A Streetcar Named…Provincetown Trolley

Pick-up: Right in front of Town Hall, 260 Commercial Street


Cost: $13 for adults, $12 for seniors and $6 for children

Duration: 40-minute narrated tour 

Frequency: Every hour on the hour and every half hour on weekends (May thru October)

One purchases tickets before boarding from the trolley driver

Pat has been a trolley driver for over 20 years and her knowledge about Provincetown history amazed me throughout the tour.  After a friendly “Welcome aboard, folks!” followed by safety instructions she went ahead and briefly talked about Provincetown: THIS is the place where the Pilgrims landed first in 1620 (not Plymouth); the town has a very rich Portuguese heritage as it used to be a whaling and fishing village; and that Provincetown has been an important American art colony for the past century.

She rings the bell and off we go. I heard that bell on several other occasions throughout the ride and it was almost as if its sound awoke me from the different, soothing dimension I let myself fall into while on that old wooden trolley bench.

We pass the famous Atlantic House (knows as the A-House), where Tennessee Williams wrote his Streetcar Named Desire as we gently slide through the sea of people on narrow Commercial Street, while keeping Long Point, the very tip of Cape Cod, in sight to our left.  It was then when I learned that up until the 1940s Commercial Street used to have two-way traffic with parking.

We slowly reach the West End and Pat tells us that  Seth Nickerson built the oldest house in town in 1746 at 72 Commercial Street. We also learn that many houses here were floated over from Long Point by boat, often times with people inside them. 

 
Beyond the seemingly never-ending breakwater, which divides Provincetown Harbor from the Moors, Wood End Lighthouse, one of the three lighthouses in town, rises majestically. The Pilgrims first set foot where the breakwater begins today on November 16, 1620 after leaving the Netherlands on July 20^th. Once ashore they drafted the Mayflower compact, named after the boat they came on, which served as a model for the modern US Constitution. Due to the lack of fresh water and harsh living conditions they moved to Plymouth after five weeks here.

 














Driving down Moors Road towards Herring Cove Beach there is a sign welcoming us to the Cape Cod National Seashore. On August 7, 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed the bill authorizing the creation of the CCNS in order to preserve its natural beauty, fauna and vegetation. Happy 50^th Birthday, CCNS!

Bike trails lie along Province Lands Road from Herring Cove Beach to Race Point Beach and interesting vegetation cannot but catch your eye. Pat tells us there are a lot of wild beach plums which make tasty jam and that National Seashore planted beach grass in the sand dunes to stabilize them.

The Visitors Center by Race Point Beach displays a variety of exhibits and it also has a great observation deck up-top where one can enjoy the beautiful panorama of the seashore and the Atlantic Ocean. Few people know this area of the beach used to be called the “Peaked Hill Graveyard” due to the amount of shipwrecks drifting ashore. Once operated manually, but automatized nowadays, Race Point Lighthouse was a beacon for the hard-working fishermen.

The Pilgrim Monument dominates the skyline. The tower is 101 this year and it is the tallest granite building in the US with 252ft7” that was built to commemorate the first landing of the Pilgrims. President Roosevelt laid the cornerstone in 1907 and President Taft dedicated the Monument in 1910.

 
Race Point Rd is like an oasis in the dessert. It is cool under the tall, bushy trees covering the road and one is surrounded by beautiful scenery, sand dunes, vegetation and bike trails.  Beech Forest demarcates the end of the National Seashore and Beech Forest Lake is a great destination for bird-watching and bird-feeding enthusiasts. Whether on foot or on two wheels this quiet area offers a nice escapade into the wildlife just yards from Provincetown.  

The East End is the town’s main gallery district with over 30 art galleries and studios. Charles Hawthorne established his Cape Cod School of Art here in 1899, which initiated Provincetown’s becoming one of the most important art colonies in the US. Additionally, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum hosts over 2,000 works of art by local and national artists and the Fine Arts Work Center offers fellowships to national as well as international artists.

The Public Library lives between the East End and downtown Provincetown. This old heritage museum welcomes everybody with impressive collections, complimentary Wi-Fi and computers for anyone to use. On the second floor there is one of the largest indoor model boats in the world- a replica of historic Rose Dorothea, the famous schooner boat.

Back at Town Hall more people wait to catch the next trip.

rdl