Provincetown

Resort town in Barnstable County, southeastern Massachusetts, USA, at the tip of Cape Cod; population (1990) 3,600. Race Point marks its western extremity. A former fishing village, it is now a summer resort and artists' colony; since the 1950s it has been particularly favoured by gay holidaymakers. The Cape Cod School of Art was founded here in 1901, and the Provincetown Players, an experimental theatre group, in 1915. The town has a 77-m/253-ft monument commemorating the first landfall made by the Pilgrims on 21 November 1620, about one month before they moved to Plymouth.

American colonists established the original fishing community in the early 18th century, later being joined by Portuguese seafarers. The village remained dependent on fishing until around 1900, when it began to attract summer visitors. The Provincetown Players produced the first staging of any of Eugene O'Neill's works, Bound East for Cardiff (1916); their playhouse was the Wharf Theatre, a converted fishing boat.