Photograph by Free Public Library Commission of Massachusetts, Public domain. Via
Wikimedia Commons.
Provincetown Public Library
Built in 1874 in the Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1975. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“The Old Provincetown Public Library building is a historic building at 330 Commercial Street in downtown Provincetown, Massachusetts. Built in 1874, it served as the town's public library from then until 2002, when the library was moved to the former Center Methodist Church.”
Wikipedia article Provincetown Public Library (old), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 145 National Register listings in Barnstable County · listed in 1975 · category: Building · built in 1874, Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada.
Architectural style. Second Empire architecture in the United States and Canada
National Register reference number.75000248- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 23 fires within 5 miles of Provincetown Public Library 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.
Reported cause
Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
11
Recreation and ceremony
4
Smoking
4
Arson/incendiarism
1
Debris and open burning
1
Misuse of fire by a minor
1
Fireworks
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 3,821 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Provincetown Public Library between 1827 and
1975: 3,509 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.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Provincetown, the town this property stands in, 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.
At 4:05 PM EST, the basement flooded at the Provincetown Fire Department. Water rose almost to the electrical panel. The flooding was aggravated by a failed water pump.
At 4:50 PM EST, Bradford Street in Provincetown was flooded near the old High School. Flooding was able to remove a crosswalk sign and have it float down the road.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,868 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
The Provincetown Public Library is located in the center of Provincetown on the northwest side of Commercial Street. It is residential in scale, as is the rest of the town, and is an important visual element in the town-scape. The Library is architecturally significant as the only büilding in town with a mansard roof and is compatible in height, massing, set-back, and color with the other buildings in the area. The Library is 2 stories high with a vernacular mansard roof, covered with clapboards instead of roofing material. The building rests on a low brick foundation with no cellar, and the only entrance is set two steps up from the street level. A l story portico with vernacular carvings and dentils shelters the entrance.
The cornice is supported by paired scroll work brackets, and simple pilasters define the corners of the building. The windows of the first two floors have 1/1 (modern) sash topped with triangular and segmentally arched pediments supported on brackets. The windows in the mansard roof are arched and topped by shallow gable dormers.except for the window above the portico, which is topped by an Italianate modillioned cornice. The building once had a cupola which was either blown off or removed many years ago; the planned restoration includes replacing the cupola. Three windows which are now covered will also be restored to their original condition. The exterior of the building is covered with vinyl siding because the Library could not afford the upkeep of the wooden clapboards.
The siding imitates in color and size the original clapboards.. The interior of the building is simple and unpretentious. The walls are plaster and the trim is plain painted wood. Because the building has always been used as a library much of the interior is original. 2:06 8
Statement of significance
/ARCHITECT The Provincetown Public Library is significant both architecturally and as an important cultural resource for the community it serves. Built by the town in 1874 to serve as a public library, its style is a delightful example of provincial civic architecture; it is also the only example of this style in town. The Library is an expression of conmunity pride; it is an elegant building in a charm- ing but economically depressed town. The building is privately owned by the Trustees of the Library, but is funded by the town. The Library is also an important educational and cultural resource for the people who live in Provincetown. The town is famous for its community of artists and writers, many of whom are internationally known.
The Provincetown Public Library has traditionally served this artistic community as well as the other residents of the town. Some of the famous library card holders include Eugene O'Neill, John Dos Passos, Sinclair Lewis, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Tennessee Williams, and Norman Mailer. The Provincetown .Public Library is a social center, a source of information, the preserver of the town's unparalleled historical record, and a focal point in Provincetown's unique human scale appearance. By serving America's great artists, and authors, it helps to enrich all our lives.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 75000248, 11 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
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.
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