The oldest of Cape Cod’s old-timers could not remember when it had been colder or when more ice had piled up in the harbors. January 1875 had begun seasonably enough. […]
History
HISTORY REDUX
Unpacking the Past at the Provincetown Museum
A curator works to uncover the stories behind the stuff
For weeks, Samuel Tager and a small team have been unwrapping, sorting, and cataloguing a vast collection of Provincetown memorabilia donated to the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum by Sal […]
WASHASHORES
The Last of Sam Bellamy’s Pirate Crew
Nine pirates survived the wrecks of the Whydah and Mary Anne; six were executed
It was “The End of Piracy,” wrote Cotton Mather, the Puritan minister, owner of enslaved people, revolutionary, and witch-hunter who is often called the “grandfather of Evangelicalism,” in a 1717 […]
HAWKWATCH
Irma Penniman, Keeper of the Gate
How a sea captain’s granddaughter who grew up in Eastham saved America’s hawks
In the early 1900s, a slaughter took place every fall in the mountains above Drehersville, Pa. at the foot of Blue Mountain, a ridge of the Appalachians in the eastern […]
1902
Charles Ayling Recalls Taking a Drive
Steaming across the Outer Cape in one of ‘those funny horseless things’
Charles Ayling, whose wealthy family owned homes in Chestnut Hill and Centerville, was 27 when he decided he would “experiment with something that had been talked about and seen occasionally: […]
1936
How the Sea Turned a Bountiful Fishing Colony Into a Shoal
Watching 100 years of erosion at Billingsgate Island
WELLFLEET — “Ocean Conquers Once Prosperous Island,” blared the headline in the New Bedford Standard-Times on Feb. 16, 1936. “High Tide Now Covers Island.” It was news, but it had […]
REFUGE
Sea Rescues, Spy Glasses, and Skinny-Dipping
Navigating the history of the Wellfleet Beachcomber
The Cape Cod Oracle of Thursday, March 17, 1988 included a letter to the editor from Lawrence H. Gallagher, the younger brother of Russell Gallagher. In 1953, Russell had purchased […]
1951
The Washashore Fabulist
Peter Hunt was an evangelist for the decorative arts. He was also a delightful liar.
One of Provincetown’s most sought-after mid-century tastemakers, Peter Hunt seemed to leave town as mysteriously as he had appeared. At least that’s what the Oct. 18, 1951 installment of the […]
QUIRKS AND CRACKS
That’ll Be ‘Mrs. Jazz Garters’ to You
A collection of nicknames is its own kind of history
Lisa King, a local Provincetown historian who describes herself as a “West-End girl,” grew up hearing stories full of townspeople remembered by their nicknames. Some were straightforward references to people’s […]
1986
In Search of The Rushes
A gay travel time capsule from the pre-internet era
Is it possible to feel nostalgia for a place you’ve never been? Last year, my husband found a poster for a long-shuttered Provincetown guesthouse called The Rushes in an online […]
1960
Coffee Sodas, Condoms, and Coping With the Summer People
At work at the Murray’s Pharmacy soda fountain
The central aisle of a drugstore might seem like a strange place to learn how to strut like a stripper with certain exaggerated shoulder and hip moves. But learn — […]
GRIST FOR THE MILL
A Relic of a Bygone Age
The windmill on Eastham’s Town Green is Cape Cod’s only functional and original gristmill
EASTHAM — Sailors approaching Cape Cod’s ports in the 18th and 19th centuries would have seen the windmills first. They stood like sentinels over the bay, with an astonishing 67 […]
NIGHTLIFE
Even on a Tuesday in Winter, Piggy’s Was Packed
Gay and straight, rich and poor: everyone danced together
Ask people who lived in Provincetown in the 1970s about Piggy’s — a modest bar filled with salvaged wood on Shank Painter Road — and you’re practically certain to see […]
HEART BEAT
The Good Doctor of Provincetown
Dr. Daniel Hiebert was famous in a small town
One December evening in 1971, a masked man knocked on the side door of Dr. Daniel H. Hiebert’s home in Provincetown. “Turn around, I want to see your back,” the […]
1927
The Magic of the Attic
In my genealogical pursuits, countless hours have been spent trying to break down a few “brick walls” — those questions one cannot find definitive answers to — in my great-grandmother […]
