4 Atwood Avenue

4 Atwood Avenue under reconstruction. [2011, Dunlap]

Former Atwood Inn. Tucked almost out of sight on tiny Atwood Avenue, this building (c1800) with its broad front porch welcomed guests in the 1950s as the Blue Shutters Guest House and, in more recent times, as the Atwood Inn. Attached to the rear of the house — and then seemingly subsumed within it — was an old lobster shack that had belonged to John Savage at the Helltown fishing settlement. This, according to Joseph Del Deo in the West End volume of the 1977 Massachusetts Historical Commission inventory. The property has undergone a complete reconstruction in recent years. It’s currently owned by a resident of Gadsden, Ala.

Old insurance atlases refer to this spur as Atwood’s Court, and to the eastern spur as Atwood’s Avenue.

Original porch of the Atwood Inn. [1976, Josephine Del Deo / Massachusetts Historical Commission Inventory, 1973-1977 / Provincetown Public Library]

Entrance to the inn after demolition began. I’m not sure whether the former Helltown shack was behind this entrance, or part of the rear ell. [2009, Dunlap]

Facade of the old inn after the porch structure was removed, showing the original fanlight over the front door. [2009, Dunlap]

Same facade, after the restoration of the porch. [2010, Dunlap]

Cynthia Atwood Reynolds Hauptman wrote on 7 August 2020: I believe this is the home of my great-grandfather, Harry Atwood. My father, born 1922, remembers visiting his grandmother Lina Atwood Reynolds, and uncles here, who were shopkeepers and swordfishermen in the West End. Neat to see the pictures and know it is being restored.