US Post Office--Provincetown Main

Situated on the south side of Commercial Street, the narrow, meandering main business and commercial byway of this Cape Cod community, the Provincetown Post Office, bordering Cape Cod Bay with its rear property line, is the prime stabilizing element in the neighborhood. Originally the residential area of late eighteenth and nineteenth century tosd tate crghoentn Provincetown, the closely built, one and two story wooden structures house every imaginable enterprise one might find in a close-knit summer resort and tourist area. Scattered among these colonial buildings are several Second Empire, Italianate and Victorian homes on the north side of Commercial Street..: Ihe site is small, with driveways filling each side yard of the building.

The rear of the lot is entirely paved for postal and patron parking. Small grassed plots, fronting each wing flanking the central core, are planted with mid-height evergreens. The Post Office is a striking two-story central core, Georgian style building with flanking one story wings. Generally "T" shaped, some 90 feet wide by 80 feet deep, the building contains 5,980 square feet of space on the first floor and 3,120 square feet of office space on the deep second floor core. The construction consists of concrete foundations on spread footings and caissons, a basement only at the rear section of the central core, masonry bearing walls, reinforced concrete floor slabs and steel and wood roof framing.

Four broad, granite steps lead to the slightly projected three bay loggia, slightly recessed from the front facades of the flanking wings. Limestone. belts span the brick piers at the springline öf' each arch. Large, multi-paned wood, double hung windows, rectangular in shape, flank the central pavilion on therinner loggia wall, which features the traditional, lead patterned fanlight transom over the entrance doors.

BUILDER/ARCHITECT J.A. Wetmore, Act. Sup. Arch't. Ratner-Stanhope Corp., Contrs. Constructed in 1932, the Provincetown Post Office possesses integrity of location, design, setting, materials and workmanship, as well as a significant association with the Federal Government's new, activist role in attempting to stimulate the depressed economy while demonstrating power and stability. Additionally, this building exemplifies the ultimate of the high standards set by the Treasury Architects in presenting the monumentality of the Federal Presence in a small, quaint community without totally overwhelming the character of the neighborhood. It thus meets National Register criteria A and C.

Provincetown, ancient by anglo-american standards in terms of history, is actually the newcomer on the Cape when compared to the social and commercial interaction of the other towns in the area. With fishing as its sole resource and shipping as its only method of transportation, the town, incorporated in 1722, actually ceased to exist during both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, when British warships used the sheltered harbor as their port. By. 1835 however, wharves had been built to accommodate the growing fishing industry, the County Road had been extended to the town's border and the population continued to expand with peoples of diversified ethnic backgrounds. Portuguese mariners became the dominant group in the community.

The Civil War brought great prosperity to Provincetown with the ever- increasing demand for salt cod to feed the Armies of the Republic. The fishing fleet expanded and a new commercial and business population became firmly entrenched in this former, fishing village. Passenger ships and mail packets from Plymouth and Boston now docked at the ETEE waterfront and, with the extension of the Old Colony Railroad in 1873, Provincetown became solidly united with the entire country.