3 Johnson Street

See 368 Commercial Street.

4 Johnson Street

 
Fire Station No. 4

Always a fire house, this structure has been known by several designations since its construction in 1888: Steamer-Hose Company 3, Pumper Company 3 and Engine Company 4. It has been the home of at least two celebrated fire trucks: an Amoskeag steamer made by the Manchester Locomotive Works in New Hampshire in 1889 and a pumper truck made by American LaFrance in Elmira, N.Y., in 1936. The pumper, designated Engine 4, was decommissioned in 1976 but has been painstakingly rebuilt in recent years and is now a top star of any parade in which it appears.

5 Johnson Street

Built around 1875, this house was in the hands of the Perie-Sylvia family for at least 90 years. Title was transferred in 1921 from the Peries and Avellars to Cora P. (Perie) Sylvia (±1886-1974), who lived here for more than 40 years. Her home was, by circumstance, the setting of a great tragedy in February 1949 when five-year-old James W. Roderick, playing cowboys and Indians, darted out from a hedge and under the wheels of a trailer truck loaded with 22,000 pounds of fish. The boy’s body was brought here first before being taken to a funeral home. The house also knew great joy.

6 Johnson Street

 
Long Point View House

Offering “Apartments – Rooms – Showers,” the Long Point View Guesthouse was one of the longest-running accommodations under the same proprietorship in town: an astonishing 55 years. Built in the 1870s or 1880s in the Second Empire style, it was purchased in 1946 and run by Leona L. (Corea) Mendes (1918-2009), a namesake of the dragger Leona & Gabriel.

7 Johnson Street

 
White Porch Inn

The White Porch Inn, which opened in 2007 under the proprietorship of Thomas G. Shirk, cultivates a casually refined image. But 7 Johnson Street was once a rather more raffish establishment known as the Coat of Arms. And in that period, under Arpina (Eghigian) Stanton (b 1924) and her husband, Dr. Harry H. “Skip” Stanton (1928-2001), it was among the groundbreaking establishments in town, as one of only three guest houses to join in the first Carnival parade in 1977, thereby declaring quite publicly that it served and cultivated a gay and lesbian clientele. (The others were the Ranch, 198 Commercial, and George’s Inn, 9 Court Street.) These formed the nucleus of the Provincetown Business Guild.

8 Johnson Street

Christopher’s by the Bay

It would be more accurate to call this guest house Dave-and-Jim’s by the Bay, since the proprietors these days are David C. McGlothlin (b 1964) and James V. Rizzo. But it still carries the name of the chef Christopher Covelli, who opened the inn in 1999. Covelli also ran L’Uva Restaurant at 133 Bradford. The house had been in the Rich family for the early half of the 20th century. The owners’ research shows that it was the Swanberry Inn in the ’70s, and — briefly — Carpe Diem, which is now next door.

9 Johnson Street

9 Johnson House

Dating from the second half of the 19th century, this house has been owned since 1983 by Kenneth C. Fruhman and Frank E. Thompson (b 1942). They run it as a lodging, with one guest bedroom and two efficiency apartments. This was once the home of Henry Bayles Fisk (1912-1957) and it was where he opened his Fisk Funeral Home in 1949. He moved it across the road five years later, to 12 Johnson Street. • Historic District Survey • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2013-02-16

10 Johnson Street

From the 1940s through the 1980s, this was a lodging house run by Adelaide (Wilkins) Kenney (b ±1906), known in earlier years as the Cook Homestead and in later years as Adelaide’s Guest House. There is a charming photograph of it in Volume I of John Hardy Wright’s Images of America: Provincetown, at page 81, completely recognizable 70 years ago as the building we see today — minus the “Rooms” and “Tourists” signs. Adelaide’s husband, William Edgar Kenney (±1892-1962), was the sexton of the Center Methodist Church for many years. This property was sold out of the Kenney estate in 2001. • Historic District Survey • Assessor’s Online Database ¶ Posted 2013-02-16

11 Johnson Street

 

Louis A. Salvador (±1911-1985), who shared this home with his wife, Agnes F. (Jackett) Salvador (±1913-2005), was a leading figure in the fishery from the 1920s through the 1970s. So was his older brother, Capt. Ferdinand R. “Fred” Salvador, who lived on the abutting property at 151 Bradford Street. (You can just make out the edge of his mansard roof at the far left of the photo above.)

12 Johnson Street

 
Carpe Diem Guesthouse and Spa

“Relax. Unwind. Stay.” That has been a motto of the 19-room Carpe Diem guest house, established in 1997 and run by Rainer Horn, Jürgen Herzog and Hans Van Costenoble. But it might have been — tongue very much in cheek — the motto of a previous business at this address: the Fisk Funeral Home. Henry Bayles Fisk (1912-1957; pictured here) of Princeton, N.J., served in the Navy as a pharmacist’s mate in World War II. He moved to Provincetown after the war, became a registered embalmer, then a registered funeral director and, in 1949, opened his own business at 9 Johnson Street, where he lived with his wife, Doris C. (Stevens) Fisk.

14 Johnson Street

Carpe Diem Guesthouse and Spa

This 1850s house was folded into the Carpe Diem complex in 2006, when it was purchased from Pearl H. Baker (1913-2008) by Rainer Horn, who runs the Carpe Diem with Jürgen Herzog and Hans Van Costenoble. Baker, who had once worked in the kitchen of the Cottage Restaurant, 149 Commercial, moved from here to the Cape End Manor.