Center Methodist Church
| Center Methodist Church | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 Restoration of the bell tower in 2007 |
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| location | Provincetown , Massachusetts , United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42 ° 3 '11.9 " N , 70 ° 11' 3.5" W | ||
| Built | 1860 | ||
| architect | George Handel Holbrook | ||
| Architectural style | Italianate | ||
| NRHP number | [1] 75000247 | ||
| The NRHP added | October 31, 1975 | ||
As Center Methodist Church (also Center Methodist Episcopal Church , today Provincetown Public Library ) a former church building and today's library is registered in the National Register of Historic Places . The building is located at the address 356 Commercial Street in Provincetown in the state of Massachusetts of the United States .
architecture
The building is one of the best preserved examples of Victorian architecture in the Italianate style in Provincetown. While its base is rusticated , the upper levels are clad with smoothly sanded boards. The second floor is divided into three bays by pilasters in the Ionic order .
history
The building was erected in 1860 as the largest Methodist church in the United States and cost $ 22,000 at the time (about $ 697,000 today). 128 pews offered space for a total of 900 people. The church's original 162 ft (49.4 m ) high tower was damaged in a storm in 1898 and was replaced by a 100 ft (30.5 m ) tower in 2007 .
In 1958, the parish sold the building to Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. , who converted it into a private art museum as the Chrysler Art Museum . However, this had only moderate commercial success - mainly due to the lack of visitor parking spaces - which is why Chrysler closed it in 1970 and reopened it in 1971 as the Chrysler Museum of Art in Virginia .
After a few years of vacancy, Jules Brenner and Frederic Jungmann bought the church from Chrysler in 1974 for a price of 90,000 US dollars (today approx. 466,000 dollars) and set up the Museum Center for the Arts there, culturally but financially like its predecessor was also unsuccessful and therefore had to be closed again a year later.
In October 1975, at the joint effort of the Provincetown Historical Association and the Historic District Study Committee, the church was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places, resulting in the city government buying the building for $ 135,000 in 1976 (approximately $ 605,000 today ) led. The Provincetown Heritage Museum , which was newly established there , opened on July 4, 1976, the US national holiday, and remained in operation until 2000.
Since the number of visitors to the museum declined over time, but the number of users of the local library increased continuously, it was decided to convert the former church building into the new city library. In 2002, in cooperation with the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the renovation work began, and in April 2005 the new Provincetown Public Library was opened. A special feature is a model of the ship Rose Dorothea on a scale of 1: 2, which is built in the interior and was taken from the holdings of the Provincetown Heritage Museum . Today the library in downtown Provincetown is used extensively. Its inventory includes around 40,000 books and 30 works of art, including the silver Lipton Cup from 1907, which Rose Dorothea won.
Rose Dorothea
The 108.7 ft (33.1 m ) long and 108 ton schooner Rose Dorothea was built in 1905 at the Tarr & James Shipyard in Essex . With a crew of 26 seamen, she was used as a cargo sailor between the old and new world, with her rounded bow allowing a trip close to the wind, which made her faster than other schooners of the time. On the occasion of the Boston Old Home Week celebrations on August 1, 1907, Sir Thomas Lipton donated a trophy for a sailing competition in Massachusetts Bay , in which only professional fishermen were allowed to participate. With the Jessie Costa and the Rose Dorothea , two of the participants from Provincetown came to the race, which was designed to cover 42 mi (67.6 km ) and led from the Boston Light via the Eastern Point Light to Gloucester and back. Although she had lost her bow , the Rose Dorothea won the race and received, in addition to the Lipton Cup, a prize of 650 US dollars (around 18,200 dollars today).
The ship was stopped and sunk on February 16, 1917 by the German submarine SM U 21 15 miles off Cabo de Santa Maria (Portugal) after the sailors were allowed to get into the lifeboats.
See also
literature
- Del Deo, Josephine: MHC Inventory Form. ( PDF ) Massachusetts Historical Commission, September 1979, accessed on February 3, 2016 (English, accessible via the "INV" button).
- Pfeiffer, Brian; Friedberg, Betsy: National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. ( PDF ) National Park Service , December 1988, accessed on February 3, 2016 (English, accessible via the "NR" button).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ National Register Information System . In: National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service . Retrieved April 15, 2008.
- ↑ cf. Pfeiffer / Friedberg, p. 23.
- ↑ a b c d e Library Building & History. (No longer available online.) Provincetown Public Library, archived from the original on February 3, 2016 ; accessed on February 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Rose Dorothea Schooner. (No longer available online.) Provincetown Public Library, archived from the original on February 3, 2016 ; accessed on February 3, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Guðmundur Helgason: Sailing Vessel Rose Dorothea. Retrieved February 3, 2016 .
