Provincetown, Massachusetts

The same ground, surveyed 97 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1887 1984

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 10 records

• Center Methodist Churchlisted 1975
• Dune Shacks of Peaked Hill Bars Historic Districtlisted 2012
• First Universalist Chruchlisted 1972
• Long Point Light Stationlisted 1987
• Provincetown Historic Districtlisted 1989
• Provincetown Public Librarylisted 1975
• Race Point Light Stationlisted 1987
• US Post Office-Provincetown Mainlisted 1987
• Wood End Light Lookout Stationlisted 1987
• Hawthorne Class Studiolisted 1978

Surveyed buildings and structures 4 records

• Cape Cod Cold Storage, 125-129 Commercial Street, Provincetownfederal building survey, 1 photograph
• Cape Cod Cold Storage, Freeman's Wharf, 125-129 Commercial Street, Provincetownfederal building survey, 30 photographs
• Church of the Redeemer, 236 Commercial Street, Provincetownfederal building survey, 6 photographs
• Pilgrim Monument, Bradford Street, Provincetownfederal building survey, 1 photograph

Businesses named in the fire insurance atlases 12 records

• Eastern Publie SchoolSchool, in the atlas of 1902 to 1912
• Universalist ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1889 to 1902
• Centenary Meth. Episc. ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1889
• Central HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1889
• Congregational ChurchChurch, in the atlas of 1889
• Gifford HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1889
• High SchoolSchool, in the atlas of 1889
• Paine, J. & L. N., Fish WarehouseWarehouse, in the atlas of 1889
• Pilgrim HotelHotel, in the atlas of 1889
• Public School, Bradford StetSchool, in the atlas of 1902
• Weleh, W., Ice-housesIce House, in the atlas of 1902
• Western School HouseSchool, in the atlas of 1902

Provincetown grew from 2,642 to 3,318 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

• 1887 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:62500
• 1889 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:62500, 7 printings
• 1898 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:62500
• 1944 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
• 1948 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1949 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:31680
• 1949 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:24000
• 1956 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 6 printings
• 1958 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1958 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:24000, 3 printings
• 1961 USGS Boston quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1972 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:24000
• 1972 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:25000, 3 printings
• 1977 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:25000
• 1984 USGS Provincetown quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

History of Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1620-1637-1686-1890, published 1890 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 24 fires within 5 miles of Provincetown between 1992 and 2020, burning about 12 acres in total. None started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Wood End
• Beach Point
• Mayflower Heights
• North Truro
• Pilgrim Heights
• Pond Village

Every fire recorded in Barnstable County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 3,772 specimens collected within 10 miles of Provincetown between 1827 and 1975: 3,460 Animalia, 128 Plantae, 99 Unrecorded, 58 Chromista, 27 Fungi. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. K. Harrison, A. K. Harrison, G.C.H., A. M. Ottley and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image	Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
	Aralia hispida Vent.	1827	A. M. Ottley
	Brevoortia tyrannus (Latrobe, 1802)	1853	Atwood, Nathaniel E.	Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Pseudopleuronectes americanus (Walbaum, 1792)	1853	Atwood, Nathaniel E.	Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Scophthalmus aquosus (Mitchill, 1815)	1856	not recorded	Provincetown
	Ammodytes americanus DeKay, 1842	1859	Weinland, David Friedrich	Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Pomatomus saltatrix (Linnaeus, 1766)	1859	Ordway, A.	Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Aspidophoroides monopterygius (Bloch, 1786)	1860	Smithsonian Institution	Provincetown
	Prionotus carolinus (Linnaeus, 1771)	1860	Harvard Museum	Provincetown
	Paralichthys oblongus (Mitchill, 1815)	1862	MCZ team	Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Morone americana (Gmelin, 1789)	1864	MCZ team	Cape Cod, rivers, Massachusetts
	Pholis gunnellus (Linnaeus, 1758)	1864	Smith	Provincetown, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
	Gammarus mucronatus Say, 1818	1871	U.S. Fish Commission	Cape Cod. low water

All 3,772 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Provincetown in 8 storm reports between 1996 and 2020: 4 thunderstorm wind, 3 flood, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

Every storm recorded in Barnstable County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616639. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.