Did you know：Atlantic House
<h1 class="firstHeading">Atlantic House</h1><div id="bodyContent"><h3 id="siteSub"></h3><!--Element not supported - Type: 8 Name: #comment--><p>The <b>Atlantic House</b> (often called the <b>A-House</b>, even in its own <a title="Advertisement" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertisement">advertisements</a>) in <a title="Provincetown, Massachusetts" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincetown,_Massachusetts">Provincetown, Massachusetts</a> is a <a title="Bar (establishment)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_(establishment)">drinking</a> establishment that has been in continual operation on the tip of <a title="Cape Cod" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod">Cape Cod</a> for over two centuries.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_0"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup></p><div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="WIDTH: 335px;"><a class="internal" title="The Atlantic House in Provincetown, Massachusetts; the entrance to the nightclub portion is near the sign" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahouse1.jpg"><img class="thumbimage" height="250" alt="The Atlantic House in Provincetown, Massachusetts; the entrance to the nightclub portion is near the sign" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/24/Ahouse1.jpg/333px-Ahouse1.jpg" width="333" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Ahouse1.jpg"/></a>
<div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="FLOAT: right;"><a class="internal" title="Enlarge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahouse1.jpg"><img height="11" alt="" src="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15"/></a></div>The Atlantic House in <a title="Provincetown, Massachusetts" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provincetown,_Massachusetts">Provincetown, Massachusetts</a>; the entrance to the <a title="Nightclub" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightclub">nightclub</a> portion is near the sign</div></div></div><p>Having been an openly gay-friendly establishment for half a century and discreetly so for perhaps twice that long, the Atlantic House is an excellent contender for the oldest <a title="Gay bar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bar">gay bar</a> in the <a title="United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">United States</a>. <a title="Frommer's" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frommer's">Frommer's</a> calls it "the nation's premier gay bar".<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_1"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-0"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-0">[2]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-1"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-1">[3]</a></sup></p><p>The oldest part of the building (now the left wing) was constructed in 1798 by Daniel Pease, Provincetown's first <a title="Postmaster" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmaster">postmaster</a>. Pease operated the building as a <a title="Tavern" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tavern">tavern</a> although the name of the establishment at this time, if it had one, is uncertain.</p><p>After Pease's death from <a title="Cholera" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera">cholera</a> in 1834, the business was purchased by Benjamin Allstrum and became known as the Allstrum House. It served as the last <a title="Stagecoach" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagecoach">stagecoach</a> stop of the <a title="Orleans, Massachusetts" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orleans,_Massachusetts">Orleans</a> to Provincetown route until the arrival of the train in 1873.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_2"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-2"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-2">[4]</a></sup></p><p>When Allstrum died in 1871, Frank Potter Smith, a <a title="Portuguese" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese">Portuguese</a>
<a title="Sailor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailor">sailor</a> who had arrived in town by sea at the age of eighteen, bought the Allstrum House. At some point, the original structure was joined with a much larger adjacent structure that was fitted with guest rooms. Smith renamed the business "Atlantic House Hotel" and it has been called the Atlantic House since.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_3"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-3"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-3">[5]</a></sup></p><p>In the early 20th century, as the <a title="Whaling" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling">whaling industry</a> that had been Provincetown's lifeblood since its foundation decreased in importance, the area became a mecca for artists and writers. As events leading up to <a title="World War I" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I">World War I</a> made overseas travel hazardous, the <a title="Bohemianism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemianism">Bohemian lifestyle</a> took strong hold in Provincetown and Atlantic House became a center for their social activity.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-his_0"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-his">[6]</a></sup></p><p>In 1917, after the <a title="United States" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States">United States</a> entered World War I, Reuben Kelly, a member of the <a title="Masonic Lodge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masonic_Lodge">Masonic Lodge</a> next door, arrested two alleged <a title="Spy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy">spies</a> at gun point in the dining room of Atlantic House Hotel: playwright <a title="Eugene O'Neill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_O'Neill">Eugene O'Neill</a> (who had recently won a <a title="Pulitzer Prize" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize">Pulitzer Prize</a>) and his author friend Harold de Polo. Suspicions centered around a black box the men had carried out to the dunes near a <a title="U.S. government" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._government">government</a>
<a title="Radio station" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_station">radio station</a> in <a title="Truro, Massachusetts" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro,_Massachusetts">Truro</a>. Rather than containing apparatus for signaling the <a title="William II, German Emperor" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_II,_German_Emperor">Kaiser</a>'s forces, the box was found to contain a <a title="Smith Corona" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Corona">Smith Corona</a>
<a title="Typewriter" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typewriter">typewriter</a>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-his_1"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-his">[6]</a></sup></p><div class="thumb tleft"><div class="thumbinner" style="WIDTH: 335px;"><a class="internal" title="Entrance to the nightclub; the blue plaque commemorates Eugene O'Neill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahouse2.jpg"><img class="thumbimage" height="250" alt="Entrance to the nightclub; the blue plaque commemorates Eugene O'Neill" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8c/Ahouse2.jpg/333px-Ahouse2.jpg" width="333" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Ahouse2.jpg"/></a>
<div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="FLOAT: right;"><a class="internal" title="Enlarge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahouse2.jpg"><img height="11" alt="" src="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15"/></a></div>Entrance to the <a title="Nightclub" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightclub">nightclub</a>; the blue <a title="Plaque" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaque">plaque</a> commemorates <a title="Eugene O'Neill" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_O'Neill">Eugene O'Neill</a></div></div></div><p>A plaque on the exterior of the Atlantic House today commemorates the time that O'Neill spent here during the 1910s and 1920s and notes that part of <i><a title="The Iceman Cometh" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iceman_Cometh">The Iceman Cometh</a></i> was written during his stay. The Atlantic House was a hangout for other literati of the period. One, <a title="Tennessee Williams" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams">Tennessee Williams</a>, can be seen in photos that now hang in the bar in which he cavorts nude with male friends on the beach.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_4"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup></p><p>In 1950, Reginald "Reggie" Cabral and Mr. and Mrs. Frank J. Hurst bought the A-House. Cabral, who worked as manager, soon took over full ownership and made the long discreetly gay friendly establishment openly so. Cabral, a collector of art, graced the establishment with such decorative accents as a carved wooden figurehead said to come from the last whaling ship to operate out of Provincetown Harbor and signed works by <a title="Andy Warhol" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol">Andy Warhol</a> and <a title="Keith Harring" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Harring">Keith Harring</a>.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_5"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup></p><div class="thumb tright"><div class="thumbinner" style="WIDTH: 335px;"><a class="internal" title="A view from the Commercial Street end of Masonic Place. The Masonic Lodge is in the left foreground. Grand Central restaurant is in the right foreground." href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahouse3.jpg"><img class="thumbimage" height="250" alt="A view from the Commercial Street end of Masonic Place. The Masonic Lodge is in the left foreground. Grand Central restaurant is in the right foreground." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/dd/Ahouse3.jpg/333px-Ahouse3.jpg" width="333" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Ahouse3.jpg"/></a>
<div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify" style="FLOAT: right;"><a class="internal" title="Enlarge" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ahouse3.jpg"><img height="11" alt="" src="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15"/></a></div>A view from the Commercial Street end of Masonic Place. The Masonic Lodge is in the left foreground. Grand Central restaurant is in the right foreground.</div></div></div><p>For the past several decades the property has consisted of five parts. There is the original tavern, now known as the Little Bar, an intimate space with a <a title="Fireplace" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fireplace">fireplace</a> and <a title="Jukebox" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukebox">jukebox</a>. Upstairs from it is the Macho Bar, a space primarily for <a title="Leather subculture" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_subculture">leather men</a> and decorated accordingly with <a title="International Mister Leather" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mister_Leather">IML</a> posters, <a title="Tom of Finland" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_of_Finland">Tom of Finland</a> images, etc. In the larger wing, the ground level is a <a title="Nightclub" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightclub">nightclub</a> with dancefloor. The area upstairs from this, once hotel rooms, has mostly been (and is currently) used only for storage. A small building directly across Masonic Way (the short, <a title="Car-free zone" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car-free_zone">pedestrian way</a> on Commercial Street where the A-House is located) was long-used as a storage space but is now a restaurant called Grand Central. In the 1990s a sixth area was added, an enclosed exterior area in back and to the right of the large building which greatly expanded the nightclub's capacity.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-ah_6"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-ah">[1]</a></sup><sup class="reference" id="_ref-4"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-4">[7]</a></sup></p><p>One reviewer wrote:</p><blockquote><p>…even with the competition the A-House draws in the most boys to dance on its small dance floor and to hang out on the large outdoor patio. During the summer months, you can't go wrong by choosing the A-House to dance.<sup class="reference" id="_ref-5"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_House#_note-5">[8]</a></sup></p></blockquote><p>In addition to whatever other elements are present, most areas of the Atlantic House convey a "<a title="Nautical" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautical">nautical</a> feel" through decorative elements as <a title="Harpoon" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpoon">harpoons</a> and <a title="Oar" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oar">oars</a> attached to the ceiling.</p></div>
