(2008)
There has been a great place of respite in the perennially churning West End: the Atwood home at 66 Commercial, built around 1840 with Greek Revival-style details and owned by the same family since at least the 1880s. That’s right. The eighteen eighties. In those days, it was the home of Capt. Rodolphus Hatch Atwood (1829-1890), who left it to his widow, Mary Elizabeth (Nye) Atwood (1836-1925). When she was 75 years old, she conveyed the title to her son, Franklin Nye “Frank” Atwood (1872-1946), a house painter, with the condition — in the deed itself — that he would
cause said Mary E. Atwood to be boarded, supported, and maintained in sickness and in health on said premises and to pay for medicines and medical treatment during said Mary E. Atwood’s lifetime, and at her death to pay her reasonable funeral expenses.
One has to wonder whether Frank imagined he was signing up for 14 years of “Atwoodcare.” He married Emma Jane Hill (±1893-1949), and the couple had two children: Lloyd Chester Atwood (1915-1971), an electrical contractor, and Shirley Eileen Atwood (±1924-1951). Lloyd married Josephine Elizabeth Barker (1918-1972), a graduate of William and Mary College who served as a social worker in the Provincetown Welfare Department. Their two children, Lillian Atwood Chase and Margaret Atwood Naqi, now in their 70s, continue to own their great-grandfather’s home.
For a view of the rear cottage, please see 66 Commercial Street.
¶ Last updated on 11 June 2020.
Zoë Lewis wrote on 26 July 2014: I just went to a yard sale at 66 Commercial and met some of the Atwood family. The lady said the house has been in her family for six generations and they are going to sell it. She said it hasn’t changed much over the years. She said the house wasn’t a “floater,” but was made from left-over parts of “floaters.”
Shirley Chase Kociu wrote on 9 June 2020: The house sale fell through and the family decided to keep it.
The house sale fell through and the family decided to keep it.