Rare Historic Home with Large Yard: New A/C, Comfortable, Quiet, Steps to Town

We kept this house in the family because it is so lovely for vacationing throughout the year, has so much history and meaning for us, and is a unique and beautiful example of Cape architecture The neighborhood is quiet, yet you can easily walk to Commercial Street, or pick up a lunch at Farland, or put your toes in the water on the bay, all within ten minutes' walk. It also has two parking spaces - rare and important during the summer..

Here's an excerpt from a book on Provincetown houses, called Building Provincetown about the house: "This beautifully situated and relatively intact full Cape was constructed in the early 19th century.... [Serving as a small farmstead until the tern of the century]....has almost undoubtedly accounted for its fine state of preservation since then is its ownership by a single family, the Bakers, since 1926.

Benjamin Alton Baker (±1872-1952) was born in Wellfleet but spent most of his life in Provincetown, where he worked as an agent for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railfoad and also, in the 1940s, as custodian of the Pilgrim Monument. His wife, Madge (MacDonald) Baker (d 1950), had been born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Her sister Wilhelmina (d 1948) was also a Provincetown resident, married to John Bert Bangs. The Bakers had a son, Edward M. Baker, to whom they transferred the property in 1945. He was married to Alice B. Baker. They lived in New York City and in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

It was in New York City that their son, Robert A. “Bob” Baker (1939-2007), was born. After spending many summers in Provincetown, Bob became a permanent resident in 1960 and opened a store called Bob Baker: Furniture Maker. Thirty-four Pearl Street is now owned by the fourth generation of Bakers, Bob’s children: Andus D. Baker and Saphira M. Baker.