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Provincetown :: Saturday, May 17th 2008
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Photo Courtesy of Provincetown Government.
A Greek Revival Mansion or a Rambling Cape?
Both Can Be Found in Provincetown
By Kahrin Deines
April 11th, 2006
When looking at real estate in Provincetown, it's not likely that you'll find many modern structures. Fortunately, as Provincetown has remade itself over the years, from booming fishing center to arts colony and tourist destination, its architecture has not undergone parallel transformations.
| New England simplicity and charm mixed with Greek elegance and balance do make a heady aesthetic brew, especially when combined with the tang of salt air. |
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Most of the buildings and homes in Provincetown were built in the 1800's, some even in the 1700's, and they stand as enduring and endearing reminders of the town's earlier identities.
Although the Commonwealth of Massachusetts did not allow Provincetown's residents to hold deeds for their land until the late year of 1893, this did not keep the town's community from building. Quite wealthy from their sale of fish, whale oil, and ambergris to their eastern neighbors, a large number in Provincetown's community could afford to build and build well in the mid-1800's.
Prosperous ship captains desirous of stately residences to reflect their seafaring success, the owners of local salt works, shipbuilders, and others built mansions during this economic boom period that still remain today. Many of these new abodes were built in the Greek Revival architectural style, a style that was all the rage with wealthy Americans at that time.
As a result, columns are not entirely absent from Provincetown's buildings, and neither are porches, gables with pediments, and simple friezes. Regal and proud, most of these mansions still stand, bringing a touch of Grecian harmony and balance to Provincetown's facade.
Other early Provincetown residents forswore the fickle housing fads of the era and continued to build in the traditional Cape Cod style. Thanks to their allegiance to area custom, the quintessential Cape Cod home remains ubiquitous in Provincetown today.
On most streets, the weathered silver gray shingles of the Cape Cod home are in abundance, a fact that the Cape's light makes pleasing to the eye, especially when twilight sets the pastels in the gray aglow. Meanwhile, the steeped roofs of the traditional Cape Codder point upwards to the sky with a regularity that suggests solidarity. And windows are gathered in their gables in offbeat assortments that offer myriad views of the town and harbor.
During his visit to the Cape, Henry David Thoreau took note of these strange window arrangements.
It seems he found in them as much threat as charm, however, prompting him to observe that, "there were so many of odd sizes in the ends of the buildings — windows for grown folks and windows for the children, three or four apiece, as a certain man had a large hole in his barn door for the cat and another for the kitten . . . so many peep holes that a traveler has small chance with them."
Since Provincetown's residents are now quite used to visitors, travelers today need not be so suspicious of the windows and what lies behind them. Unless, of course, they are worried they might be bewitched by the area's arresting architecture. New England simplicity and charm mixed with Greek elegance and balance do make a heady aesthetic brew, especially when combined with the tang of salt air.
Visitors, real estate investors, and prospective homebuyers should beware lest they find themselves head over heels in love with Provincetown's unique architecture.
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