(2017)
One of those quiet properties that has been in family hands for generations, this house was acquired in 1917 by Mary E. (Alkern) Roberts (1886-1977) from Etta and Zelotes Smith.¹ Her husband, Joseph J. Roberts (1880-1944), a Provincetown native, had captained his own fishing vessel before becoming a freight brakeman on the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad “during the period when heavy daily shipments of fish went out of Provincetown by rail,” as his obituary in The Advocate noted. Their daughter Margaret Roberts (1920-2006) took title to the property in 1967.² She was a member of the Provincetown Historical Association, which ran the museum across the street, in what is now the Provincetown Public Library.
¶ Last updated on 15 March 2018.
¹ Smith to Roberts, 12 November 1917, Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, Book 359, Page 251.
² Roberts to Roberts, 27 July 1967, Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, Book 1373, Page 66.