(2011)
The artist Isaac Henry Caliga (1857-1944) of Boston and his wife, Elizabeth Howland (1877-1960), who came to town in 1912 to study with Charles W. Hawthorne, lived here. Their house originated as a fish shed built around 1880 by the H. & S. Cook Company. It was turned into a barber shop, opposite Town Hall, before being rolled out here. They had part of a Barnum & Bailey Circus snake-charmer’s wagon in the garden. The Rev. Robert Wood Nicholson, vicar of St. Mary’s, was a tenant. Howland’s sister, Ruth (Howland) DeWitt, remained here until her death in 1965. The property is now owned by Gaby Rilleau, whose father, Roger, was a renowned sandal maker. Rilleau believes the garage doors, pictured, which were painted in the style of Peter Hunt, may be the work of a Caliga-DeWitt family member who ran the Peasant Door shop.
¶ Adapted from Building Provincetown (2015).
Gaby Rilleau wrote on 1 February 2014: My husband has two cousins who lived there in the ’60s and early ’70s who are connected to the Caliga and Dewitt family. One of them ran a shop called the Peasant Door. I believe she painted the garage doors.