Providence, Cape Cod “P-Town”

Another calm day with no wind so we motor sailed from Falmouth, MA to Provincetown, Cape Cod and anchored in the harbor outside the mooring field as the guide book said the moorings were only for vessels up to 40 feet in length.  On the way we saw sharks, whales and seals.

By the mid-1970s a substantial number of members of the gay community began moving to Provincetown. However, homosexuality had been prevalent in Provincetown as early as the turn of the century with the introduction of the artists' colony. Drag queens could be seen performing as early as the 1940s in Provincetown. In 1978 the Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) was formed to promote gay tourism. Today more than 200 businesses belong to the PBG and Provincetown is perhaps the best-known gay summer resort on the East Coast. The 2010 US Census revealed Provincetown to have the highest rate of same-sex couples in the country, at 163.1 per 1000 couples. 

We walked through town and stopped for lunch to enjoy our first Crab Cakes of the season.  We found Scott Dinsmore’s Antique Shop and enjoyed a visit with him on the Dinsmore (moor) family tree.  We walked past the Pilgrim Monument. The Pilgrim Monument is the first thing you see when you approach Provincetown. Standing at 252 feet, the Monument commemorates the history of the Mayflower Pilgrims landing here in November of 1620.  They spent five weeks exploring Cape Cod before sailing up to Plymouth. It’s the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.

Then I talked the crew into hiking to the beach across the other side of the island.  Well, it turns out to be a wider island than it looked from the map so we walked miles and miles before getting a ride back halfway to town in the back of a pickup.  It was a beautiful walk but we should have rented bikes .

I was spell bound by the Witch House near the Public Library.  The Witch House is the only structure that is directly connected to the Witch Trials of 1692. It was the home of 17th-century judge and investigator Jonathan Corwin, who played an instrumental role in sentencing 19 alleged witches to the gallows.

We also stopped at the Public Library.  In 1873, the Provincetown Public Library was given to the town by Nathan Freeman. Mr. Freeman stipulated in his deed that the first floor must always be used for a Library.   A half-scale model of the Rose Dorothea Schooner sits in the center of the Library’s Children’s Room.  And a view of the harbor can be seen from the upstairs floors.