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 […]
History
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 […]
MALVACEAE
Down the Garden Path
Once known as Hollyhock Lane, the narrow pathway between 271 and 273 Commercial St. was a frequent postcard subject and tourist attraction as Provincetown became more of a vacation destination […]
HISTORY
In Search of Helltown
Stephan Cohen’s story of a place that’s not quite what popular lore imagines
PROVINCETOWN — It’s here — you just have to picture it. Imagine it’s midwinter in 1871 and your frozen feet are planted on a sandy stretch of what is now […]
HAUNTED HISTORY
Beware the Black Flash!
Remembering the leaping, fire-breathing phantom of Cape Cod
It bounds down the alleyways off Commercial Street, its black cloak trailing in the wind, dark laughter bubbling from behind its horrible metal mask. Children dash home in terror the […]
ROAD TRIP
To Edward Gorey, Everything Was a Gem
The Yarmouth Port home of the artist known for his sense of Edwardian macabre is anything but scary
I have an image flaming in my head, and it’s glorious. Edward Gorey (or Ogred Weary, for he often used anagrams) drives up to his house in Yarmouth Port. He has […]
POLISHING UP
Letting Gravestones Speak
Robert Sweetman teaches the careful cleaning of historic markers
“Her toils are past, her apricots down, her scurvy and her love,” Robert Sweetman reads. “No, that can’t be right.” He kneels before the lichen-covered grave in Provincetown’s Old Alden […]
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
Owners Say They Can’t Afford to Save Capt. Joseph Hatch House
Commission deems the 1780 house historically significant
WELLFLEET — Matthew Walker and Sally McCarthy, who live in Washington, D.C., have applied for a permit to demolish the Capt. Joseph Hatch House, a full Cape built around 1780. The […]
ROAD TRIP
With Ishmael, on Johnny Cake Hill
In New Bedford, the whaling museum has history both ominous and hopeful
NEW BEDFORD — Herman Melville’s Ishmael certainly must have scuffed his soles on the cobblestones of Johnny Cake Hill. I know he arrived thinking “…whenever it is a damp, drizzly […]
