32 Bradford Street

32 Bradford Street Condominium, Building 1

32 Bradford Street Condominium, Building 1 at left. [2010, Dunlap]

In the 1970s, Jay Critchley photographed fish drying in the backyard at 32 Bradford Street. [Courtesy of Jay Critchley]

[2004, Massachusetts Historical Commission]

[2004, Dunlap]

Pleasant Street doorway. [2005, Dunlap]

Pleasant Street doorway. [2019 and 2010, Dunlap]

[2010, Dunlap]

[2016, Dunlap]

Seen from the Bradford Street front yard. [2016, Dunlap]

[2021, Dunlap]

Interior conditions when the condo was established. [2021, Dunlap]

[2021, Dunlap]

Upstairs. [2021, Dunlap]

[2021, Dunlap]

Under renovation. [2022, Dunlap]

[2022, Dunlap]

Until the Great Depression, this was Barnett’s Market, run by Mary (Cook) Barnett (1866-1952), daughter of Anna Amelia “Hannah” (Oliver) Cook (1849-1927) and Frank Gracie Cook (1837-1906), who were listed here as grocers in 1910. Manuel Cabral (1904-1975) acquired it out of foreclosure in 1934 and later added a second story as dormitory summer help at his Bonnie Doone Restaurant, catercorner across the street at 35 Bradford Street.

It was probably during the period of Cabral family ownership in the 1970s that Jay Critchley took the photo above, of fish drying on clothes lines in the yard. Critchley believes this was the making of skully jo, a kind of fish jerky. Susan Leonard thinks it might have been bacalhau (cod). In either case, you won’t see its like today. “Kids in the West End and East End used to dodge the fish drying on the clothes lines as they ran through each other’s yards,” Leonard recalled.

David J. Murphy, the legendary basketball coach at Provincetown High School, lived here with his family, including Donald Murphy, who grew up here and now lives in the Tod Lindenmuth house, known as Our Summer Place, at 56 Commercial Street. “Anybody’s Market was right outside my bedroom window,” he recalled in a conversation with me in 2011.

The Cabrals’ daughter, Barbara Camille (Cabral) Oppen (1925-1999), sold the property in 1978 for $67,500 to J & E Fruit and Produce, owned by Lucia Santina (Bocanfuso) Enos (1925-2007) and her sons, Leonard E. Enos Jr. and Robert A. Enos. (The corporate entity was renamed Enco Realty in 1991.) The Enos brothers established the 32 Bradford Street Condominium in 2021. This building — long abandoned and a derelict eyesore — was to be redeveloped as a three-unit residence in the second phase of the condo plan. They sold Building 1 and its development rights in 2022 to Liz Lovati, proprietor of Liz’s Cafe, across the street at 31 Bradford Street. She began renovating the building shortly thereafter.

¶ Last updated on 7 January 2023.