Railway Express Agency building | Now 365 Shore Road, Truro
365 Shore Road in Truro is the former Railway Express Agency building, which stood near the Provincetown passenger depot. [2011, Dunlap]
The building in 1944 in Provincetown. [Scrapbooks of Althea Boxell 6:80 / Dowd Collection / Provincetown History Preservation Project Page 1892]
Text last updated in 2015 | Provincetown was firmly joined to the mainland in 1873, when the Old Colony Railroad inaugurated service from Boston. The depots stood here but the tracks continued to Railroad Wharf, to serve the fishing fleet. The passenger depot was replaced in 1950 by Duarte Motors, now the Duarte Mall. Freight operations were moved to part of the railyard closer to Center Street. The freight agent, Ralph Tinkham, worked out of an old caboose until 1960, when the service was abandoned. The caboose was destroyed in 1961. Between Conwell and Howland Streets, a new street — Harry Kemp Way — was built on the Old Colony line. The right-of-way continues alongside Route 6, where one can conjure the scene described by Ross Moffett of a train steaming on a “half hidden course through the pine woods, as though to enter Provincetown surreptitiously.” The freight depot, later the Railway Express Agency building, was moved to 365 Shore Road in Truro, where it still stands.
¶ Republished on 22 September 2023.