If not for its lack of freshwater, Provincetown, not Plymouth, would be the place we immediately equate with the Pilgrims. Way back in 1620, the band of religious travelers and fortune-seeking shipmates aboard the Mayflower landed here, expecting warm weather (in November, of all times) and good water. Neither was to be found, and the Pilgrims sailed on, disembarking across the bay at Plymouth Rock. Thus, P-town (as natives and in-the-know locals call it) lost its chance to be enshrined as the cornerstone of Anglo-American civilization and has had to butter its bread with something other than the national creation story.
So P-town took to the water. For much of its history, the sea sustained the town, which became a trading spot, whaling village, and fishing port. As those industries tapered off, new ones arose to take their place. Art and tourism now keep P-town busy.
In 1901 Charles Hawthorne opened an art school here, and the town earned art colony status that persists to this day. Bohemians followed. Among the artists and writers were John Reed, Eugene O’Neill, and George Cram Cook, whose Provincetown Players made theater history. And on the heels of Greenwich Village’s fashionable flock came the car-borne tourists, who have proven themselves as faithful as Capistrano swallows, returning year after year to this tip of the Cape. Provincetown is a particularly strong magnet for East Coast gays and lesbians, so don’t be surprised to see as many rainbow flags as Stars and Stripes waving in the breeze.
The summer trade prompts P-town to do its beach-boardwalk strut, as boatloads of day-trippers from Boston mob aptly named Commercial Street each afternoon, tanned couples mingle among the restaurants and outdoor cafés each evening, and fun-seekers fill up the bars and clubs each night. During any other season, however, the beach shuttle becomes a school bus, the wait for a table is negligible, and there’s actually a chance that you’ll find a place to park. Meanwhile, the off-season sunsets are still worth a visit to Race Point or Herring Cove Beach, even if they come at an earlier hour and require extra layers of clothing.
