157A Commercial Street Condominium.
The waterfront building behind the former Martin House — and once part of the same parcel — was shown as a “Barn” in the 1889 Sanborn insurance map and as a “Studio” in the 1938 update. Presumably, this was the studio of Harriot Bennett Newhall (1874-1953), a painter who loved architecture and was one of the more prominent women in the art colony. She bought No. 157 in 1921, and owned it for the next 18 years. [Much more appears about Newhall in the 157 Commercial Street article.] Among the artists who rented Newhall’s waterfront studio was the great printmaker Tod Lindenmuth (1885-1976).
Left: An undated photo of 157A Commercial Street, from the collection of Deborah Roberts, the great niece of Harriot Bennett Newhall. Right: With an extra story and a much larger balcony structure, this is how it looked in 2011. David W. Dunlap.
Florence and Malcolm McLeod divided the property in 1946 into a Commercial Street parcel, which they sold to Florence (Payne) Goodwin and Frank A. Goodwin. The McLeods kept the waterfront studio parcel for themselves. At some point, a third story was added to the structure.
Margaret MacLeod Orcutt was bequeathed the property by her father. (Her surname seems to be correctly spelled with an “a” — MacLeod — though her parents’ name was McLeod.) She deeded it to John R. Rosenberg in 1969. He sold it 30 years later to Ronald L. Chapman of Chestnut Hill, doing business as R. L. Chapman Properties Geneva L.L.C. He converted the property into a three-unit condo in 2011.
Two units are owned by Alfred P. Famiglietti and James M. Staniscia. Famiglietti is active in civic affairs. At this writing, he is the chairman of the Provincetown Conservation Commission and has headed the advisory group that administers the B-Street Garden and Conservation Park, 14R Brown Street. As a long-term AIDS survivor, Famiglietti has been interviewed by the photographer and filmmaker Ernest J. Martin for a documentary on those who sought the care and compassion in Provincetown that they could find in few other places during the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.
In 2013, Staniscia and Famiglietti added a fabric shade structure to the third-floor balcony, working with Cindy Thompson, the founding principal of Transformit, of Gorham, Me., and Charles Duvall, the founding principal of Duvall Design in Rockport, Me. The fabric is a high-density polyethylene knitted shade cloth, tensioned on stainless-steel poles. It naturally conjures abstract nautical images, and bears a striking resemblance to the dominant shape in Net Makers by Tod Lindenmuth. Who else?
Left: A fabric shade structure designed by Cindy Thompson of Transformit, Charles Duvall of Duvall Design, and James M. Staniscia. The photo, by i.c.e. Juan Pisani, appears on the Transformit website. Right: The Net Menders, a linoleum print by Tod Lindenmuth, on the Provincetown Art Association and Museum website.
¶ Last updated on 12 February 2020.
157A Commercial Street on the Town Map.
Also at 157-157A Commercial Street:
Thumbnail image: Photo, 2018, by David W. Dunlap.