(2016)
If Provincetown has a maritime museum, it’s probably spread across the front yards of the abutting homes at Nos. 45 and 55, owned by Paul C. Mendes and Victoria (Andrews) Mendes, where a remarkable collection of maritime and historical memorabilia is on permanent display. The couple live here. Paul Mendes, who served in Vietnam as a Marine, was a Provincetown police officer from 1970 to 2000. Since 1995, he has done business cleaning out houses, basements, attics and yards, preparing properties for sale or disposition. Victoria Mendes’s father, Joseph Andrews, was one of the town’s leading boatwrights. With that heritage, and a native interest in town history, Mendes has collected anchors and chains, mooring buoys, bollards, cannons, ship’s wheels, portholes, lobster traps and at least one yard arm.
¶ Last updated 10 January 2010.