25-027A Bradford St

Historic District Survey information for 25-027A Bradford St

Architectural Description: 25-27A Bradford Street, Building "D", has 2 major portions: The south facade is approximately 3-stories, 5-bays wide and 1-bay deep. The style is Astylistic. It has a shed roof with a gable tower on top with large single-light picture window and 3-pane wood awning. The north facade is 1-story and 3-bays with a gable roof and exterior concrete block chimney. Windows are 1/1 DHS and 6/6 wood DHS. There is a small door in the 2nd-story of the front facade. The primary entrance contains a wood pane and panel door. This section also contains a 1-story, 2-bay hipped roof section with 6/6 wood DHS windows.

Historical Narrative: As per Josephine Del Deo (1977) "This building known as Frank Shay Barnstormer's Theater was one of the three theaters in Provincetown that were an outgrowth of the theater movement which entered around George Cram Cook, Susan Glaspell, Mary Heaton Vorse, Eugene O'Neill and many others (see 145-P) The Provincetown Playhouse on Lewis Wharf was the original and most famous of the three. The Wharf Players at 83 Commercial St. and the Barnstormer's Theater were the other two. The silo-like structure at the top of the building was the set loft. It has not been possible to collect much information about the activities of the theater, but it certainly was active in the period 1918-1925. Frank Shay himself was a writer and marred on of the Foley sisters. The Foley "girls" as they were known in Provincetown were beautiful and intelligent members of the thriving art community in the days of O'Neill. One of the sisters, Frances Foley, married Edwin Dickinson, the painter. A great repair to the bulkhead of this building has been done by the present owner, Warren Falkenberg. Its foundation has been largely secured by this effort without which the building would have slid to the foot of the embankment several years ago." 2004: According to a neighbor, Betty Davis served as an usher here in the 1930s.

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Bradford Street (Provincetown, Mass.), Dwellings, and Historic Districts--Massachusetts--Provincetown

 (Mass. Historical Commission Form B)