Provincetown Volume II

By the beginning of the twentieth century, picturesque Provincetown-- incorporated in 1727--was no longer one of the major seaports of Massachusetts involved in the whaling industry. The fishing industry was still going strong due to the hard-working Portuguese fishermen, but commercial interests looked towards tourism as they had in many other towns and cities. Where once fishing shacks and warehouses dotted the shoreline off Commercial Street, comfortable and well-appointed guesthouses and restaurants emerged to support the growing numbers of day-trippers (many of whom arrived by ferry from Boston) and vacationers who were discovering this charming town at the very tip of Cape Cod. Tourists had visited Provincetown early on. Henry David Thoreau made three walking trips on Cape Cod around 1850, but it was not until the turn of the century that artists, followed by playwrights, authors, and musicians, realized they could live inexpensively in a community that fostered creativity. The a