Provincetown native Elena Curtis Hall, 74, died on June 2, 2020, at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis after a prolonged illness.
Elena was the daughter of the late Preston and Mary Cross Hall. Though born in Provincetown, she spent her early years traveling between Florida and the Outer Cape, and earned her high school diploma in Sarasota, Fla., where her parents owned businesses, according to her cousin, Michael Gaucher.
She then moved to New York City to pursue acting and modeling. While in New York, she studied with John and Lee Strasberg and Alan Miller. Her acting credits include Andy Warhol’s Pork, which she performed in New York and London, as well as a variety of other shows at the WPA Theatre, La MaMa E.T.C., and Tally Ho Theater.
While in New York, Elena also worked in a variety of restaurants, most notably Windows on the World atop the World Trade Center. She also received an advanced degree in fine arts from the New School in Manhattan.
Elena returned to Provincetown in the early 1980s to help her parents run Hall family businesses, including Pat’s Happy Park, the Gift Box, Preston Hall guest house, Cinnamon Sands cottage, and Big Bad Wolf Ice Cream. But it was in the parking lot on the town beach in the East End that she became a local fixture, exclaiming over dogs and disparaging trespassers with equal aplomb.
An enthusiast of politics who proudly supported Donald Trump, she would eagerly spar on current events over a martini at the Mews or Spindler’s. She was never too busy to share a favorite pun.
After her parents died, Elena embarked on transforming her grandmother’s house on Commercial Street into a guest house for chemically sensitive individuals. Everything used to renovate the Lucy Cross House, from the wood to the varnish to the threads used to sew the curtains, were made with nontoxic materials. She lived there at the time of her death.
Besides Michael Gaucher, her survivors include another cousin, Leo Gaucher, and countless other family members and friends. Her animal companion, Mavis, also survives her. She was predeceased by her brother, Preston Hall Jr.
Due to the current health crisis, Elena’s interment at Provincetown Cemetery will be private. A celebration of her life will be held at a date to be announced.
