At the time of European encounter, the area was long settled by the historic
Nauset tribe, who had a settlement known as "Meeshawn". They spoke
Massachusett, a Southern New England
Algonquian language dialect that they shared in common with their closely related neighbors, the
Wampanoag. On May 15, 1602, having made landfall from the west and believing it to be an island,
Bartholomew Gosnold initially named this area "Shoal Hope". Later that day, after catching a "great store of codfish", he chose instead to name this outermost tip of land "Cape Cod". Notably, that name referred specifically to the area of modern-day Provincetown; not until much later was that that name reused to designate the entire region now known as Cape Cod. The
Pilgrims aboard the
Mayflower sighted Cape Cod on November 9, 1620. After two days of failed attempts to sail south against the strong winter seas, they returned to the safety of the harbor, known today as
Provincetown Harbor, and set anchor. It was here that the
Mayflower Compact was drawn up and signed. The event is memorialized in a
sculpture near the Pilgrim Monument. They agreed to settle and build a self-governing community, and came ashore in the West End. Though the Pilgrims chose to settle across the bay in
Plymouth, Cape Cod enjoyed an early reputation for its valuable fishing grounds, and for its harbor: a naturally deep, protected basin that was considered the best along the coast. In 1654, the Governor of the
Plymouth Colony purchased this land from the Chief of the Nausets, for a selling price of two brass kettles, six coats, 12 hoes, 12 axes, 12 knives and a box. That land, which spanned from
East Harbor (now known as Pilgrim Lake)—near the present-day border between Provincetown and
Truro—to
Long Point, was kept for the benefit of Plymouth Colony, which began leasing fishing rights to roving fishermen. The collected fees were used to defray the costs of schools and other projects throughout the colony. In 1678, the fishing grounds were opened up to allow the inclusion of fishermen from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1692, a new
Royal Charter combined the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay colonies into the
Province of Massachusetts Bay. "Cape Cod" was thus officially renamed the "Province Lands". and settled in Provincetown after being hired to work on US ships. By the 1890s, Provincetown was booming and began to develop a resident population of writers and artists, as well as a summer tourist industry. After the 1898
Portland Gale severely damaged the town's fishing industry, members of the town's art community took over many of the abandoned buildings. By the early decades of the 20th century, the town had acquired an international reputation for its artistic and literary productions. The
Provincetown Players was an important experimental theatre company formed during this period. Many of its members lived during other parts of the year in
Greenwich Village in New York, and intellectual and artistic connections were woven between the places. In 1898
Charles Webster Hawthorne opened the Cape Cod School of Art, said to be the first outdoor school for figure painting, in Provincetown. Film of his class from 1916 has been preserved. The town includes eight buildings and two historic districts on the
National Register of Historic Places:
Provincetown Historic District and
Dune Shacks of Peaked Hill Bars Historic District. In the mid-1960s, Provincetown saw population growth. The town's rural character appealed to the
hippies of the era; property was relatively cheap and rents were correspondingly low, especially during the winter. Many of those who came stayed and raised families. Commercial Street, where most of the town's businesses are located, gained numerous cafés, leather shops, and head shops. By the 1970s, Provincetown had a significant gay population, especially during the summer tourist season, when restaurants, bars and small shops serving the tourist trade were open. There had been a gay presence in Provincetown as early as the start of the 20th century as the
artists' colony developed, along with experimental theatre. Drag queens could be seen in performance as early as the 1940s in Provincetown. In 1978 the Provincetown Business Guild (PBG) was formed to promote gay tourism. Today more than 200 businesses belong to the PBG and Provincetown is perhaps the best-known gay summer resort on the East Coast. The 2010 US Census revealed Provincetown to have the highest rate of same-sex couples in the country, at 163.1 per 1,000 households. Since the 1990s, property prices have risen significantly, causing some residents economic hardship. The housing bust of 2005–2012 caused property values in and around town to fall by 10 percent or more in less than a year. This did not slow down the town's economy, however. Provincetown's tourist season has expanded, and the town has created festivals and week-long events throughout the year. The most established are in the summer: the Portuguese Festival, Bear Week, and PBG's Carnival Week. In 2017, a memorial was dedicated to those who lost their lives to AIDS.
Historic transportation For nearly all of Provincetown's recorded history, life has revolved around the waterfront—especially the waterfront on its southern shore—which offers a naturally deep harbor with easy and safe boat access, plus natural protection from the wind and waves. An additional element of Provincetown's geography tremendously influenced the manner in which the town evolved: the town was physically isolated, being at the hard-to-reach tip of a long, narrow peninsula. The East Harbor, which provided the most protected mooring place in Provincetown, had a inlet from Provincetown Harbor, and effectively blocked off access to Provincetown by land. Until the late 19th century, no road led to Provincetown—the only land route connecting the village to points back toward the mainland was along a thin stretch of beach along the shore to the north (known locally as the "backshore"). That changed in 1868, when the mouth of the East Harbor was
diked to enable the laying of track for the arrival of the railroad. The railroad was completed, to great fanfare, in 1873; The railroad terminated at Railroad Wharf, known today as MacMillan Pier. It provided an easy means for fishermen to offload their vessels and ship their catch to the cities by rail. The railroad was not the only late arrival to Provincetown. Even roads
within the town were slow to be constructed: The town's internal road layout reflects the historic importance of the waterfront, the key to communication and commerce with the outside world. As the town grew, it organically expanded along the harborfront. The main "thoroughfare" was the hard-packed beach, where all commerce and socializing took place. Early deeds refer to a "Town Rode", which was little more than a footpath that ran behind the houses. In 1835, County Commissioners turned that into "Front Street", now known as Commercial Street. "Back Street" ran parallel to Front Street, but was set back from the harbor—today it is known as Bradford Street. ==Geography==