Meadows Motel and Cottages
A 1968 postcard by Bill Bard Associates: “The Meadows Motel and Cottages. On the tip of Cape Cod, Provincetown, Mass. Centrally heated, modern accommodations. Cottages for light housekeeping — bathing and sport fishing. Tel: (617) 487-0880.” [Salvador R. Vasques III Collection / Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum]
An undated postcard shows both the motel at 122 Bradford Street Extension (top) and the cottages at 88 Bradford Street Extension, which still stand. [Salvador R. Vasques III / Facebook / My Provincetown Memorabilia Collection]
This sign for the Meadows could be seen in recent years on Priscilla Alden Road. [2012, Dunlap]
Left: Matchbook with the phone number 487-0880. [Salvador R. Vasques III / Facebook / My Provincetown Memorabilia Collection] Right: An ad in the Chamber of Commerce guide gave the phone number as 880. [Salvador R. Vasques III / Facebook / My Provincetown Memorabilia Collection]
Jay Critchley’s call for artists in 2003 to transform the abandoned motel rooms just before they were demolished. [Joel Grozier / Facebook / My Provincetown Memorabilia Collection]
Wendelin Glatzel’s installation in the 2003 “Letom Swodaem” exhibit organized by Jay Critchley. [Courtesy of Jay Critchley]
Exterior view of the room transformed by Wendelin Glatzel. [Courtesy of Jay Critchley]
From at least the mid-50s, the Meadows Motel and Cottages were under the proprietorship of Matthew J. Costa, succeeded by James Costa. The property was acquired in 2003 by Edward “Ted” Malone of Community Housing Resource as the site of the Meadow Road Condominium housing project.
That year, the artist-activist Jay Critchley staged an invitational exhibit — “Letom Swodaem” — in which artists used entire rooms to create tableaux. He said he was moved to do so “by the juggernaut of changes that keep the town’s identity shifting.” In the Banner, Sue Harrison called the results whimsical, thoughtful, angry, and heartbreaking.
Shortly thereafter, the motel itself was demolished, though the cottages still exist, at 88 Bradford Street Extension. In recent years, an old sign for the Meadows Motel and Cottages could be spotted on the side of a small shack on Priscilla Alden Road.
¶ Last updated on 4 August 2013.
122 Bradford Street Extension on the Town Map, showing property lines.