5 Central Street

More than 75 years in one family’s hands, 5 Central has been home to Frank DeMello (1898-1977) and his wife, Mary A. DeMello, and then to their daughter Carol Ann (DeMello) Pavao and her husband, Ronald A. Pavao. The house, constructed in the mid-19th century, has an especially fine Greek Revival-style entryway. The couple purchased the house in 1943 from Elizabeth G. Dunham. Frank DeMello was the proprietor of the Pilgrim Club, a popular and lively — too lively for some neighbors — nightspot from the 1940s through the early 1960s. The club originated at 391 Commercial Street, but local opposition soon drove it downtown, to 323½ Commercial Street. It moved out to 67 Shank Painter Road in 1962, which was then a fairly remote location, next to Matthew Costa’s golf driving range. Here at 5 Central, DeMello offered a watch and jewelry repair service.

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Left: Carol Ann DeMello as a high school senior in 1959. Right: Ronald A. Pavao, her classmate and future husband. Both pictures from the 1959 Long Pointer, in the School Collection of the Provincetown History Preservation Project, Page 5546.

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Carol was graduated from Provincetown High School in 1959. One of her classmates was Ronald Pavao, of 5 Anthony Street. Four years after graduation, they were wed at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. The Nellie Perry Trio provided the dance music for their reception in the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall. Ronald Pavao was an agent for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, out of Hyannis, from 1966 to 1985. That year, he founded the Fireside Insurance Agency, 35 Shank Painter Road. At this writing, he is the owner and chief executive officer.

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5 Central Street in 2017, by David W. Dunlap.

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In 2012. Dunlap.

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Title to the Central Street house was transferred in 1975 from Frank DeMello to the Pavaos. Six years later, for $30,000, they bought the cottage directly behind their house. It had previously been associated with 168 Commercial Street, and was therefore numbered 168A Commercial Street, though it had also been denominated 5½ Central Street early in the 20th century, when it served as a garage for this house. Kerry Adams, the president of the Fireside agency, has lived there in recent years.

¶ Last updated on 17 September 2020.

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5 Central Street on the Town Map.

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Thumbnail image: Photo, 2012, by David W. Dunlap.

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