History

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ChathamChatham
+7+7
Same Word on the Board. $18 Apart.

Same Word on the Board. $18 Apart.

Mac's prints both on one board in Chatham. One came out of the tidal mud in 1916, the other out of Ipswich because it could survive a freezer, and one of the windows closes Monday.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+5+5
Before the Beer License, Brewster Asked About the Onion Rings

Before the Beer License, Brewster Asked About the Onion Rings

One question was asked at a Brewster hearing. One line went into a Provincetown lease. Both were about what the new owners can't touch.

Arthur Radtke
WellfleetWellfleet
+5+5
$830 a Month for a Seashore Studio. The Repairs Could Run $250,000.

$830 a Month for a Seashore Studio. The Repairs Could Run $250,000.

Three empty historic houses on the National Seashore are up for lease. The government lists every fault. It won't price a single one.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+4+4
He Wanted to Sell Cape Cod Air in a Can

He Wanted to Sell Cape Cod Air in a Can

He never found a can for it. He found uses for a fruit stand, a doomed house and a chicken coop, and one still opens at 9.

Arthur Radtke
WellfleetWellfleet
+2+2
He Called the Titanic to Say Wellfleet Had Messages Waiting

He Called the Titanic to Say Wellfleet Had Messages Waiting

A routine batch of Cape Cod wireless traffic, a young operator with his coat off, and the question that turned Carpathia toward the ice.

Arthur Radtke
ChathamChatham
+3+3
Two Eastham Lighthouses Sold for $3.50. One Tower Became the Kitchen.

Two Eastham Lighthouses Sold for $3.50. One Tower Became the Kitchen.

The Three Sisters were retired, auctioned, turned into a cottage off Cable Road, and finally walked back together into the pines. The lighthouse that replaced them came from Chatham.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+3+3
A Brewster Captain Asked Robespierre for a Meeting. The Reply Said 10 A.M.

A Brewster Captain Asked Robespierre for a Meeting. The Reply Said 10 A.M.

Elijah Cobb lost his flour to revolutionary Paris, rode 74 hours to get it back, and watched the man who helped him go to the guillotine. Then he went back to his paperwork.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+4+4
Harwich Got Its Town Hall From a West Harwich Coffee Man for $1

Harwich Got Its Town Hall From a West Harwich Coffee Man for $1

Caleb Chase left West Harwich, built one of America's great coffee brands, and handed the town the Exchange. Seventy-one years later, Harwich had to choose between the building and Bell's Neck.

Arthur Radtke
WellfleetWellfleet
+3+3
The Clock Is Lying to You. Two Bells Means Nine O'Clock.

The Clock Is Lying to You. Two Bells Means Nine O'Clock.

Wellfleet's town clock keeps ship's time — and the man who built the mechanism by hand later asked them to tear it out.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+3+3
They Floated Their Houses Across the Harbor. Some Are Still Wearing the Badge.

They Floated Their Houses Across the Harbor. Some Are Still Wearing the Badge.

A village of two hundred people packed up Long Point and rowed home — and a ten-minute walk in the West End will show you where the houses landed.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+4+4
Every Day of the Year, He Sat Down at 5:15

Every Day of the Year, He Sat Down at 5:15

Napi's began as a Wednesday night dinner party, got built out of tin garages, stayed open through forty-nine Provincetown winters — and then ended somewhere nobody expected.

Arthur Radtke
SpotlightSpotlight
+5+5
Forty-Eight Years of Carnival Themes

Forty-Eight Years of Carnival Themes

From a one-night party in 1978 to a disco under the sea this afternoon — including the eleven straight years Provincetown didn't bother naming one at all.

Arthur Radtke