Red Roofs | Formerly Investigatorium; Walker’s; Mrs. Silva’s Hot Dog Stand
[2021, Dunlap]
[2008, Dunlap]
The paneled window at left was part of Mrs. Silva’s Hot Dog Stand, serving students in the abutting lawn of Provincetown High School. [2013, Dunlap]
Johannes Husson-Cote and James Husson-Cote. [2021, Dunlap]
Jim at the wheel of their 1931 Chevrolet coupe. [2021, Dunlap]
Take a quick ride in a ’31 Chevy. [2021, Dunlap]
Updated on 8 July 2026 | James Husson-Cote — a familiar sight around town in his blue 1931 Chevrolet coupe — has owned 10 Winslow Street since 1996. He and his husband, Johannes Husson-Cote, have owned it jointly since 2008. On 5 October 2010, Jim sent me an email with a history of the property that cannot be improved upon. Therefore, I reprint it in its entirety, verbatim:
“The oddly shaped house at 10 Winslow Street began its life as Mrs. Silva’s Hot Dog Stand. It was more or less a one-room building with the ordering windows on the side facing the high school. One of the windows is still there, covered with what appears to be a paneled door on the outside. There is a glass window embedded in the wall covered by sheetrock on the inside. One has to remember that at that time there was two-way parking on Winslow Street and no parking downtown between the piers, so there was somewhat more foot traffic.
“The hot dog stand was then sold to Harold Eugene Walker (1890-1966), an artist from Ohio who expanded the building using recycled and scavenged wood and windows probably from the dump and built himself a live-in studio and garage. Mr. Walker lived there seasonally until he was found dead on the deck on Sept. 3, 1966. He appeared to have died while working on his house as the ladder was still against the side of the house. He had been dead for several days when he was found.
“It was rented in the summer after that and one of the first tenants was Channing Wilroy from the John Waters group of actors. He recalled that Mr. Walker’s car was still in the garage. The house was always called ‘Walker’s’ by generations of smoking high school students who congregated in the driveway before and after school. Like many things, that tradition finally died.
“The next owner of the house was the sculptor Mirhan Chobanian (1927-1996). Mihran was a ‘guru’ who wore saffron robes and had many ’60s-style ‘happenings’ at the house. There was a great deal of orange and purple paint used within the house during that period. He lived there with his wife, Judy Rice, who was the daughter of playwright Elmer Rice and actress Betty Field. While he lived there he expanded the house by adding a small wing at the rear that was his studio on the ground floor and bedroom on the second floor. There was a sign on the side of the house at that time that said ‘Investigatorium.’
“Later he sold the house and moved to Arizona where he died. The house was then sold to Keith Baber who used it as a rental and who subsequently sold it to me in 1996.
“Red Roofs is also the name of my husband’s property management business.”