Binwood Condominium
242 Bradford Street. [2010, Dunlap]
242 Bradford Street. [Provincetown’s East End, by Josephine Del Deo et alia, in the Massachusetts Historical Commission Inventory of 1973-1977 / Provincetown Public Library]
Glenn Milstead, on a parade float around 1977. [Paul J. Asher-Best
[2008, Dunlap]
Text last updated in 2015 | No one calls lower Bradford Street “Cape Row,” but they could. It’s home to a remarkably cohesive ensemble of Cape houses, at Nos. 228, 230, 252, 258 and 260. The ruddy house at No. 242, a venerable full Cape, was built about 210 years ago. In the late ’60s, Benito Norcisa and his wife, Pamela, moved their Penny Farthing restaurant here, from 237 Bradford. For a time, their tenants included a number of John Waters stars: Glenn Milstead — the luminous and profane Divine; Channing Wilroy; and Cookie Mueller. Milstead even operated a shop here, called Divine Trash. Wilroy recalled that Divine sold old clothes, china, bric-a-brac, and stuff from the Truro dump until he got caught for operating without a permit and hauled into Town Hall. At that point, Mink Stole came to his defense: “We need stores like this in town for people like me.”
Cynthia Binder and Cheryl Lockwood turned it into a three-unit condo in 1985, the name Binwood being a portmanteau of theirs. Darren Showers said in November 2009: “I lived in the bottom apartment from 2006 to 2009. It’s a very charming house. I was told by the owner, Cindy Binder, that it is one of the oldest homes in Provincetown. I put the flag up on the fence: the Tibetan flag to show support on freeing Tibet. Also, Ryan Landry used to rent here.” Landry is a playwright and entertainer, and the Showgirls impresario.
¶ Republished on 13 October 2023.
242 Bradford Street on the Town Map, showing property lines.