History of
Somerset House Inn
The house that is now called Somerset House Inn was built in 1840 by Stephen Cook. A significant figure in the development of Provincetown, Cook developed multiple properties on Commercial Street and the wharf that is now 381 Commercial Street. He was also an officer and president of the First National Bank and Trust for many years until he died in 1888.
The property stayed with the Cook family until the turn of the century and was then acquired by Dr. William S. Birge and Dr. Ella F. Birge, a husband and wife eye doctor team (pictured to the left), specializing in disease of the eye. It was quite rare for women to have formal training in medicine in the late 1800s, but the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston awarded Dr. Ella an M.D. in 1891. The doctor duo would soon name 378 Commercial Street the “Ocean View House,” and it became a boarding house and sanatorium that people would flock to in hope that the salty sea air and treatment from the Birge family would cure ailments such as tuberculosis (considered “consumption” in those times) and ailments of the nervous system.
From this time on, the property would go through different variations of guest houses with multiple names and owners throughout the mid-twentieth century. In 1970, John Gerrity purchased the property and named it “Somerset House Inn” after the H.M.S. Somerset, the British 64-gun ship-of-the-line that had terrorized the people of Boston and Charlestown at Bunker Hill during the Revolutionary War and is the ship described in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Paul Revere’s Ride.” This same British war ship sank off Race Point in 1778, and the wreckage appears from time to time. It is still speculated to have carried a safe of treasures that has never been found…or found but never revealed…smart treasure hunters don’t speak of their bounties.
Somerset House continues its long standing 50+ year tradition of welcoming visitors to Provincetown. We look forward to hosting you and adding your experience and memories to Somerset’s story.