(2016)
Masthead Resort and Cottages | Helena Rubinstein Cottage.
One of the most surprising walk-on roles in the town’s celebrity cavalcade was Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics queen, and author of My Life for Beauty, who was formally Princess Gourielli during her brief heyday here in the early 1940s. She owned 41 Commercial Street and two houses across the road, 40 Commercial Street and 42 Commercial Street. The cottage was substantially renovated in 2016.
At the turn of the 20th century, when this building was denominated 12 Commercial Street, it was operated as a summer boarding house by Sylvester Ellis, a contractor who specialized in moving buildings around town. There was a small recreation pier off its back yard, forerunner to the dock at the Masthead. Provincetowners knew this stretch of the West End as the Ellis Bathing Beach.
For an overview of the Masthead Resort and Cottages, please see 31-41 Commercial Street.
¶ Last updated on 16 June 2018.