10 Atwood Avenue. [2011, Dunlap]
Clustered around Atwood Avenue and Point Street are many of the Long Point “floaters” whose historical claim to fame seems most credible. At No. 10 is a house that was believed to have belonged to Joseph Butler when it stood out at the point, somewhat in the center of the settlement. (It was designated landmark No. 58 on the map of the Long Point settlement in The Provincetown Book.)
By the 1860s, it had been moved across the harbor to what was once known as Atwood’s Avenue. In 1862, it became the home of the newly wedded Adelia C. (Morgan) Atwood (1844-1936) and Stephen F. Atwood (d±1921). Mrs. Atwood’s great love was the Centenary Methodist Church, in which she was active. “Gifted with a sweet soprano voice, she was in the choir for many years,” the Advocate reported at her death in March 1936.
Narrative continues after photo gallery
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A view of the house taken in the mid-1970s. [Massachusetts Historical Commission Inventory, 1973-1977 / Provincetown Public Library]
The Joseph Butler house, No. 19, was in the center of the settlement at Long Point. This map is adapted — with some modifications — from one showing the location of inhabitants around 1857. The original was published in The Provincetown Book, by Nancy W. Paine Smith (1922).
A few months after Mrs. Atwood’s death, title to the property was transferred from her daughter, Fannie H. Chipman (±1865-1954), to Eva H. Bidwell (d1959). Under Mrs. Bidwell’s ownership, this “quaint old Cape Cod cottage ‘down the lane’” was included in a 1941 open house tour, as the Advocate reported. The house was also used as summer home by Mrs. Bidwell’s daughter, Vivian M. Brower, and her husband Garret D. Brower (d1949). Mrs. Brower took title to the property in 1952. She sold it in turn to Donald C. Procter in 1963, who owned the house for 23 years before selling it to Dr. Bruce P. and Julia K. Abbott.
They sold the house in 1999 to Joseph F. Collins and Harry Clark of San Francisco, who undertook a renovation that preserved many of the lovely architectural and distinctive architectural features that had grown by accretion over the decades. Collins sold it in 2019 to residents of Upper Montclair, N.J.
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10 Atwood Avenue on the Town Map, showing property lines.
¶ Last updated 10 January 2022.
Joseph F. Collins, a generous benefactor and tireless advocate for history and art in Provincetown, passed away on June 9, 2022. His memory will live on in the many lives that he touched.