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Pilgrim Monument & P-town Museum | |
| The crenellated Italianate tower on a hill in Provincetown MA is the Pilgrim Monument. Head for it for the best view of the town in both its physical and historical aspects. | ||
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by Tom Brosnahan
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Modeled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy, the granite tower on a hill in the center of Provincetown (map) is 252.5 feet (77 meters) high. The cornerstone was laid in 1907 with President Teddy Roosevelt in attendance, and the structure was completed three years later, when President Taft did the dedicating. How do visitors get to the top to enjoy the view? Well, there's no elevator, so you c-l-i-m-b, the equivalent of climbing to the top of a 20-story building. Most of the climb is on a ramp, not steps, and you can take your time and read the commemorative plaques from New England cities, towns, and civic groups which line the granite walls. The view is worth the climb: Provincetown and all Cape Cod spread out like the maps you've been following. The Provincetown Museum is an interesting potpourri of old firefighting gear, costumes, a whaling ship captain's quarters on board, primitive portraits, World War I mementos, arctic lore, and a sequence of displays on the activities of the Pilgrims in Provincetown, for this is the first place they touched land in the New World. After seeing these you can continue with the Wedgwood, model of a Thai temple, antique dolls, and other arcana. Pilgrim
Monument and Provincetown Museum
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Above, the Pilgrim
Monument, tall as a 20-storey building.
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