127-131 MacDougal Street
127, 129, and 131 MacDougal Street (l. to r.) are slightly altered but clearly recognizable federal-era rowhouses built around 1829. The only major alterations include the insertion of a large picture window in the ground floor of #’s 129 and 131 (note the preservation of the original lintels for the two separate windows), and the replacement of the smaller original dormers with one larger one on all three. #125 (the red house on the corner) probably originally had a similar appearance, but had a full third story plus mansard roof added in the late 19th century. (Please see also report on individual designation of federal rowhouses.)
Houses at 125-131 MacDougal Street and the Provincetown Playhouse
The Provincetown Playhouse next door at #133 (r. and picture below) opened in 1918 and was at the vanguard of experimental theater, serving as a home to Eugene O’Neil and the Provincetown Players. Experimental Theater thrived in this section of the Village, largely in converted venues carved out of tenements, stables, rowhouses, garages, and other structures, testifying to the area’s history of adaptive re-use of buildings and prescient, experimental approaches to culture and the built environment. The Provincetown Playhouse continued to host cutting edge theater productions through the 1990’s, when it was taken over by NYU’s Theater Department. The current building is the result of several renovations and combinations of pre-existing buildings on the site, finally evolving into roughly its current form in the late 1930’s.
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