Carriage House Provincetown  

"Provincetown MA is a charming New England town situated at the tip of Historic Cape Cod. Filled with traditional New England Captain's Houses, churches, cottages and inns Provincetown is a beautiful destination resort. The indigenous people are the Wampanoag tribe of Eastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, the first to meet the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims, early English settlers who founded the Plymouth Colony, first set foot on American soil here in 1620 before venturing on to Plymouth. A community developed on the site about 1700 and the town was incorporated in 1727. Provincetown MA is the site of the tall granite Pilgrim Monument, commemorating the Pilgrims' landing and the signing in the harbor of the Mayflower Compact. For over a Century an Artist Community has flourished here, and has been home to Charles Hawthorne, Jackson Pollock, Eugene O'Neil, The Provincetown Players (founded here in 1915) Cole Porter, Norman Mailer, Sebastian Unger and other well-known artists. For the last few decades a thriving Gay Community has vacationed here attracted from around the world. This makes for an eclectic mix of people, shops, galleries, cafes, restaurants, nightlife and cape cod lodging. There is something in P town for everyone, whether you like to lie on a beach, cycle on the dunes bike paths, or pass the day at a cafe. Other activities include kayaking, hiking, whale watching, offroading trails, all types of boat rentals and spectacular sunset cruises on Cape Cod Bay. Provincetown sits on a sand bank which is the very tip of Cape Cod, surrounded by National Parkland beaches and dunes making it an ideal destination resort. Drive, Bus, Ferry or Fly into p town after which you can walk or cycle anywhere with ease. Click on our Events and Directions pages to see what's coming up and how to get here or check out our extensive links page for helpful information. About Provincetown MA 1996 Population: 3,681 The Town of Provincetown was incorporated in 1727, but its history begins much earlier since its well protected harbor offered excellent protection from storms. The European explorer Gosnold recorded a stop in Provincetown as early as 1602 and the harbor was the site of the first landing of the Mayflower. The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower compact in the harbor, to codify the way in which they were going to administer the new colony they intended to establish. Although rich fishing grounds resulted in the seasonal leasing of fisheries with licenses granted for bass, mackerel and cod fishing, the first permanent settlement didn't take place until 1700. Provincetown lodging grew very slowly during the 18th century and its population fluctuated with the price of fish. Farming was of secondary importance and aside from the fishing industry, there were only some salt works and one mill. After the Revolution, the town boomed and its population rose 276.6% between 1790 and 1830. Despite its relative lack of good farm land, by the middle of the 19th century, Provincetown had developed as the prime maritime, fishing and commercial center of the Cape. The Civil War, which destroyed so much New England business, only provided more markets for Provincetown's fish. Portuguese sailors, picked up by American ships in the Azores and Cape Verde Islands to fill out their crews, came to Provincetown to live and additional Portuguese immigrants had moved to town by the 19th century to work on the whaling boats and coastal fishing vessels. In 1875, there were 25 coastwise and 36 ocean vessels operating in town, more than any community in the state including Boston. Provincetown was a bustling place with all of the ancillary maritime businesses operating, such as ship chandlers, shipwrights, sail makers, caulkers, riggers and blacksmiths. The picturesque setting and salt air also began attracting artists and writers by the end of the 19th century. This contingent grew and poets, novelists, Provincetown Banner , socialists, radicals and dilettantes formed a colony which in 1915 opened the Provincetown Inn Players in a converted fish house on the wharf. Among the writers whose works were performed there was Eugene O'Neill. When the fishing industry faltered from competition with cheaper Nova Scotia cod, and the Portland Gale of 1898 swept away half of the town's wharves, the resort population of the town provided jobs to take the place of those lost. In the 1920's the artistic and literary productions of the town were of international repute and the abandoned sites of maritime businesses became the new homes of the seasonal visitor as sail lofts, warehouses and barns became studios, galleries and shops. Today, the wealth of preserved historic buildings combines with the lure of the sea to support a huge tourist and summer home industry."