Venue: Atlantic House
Town: Provincetown, US

The Atlantic House (often called the A-House, even in its own advertisements) in Provincetown, Massachusetts is a drinking establishment that has been in continual operation on the tip of Cape Cod for over two centuries. Having been an openly gay-friendly establishment for half a century and discreetly so for perhaps twice that long, the Atlantic House is a contender for the oldest gay bar in the United States. Frommer's calls it "the nation's premier gay bar". The oldest part of the building (now the left wing) was constructed in 1798 by Daniel Pease, Provincetown's first postmaster. Pease operated the building as a tavern, but the name of the establishment at this time, if it had one, is uncertain. After Pease's death from cholera in 1834, the business was purchased by Benjamin Allstrum and became known as the Allstrum House. It served as the last stagecoach stop of the Orleans to Provincetown route until the arrival of the train in 1873. When Allstrum died in 1871, Frank Potter Smith, a Portuguese sailor who had arrived in town by sea at the age of 18, bought the Allstrum House. At some point, the original structure was joined with a larger adjacent structure that was fitted with guest rooms. Smith renamed the business the Atlantic House Hotel, and it has been called the Atlantic House since. In the early 20th century, as the whaling industry 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 World War I made overseas travel hazardous, the Bohemian lifestyle took strong hold in Provincetown and Atlantic House became a center for their social activity. In 1917, after the United States entered World War I, Reuben Kelly, a member of the Masonic Lodge next door, arrested two alleged spies at gun point in the dining room of Atlantic House Hotel: playwright Eugene O'Neill (who had recently won a Pulitzer Prize) and his author friend Harold de Polo. Suspicions cent