Watson-Dutra-Cowing compound | Formerly Shankpainter Children’s Zoo; Shankpainter Village; Simmons Farm | Alternatively, 22 Brown Street and 35 Shank Painter Road
[2014, Dunlap]
[2013, Dunlap]
Aerial photos of the Watson-Dutra-Cowing compound from the early 1970s (left) and mid-2020s. The dotted lines and superimposed numbers show how the parcel is divided: 35 Shank Painter Road, 52 Winslow Street, and 22 Brown Street. [Aero Service Corporation; Apple Maps]
Updated on 19 July 2026 | You can count the remaining farms and family compounds in Provincetown on the fingers of one hand. Each is special but this is a great one — all the more so since it hides within plain sight of the hundreds of visitors who travel up and down Shank Painter Road, which borders the property on the west, and opposite the Winthrop Street Cemetery.
Together, the three parcels total 41,877 square feet, nearly one acre. It has been in one family’s hands since its days as the Simmons Farm, beginning in 1901. The property passed from Rosa and Manuel Simmons to their daughter, Minnie (Simmons) Silva; to her daughter, Ruth (Silva) Watson, who ran Shankpainter Village, a picturesque cottage colony along Winthrop; to her daughter, Ruth (Watson) Dutra, who lives here.
52 Winthrop Street on the Town Map, showing property lines.