Center Methodist Church

About this property

The Center Methodist Church or Center Methodist Episcopal Church is located in Provincetown, Massachusetts at 356 Commercial Street. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The church moved to a new building in 1955, and the building has changed hands several times since. It is currently the home of the Provincetown Public Library. Even today looking from the end of MacMillan Wharf towards town, the building is one of the most prominent on the skyline. In 1958, the building was sold for $40,000 to Walter P. Chrysler Jr. – the son of Walter Chrysler, the founder of the Chrysler Corporation – for use as the Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown. During this period he collected many works by local artists. In 1962, however, his collection became embroiled in a scandal in the art community. That summer, the museum housed an exhibition from his collection entitled "The Controversial Century: 1850–1950". Out of the 187 works displayed, 90 were claimed to be forgeries by the Art Dealers Association of America. Among the declared fakes were works purported to be by Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh (4 of the 5 shown), Pierre Bonnard and Paul Klee. Most of the suspect works had been purchased over a two-year period from two New York dealers. Mr. Chrysler defended his acquisitions and their veracity, saying, "I don't make any claim for their being the greatest examples of each artist, but we can't look at masterpieces all the time. I think that would be rather dull." Chrysler continued to run the museum with limited success until he closed it in 1970. In 1971, he moved his collection to Virginia, where it is still operating today as the Chrysler Museum of Art. There are differing accounts as to the reason for the move. According to the Museum's website, "The efflorescence of paintings, sculpture, artifacts and glass soon outgrew its limited quarters in a 19th-century church, however, and Chrysler began seeking a new home for the works." The people of Provincetown remember it differently, however. The local newspaper reported it differently, saying, "Discouraged when the Town of Provincetown would not help him find parking for visitors to the museum, Chrysler packed up his collection and moved ..." Whatever the reason, the building was sold in 1974 for $90,000 to Through the efforts of the Provincetown Historical Association and the Historic District Study Committee, the building was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. It received certification in October 1975. Subsequently, in 1976, a special town meeting voted to acquire the building for $135,000, and it was sold to the Provincetown Historical Association and used for the display of town artifacts as the Provincetown Heritage Museum. The Provincetown Heritage Museum officially opened to the public on July 4, 1976.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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