Alternatively, 596A Commercial Street; 289 Bradford Street
Interior of the main house. [2025, Dunlap]
The main house. [2025, Dunlap]
Interior of the side wing. [2025, Dunlap]
Detail of the entrance to the wing. [2025, Dunlap]
Interior of the ell. Polly Burnell recalled that this space once served as a kind of community library. [2025, Dunlap]
The ell. [2025, Dunlap]
The loft in the shed. [2025, Dunlap]
The shed. [2025, Dunlap]
6 Wiley Street lot in 1910. [Atlas of Barnstable County, Massachusetts … Provincetown, by Walker Lith. & Pub. Co. / Boston Public Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection / Call No. G1233.B3-W3-1910]
Updated on 1 July 2026 | Wiley Street is an eight-foot-wide private road connecting Commercial and Bradford Streets in the East End. Only one house has ever had a Wiley Street address: the home of Azubah Snow (Lewis) Wiley and her husband, Jesse Wiley, at No. 6. This handsome but hard-used full Cape, with its several dilapidated appendages, was still standing at the end of 2025, when it was acquired for $1.85 million by 289 Bradford Street L.L.C., managed by Ronald Soper and Stanley Wiafe.
The Wiley family. Azubah was born in Provincetown in 1829, to Azubah (Snow) Lewis and her husband, Nathaniel Lewis. The young girl took the name of the mother of King Jehoshaphat of Judah, named in the Bible at 1 Kings 22:42. Azubah of Provincetown was 50 years old when she acquired title to the Wiley Street property from the Lewis family. Her husband, Jesse Wiley, was born in Wellfleet in 1827. He followed the sea from the time he was 8 years old until his early 60s, when he settled down in Fall River, keeping his summer home on Wiley Street in Provincetown, where he and his wife also took in summer boarders. In February 1906, after several months of declining health, Jesse died at age 78. At that time, Azubah, 76, was recovering from pneumonia. Her husband’s death “was such a shock to her nervous system in her weakened condition that when she fully realized that he had been taken from her, she could not rally,” the Fall River Daily Evening News reported.1 Azubah survived Jesse by only 11 days.
The Hodgdon family. The Wileys’ daughter, Betsey G. “Bessie” Wiley, was born in 1856. She married Charles H. Hodgdon, another Provincetown native, who had gone a-whaling as a young man on Clara L. Sparks and a schooner — owned by his father — that bore his name, Charles H. Hodgdon, out of New Bedford. He gave up that perilous business for trap fishing when he married Bessie. The couple moved to Fall River, where Charles worked as a cotton inspector in the steamship department of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. The Hodgdons never gave up the home on Wiley Street. Bessie died in the house in 1926. Charles retired in 1929 and returned full-time to Provincetown, where he died in 1931. Funeral services, conducted by Nancy Paine Smith, were held in the Wiley Cottage. His coffin was situated appropriately, the Advocate noted: “He occupied the corner in the living room which was his favorite corner and where he always sat.”2 The house passed to his sister, Nellie F. (Hodgdon) Gray, whose husband was Alton Gray. Three years later, in 1934, she sold the property to Margaret M. Sears and her husband, Joseph W. Sears.
The Sears family. Margaret May McNally was born in Liverpool and arrived in Provincetown in 1882. Her husband, Joseph Warren Sears, a fisherman, was a Provincetown native. Though they owned 6 Wiley Street, they lived at 606 Commercial Street. Margaret died in 1937. Joseph sold the Wiley Street property in 1944 to Eric A. Foulk and died five years later at home.
The Foulk family. Eric grew up in West Virginia, attended Purdue University, and worked as a professional engineer in Berwick, Pa. (Perhaps at the American Car and Foundry Company?) After retiring, he and his wife, Gertrude (Todd) Foulk, moved to Baltimore. The Wiley Cottage was their summer home. Between 1944 and 1971 occurred several deed transfers, all of which seemed to bring the property back into the hands of the Foulks or their relatives. Eric was killed in a fire at his home in North Baltimore in 1965. Gertrude died in 1968. Her sister, Florence (Todd) Diener, and other family members, sold the Wiley Cottage in 1971 for $30,000 to Stephen B. Cook and Gertrude S. (Shea) “Trudy” Cook, of 594 Commercial Street.
The Cook family. Artistry ran in the Cook family. Stephen’s father, Lauren W. Cook, was a commercial artist and portrait painter in town. In 1954, Stephen earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. For a time, he and Trudy hung out a shingle at 594 Commercial as real-estate brokers. Stephen belonged to the Beachcombers, too. They seem to have divided their time between Provincetown and New York City before moving to New Bedford in 1976. Trudy worked at J.C. Penney and Stephen worked as a commercial fisherman, as well as an artist whose subjects were often boats and seascapes. They sold the Wiley Cottage in 1982, for $80,000, to Edward N. Karcasinas and Frances (Litsas) Karcasinas, of Worcester.
The Karcasinas family. Ed Karcasinas owned and operated the Wyman Spa and the Double K Restaurant in Worcester. He and Frances had four children: Edward Jr., James, Madeline, and Nicholas. Jimmy is a greenskeeper at the Chequessett Club (formerly the Chequessett Yacht and Country Club). In the 1980s, Nick worked as a custodian at the Provincetown Heritage Museum. In 2025, Gov. Maura Healey named Ed Karcasinas Jr. an associate justice of the District Court. Jimmy Karcasinas took over this property after the death of his parents. He sold it in 2025.
In memoriam
• Eric Anderson Foulk (1891-1965)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 91890676.
• Betsey G. “Bessie” (Wiley) Hodgdon (1856-1926)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 219505490.
• Charles H. Hodgdon (1865-1931)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 130048659.
• Edward N. Karcasinas (1926-1989)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 239185675.
• Frances (Litsas) Karcasinas (1929-2016)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 239185703.
• Joseph Warren Sears (1862-1949)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 126966372.
• Margaret May McNally Sears (1866-1937)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 130755596.
• Azubah Snow (Lewis) Wiley (1829-1906)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 154834011.
• Jesse Wiley (1827-1906)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 154833736.
1 “Survived but Eleven Days; Mrs. Jesse Wiley Passes Away Soon After Death of Her Husband,” Fall River Daily Evening News, 17 February 1906, Page 4.
2 “Obituaries; Charles H. Hodgon,” Provincetown Advocate, 11 June 1931, Page 6.