

21A Franklin Street Condominium

Formerly denominated 21 Franklin Street, this was the Prada family home for many years. Antone “Tony” Prada (±1872-1963) was the skipper of the Rose Dorothea and its last surviving crew member in Provincetown. He had come to this country in the early 1910s from São Miguel in the Azores. Besides the Rose Dorothea, he also skippered the Annie C. Perry, which ended up being sunk during World War I by a German submarine, U-156.

22 Franklin Street

Among the older houses on Franklin Street, No. 22 was constructed in 1837. Until his death in 1950, at the age of 44, this was the home of Jackson R. Cabral, the son of Joseph and Philomena (Silva) Cabral, who had come to Provincetown from the Azores. Jackson married Margaret Enos. He worked as an engineer at the Cape Cod Cold Storage, 125 Commercial Street, where he was stricken by a heart ailment. He died in this house soon afterward.

24 Franklin Street

24 Franklin Street Condominium

Constructed in the first half of the 19th century, this property was converted into a three-unit condo in 2010. The owners live in Chestnut Hill, Mass.; Manhattan and Dallas. • Historic District Survey • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 1 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 2 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 3 ¶ Posted 2012-12-26

25 Franklin Street

This 1,300-square-foot house was built in 1985. It is now owned by Robert J. Weeks. • Historic District Survey • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-26

27 Franklin Street

Marjorie V. Souza (1919-1998), whose home was here in the 1980s and ’90s, was hired in 1957 as the passenger agent — singular — at Provincetown Municipal Airport. In that sense, it seems fitting that one of the residents as of 2012 is a flight attendant. Scott J. Landry (b 1969), the director of the whale rescue unit at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, also lives here. • Historic District Survey, main house • Historic District Survey, shed • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-26

31 Franklin Street

31 Franklin Street Condominium

A three-unit condo, constructed in 1986. • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 1 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 2 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 3 ¶ Posted 2012-12-26

32 Franklin Street

For nearly 85 years — almost all of the 20th century — this property belonged to the Jason family. Amelia (Taves) Jason (b ±1878) acquired it in 1912 from Antone Almeda and Rose Almeda White. Mrs. Jason’s husband, Jesse L. Jason (1879-1946), who also lived here, was born in São Miguel in the Azores. He moved to Provincetown in about 1905 and was a fisherman. During this period, the family of Manuel Cabral also made their home here.

34 Franklin Street

Dominic S. “Dom” Avila (±1900-1959), a first-generation Provincetown native of Azorean parentage, was still hard at work as a carpenter as he neared his 60th year. Up on the roof of 31 Pearl Street on 7 August 1959, he apparently tried to jump from one staging area to another at a higher level. He slipped and fell, striking his head on an ash barrel as he tumbled to the ground.

36 Franklin Street

Franklin Court Condominium

Franklin Court, built in 1981, is a seven-unit condo. One of the units was owned from 2004 to 2008 by Taylor M. Polites, author of The Rebel Wife. • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit A • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit B • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit C • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit D • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit E • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit F • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit G ¶ Posted 2012-12-28

37 Franklin Street

 
Marcey Oil Company

Edward “Marcey” Salvador (1914-1994), who had worked for the DeRiggs Ice Company at 194 Bradford Street, established his own ice and oil business in 1937. Both he and his older brother, Christopher J. Salvador (b ±1913), were known as “Marcey.” Edward’s daughter, Nancy L. Stefani, told me in a 2009 interview that Marcey is a Portuguese diminutive that might roughly be translated as “strong boy.” Indeed, she said, her father was known for being able to lift a 50-gallon oil drum. His wife, Priscilla (Steele) Salvador (±1913-2001), was the co-owner and office manager of the oil company, whose headquarters were — and still are — at 37 Franklin, adjoining/within [?] the Salvadors’ home.

38 Franklin Street

 
Creek Cottage Condominium

There is no missing or mistaking Creek Cottage, at least not in its current livery, a color quite close to what Benjamin Moore calls “Northern Lights.” The Almeida family once lived here. Albert Almeida (±1887-1964) was a shoemaker from São Miguel in the Azores. His first [?] wife, Julia (Gomes) Almeida (±1893-1952), was also from the Azores. Lisa Coleman, a great-granddaughter of Viola Cook, who lived on the abutting property at 62 Creek Road, said her mother told her that Almeida was a very kind man.

40 Franklin Street

Function, meet form. Until recently, at least, No. 40 had one of the plainest and most Spartan facades on Franklin Street; a simple house that performed its sheltering mission modestly. Whom it sheltered were members of the extended Corea family. John Francis Corea (±1916-1962), a Provincetown native, was the son of John and Mary M. (Mayo) Corea. After graduating from P.H.S. in 1933, he joined the Coast Guard and served through World War II, seeing duty in the Pacific Theater, including at Guadalcanal. He then fished with his father and later worked as a mechanic at Duarte Motors, 132 Bradford Street.

42 Franklin Street

 
This is self-evidently a white house. For many years, it was also the Whites’ house: Arthur A. White (b ±1908), a carpenter and plumber; his wife, Mary C. White (b ±1908); and their daughter, Rose White (b ±1934). Rose, who had been born with disability that kept her housebound for her entire youth, was given a television set by the people of Provincetown in 1950, when television sets were luxury items commanding prices akin to a top-of-the-line Mac computer today.

46 Franklin Street

 
Nautical motifs are a-dime-a-dozen in Provincetown, as they are everywhere on the Cape. But sometimes, even in Provincetown, seaside décor can be authentic, genuine and truly expressive. The wonderful tricolor lobster at No. 46 falls in the latter category, because this is the home of Alexander J. “Alex” Brown (b 1954), a lobsterman, oysterman and fisherman; and of his wife, Joady A. Brown (b 1956), a supervisor.

48 Franklin Street

 

These side-by-side photos, taken in 2010 and 2012, simultaneously show how faithfully the renovation of 48 Franklin, by Robert Valois of Truro, tried to hew to the original form and fabric of the house and also how difficult it is to perpetuate the ramshackle, slapdash, bubble-gum-and-baling-wire nature of the place — its “character,” for want of a better word.

50 Franklin Street

No ship’s figurehead on the pediment, but this was a captain’s house all the same: Capt. Joseph A. White (b ±1903) of the United States Coast Guard and his wife, Philomena Mae White (b ±1906), who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in 1965 at the Provincetown Inn. White had been in charge of the Wood End Station and later worked as a carpenter. The Whites owned this property from 1941 to 1983. • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-30

52 Franklin Street

 
Describing a Provincetown house as a mysterious, exotic, tumble-down hodge-podge doesn’t really narrow the number of suspects meaningfully. So, let’s note further about 52 Franklin Street — which, appropriately, has an important John Waters connection — that there are windows where a roof should be, walls where windows should be and the general air of a 1960s mash-up.

54-56 Franklin Street

 
Lilac Court Condominium

An eight-unit condominium in two buildings of virtually mirrorlike symmetry, Lilac Court opened in 1986. Sue Harrison, who was on the Planning Board at the time, recalled this overscaled project as an important catalyst in turning public opinion in favor of stricter zoning controls.

“The Planning Board had seen these things coming for a while and tried to get voters to self-limit but they were an independent lot and it was not until they saw Lilac Court that things changed,” Harrison told me in 2012.

60 Franklin Street

See 60 West Franklin Street.

61 Franklin Street

 
Rich in character, thanks to the fact that it stayed in one family’s hands for many years, 61 Franklin was sold in 2012 to James L. Gowdy of Los Angeles, so changes may be in store. This was at one time the home of Provincetown’s shellfish warden, Aloysius Perry (±1910-1952), a World War II veteran who’d seen action at the Battle of the Bulge; his wife, Mary Ellen Perry (b ±1918); and their daughter, Joyce Ann Perry (b 1941). In 1959, Joyce married Airman Second Class John “Johnny” Strong (b 1942) of Viper, Ky.

62 Franklin Street

62 Franklin Street Condominium

There are three units in the main house, which was once the Lambrou family home, and one other unit in a nearby cottage. • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 1 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 2 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 3 • Assessor’s Online Database, Unit 4 ¶ Posted 2012-12-30

64 Franklin Street

This was the home and office in the 1960s of the master electrician Ronald White (b 1933) and his wife Kathleen B. (Silva) White (b 1934). The couple had four children: Cheryldene, Charlene, Glenn and David. Ronald Jr. died at the age two. They moved across the street, to 65 Franklin. • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-30

65 Franklin Street

 

In Provincetown, ranch houses — so common elsewhere in America — constitute a rare and exotic species. This one was built for [?] the master electrician Ronald White (b 1933) and his wife Kathleen B. (Silva) White (b 1934), and their four children. Frankly, I envy those kids this yard, though I’m glad I didn’t have to mow it. They moved here from 64 Franklin. The property has been in the White family since 1957. • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-30

66 Franklin Street

 
66 Franklin Street Condominium

Talk about a Provincetown picture postcard scene: luscious tomatoes hanging heavily on a crisp late summer day from a white picket fence, practically begging to be plucked. (I didn’t. My mother raised me better than that.) One likes to imagine that it’s a tableau Antone Veara (±1865-1946) might recognize. Veara was born in São Miguel in the Azores and arrived in Provincetown when he was a teenager. He worked as a fish cutter at the Atlantic Coast Fisheries plant, the old Cape Cod Cold Storage at 125 Commercial Street.

68 Franklin Street

Three Maples Condominium

“Mighty Oak” might have been a better name for this two-unit condo than “Three Maples,” since 68 Franklin was for a long time the home of Lillian Mary Perry (1897-1999), who briefly held the distinction of being Provincetown’s oldest citizen. After helping raise her 12 younger brothers and sisters, she worked as a housekeeper for Richard Allan Oppen and Barbara Camille (Cabral) Oppen, proprietors of the Bonnie Doone restaurant, 35 Bradford.

72 Franklin Street

 
The last sinking of a fishing vessel in the Provincetown fleet with the loss of multiple lives occurred 1 May 1984 — nearly 30 years ago — when the Victory II, under the command of 28-year-old Capt. Kenneth Macara II, went down near Billingsgate Shoal after its net became entangled in an old mooring. The skipper and two other men perished. Captain Macara’s parents, Kenneth R. Macara (b 1931) and Ruth L. (Koontz) Macara (1930-2005), bought this property in 1966.

73 Franklin Street

Amazingly, Francis J. Alves, the longtime town engineer, died in 2001 in the same house on Young’s Court in which he’d been born in 1907. For 40 intervening years, from 1937 to 1978, he lived here with his wife, Mary Eva “Winnie” (Wager) Alves (1907-1996). Unlike many town men of his generation, Alves continued his education after P.H.S. He attended Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute and was graduated in 1932 from Northeastern University with a degree in civil engineering. He was the town engineer more than 30 years, except for a stint with the Army’s 1395th Engineer Construction Battalion in the South Pacific during World War II. • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-30

75 Franklin Street

 
Happily, there is no law that every house on Cape Cod must be a Cape. This Arts-and-Crafts renovation by Robert Valois of Truro is an homage to the California architects Greene & Greene. The most respectful gesture of the design was to spare a tree in the front yard, even though it obscures much of the facade. Now that’s contextual architecture.

76 Franklin Street

 
Mark C. Lambrou (b 1955), the son of Mary Loring (Silva) Lambrou (b 1931) and John A. Lambrou (±1929-2000), lived here from 1977 through 1999 with his wife, Cynthia J. “Cindy” (Roderick) Lambrou (b 1955). She worked as a cashier and waitress; he as a burner mechanic. Their son Lucas (b ±1982) joined the Navy shortly after graduating from Provincetown High School and served as an ordnance petty officer aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Lambrous sold this property to Robert H. Buck, Michael Hjerpe and Michael Whaley. • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2012-12-30

83 Franklin Street

 
Former Taubes-Pierce School of Art

When a building is as strangely proportioned as this one is, there is often a story behind it. Because we’re in Provincetown, there is often a good story behind it. That’s certainly the case at 83 Franklin Street (formerly denominated 79 Franklin), where the artists Frederic Taubes (1900-1981) and Donald Pierce (±1926-2010) built themselves an art school and studio in 1955. The school, under Pierce’s name alone, operated until 1972. But the Taubes family owned the property until 2008, when it was sold to Tina M. Trudel (b 1963) and the artist Dorothy Palanza (b 1956).

89 Franklin Street

See 52-54 Pleasant Street.