Sladeseville, Truro, Cape Cod, Mass.

At the time this postcard was published, the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill had not yet been founded and there were fewer houses along  Castle Road, but the title of this  postcard is Sladesville and that is the focus of this picture.  Probably printed just before The Great Depression, this illustration captures the beauty of the Pamet and the Cape Cod Bay and even throws in a sunset.  Its not too far from this spot, that much of the story of the sequel to Remaining in Provincetown takes place.  The characters often drive along Caste Road and the group of rental cottages that were built in 1925 by artist C. Arnold Slade.

So who was C. Arnold Slade? A Massachusetts native and graduate of Brown University, Slade studied at the  Art Student’s League in New York City under Louis Loeb and Frank Dumond. He also studied in Paris and enjoyed early success as an artist. According to art historian Julie Carlson Eldred, Slade first spent  a winter in Truro in 1914, and summered there sporadically from 1920. In 1925  he purchased Truro’s first Methodist meeting house, built in 1826, and had it dismantled and reconstructed on what was known at the time as  “Savage Point”. The former church was used to build a structure that served as both a studio and an exhibition space.  If you go to “Sladesville” today, no longer owned by the Slade family, you will  also see a red house, where the Slades lived, which was called Roselea.   During the 1930s and 40s C. Arnold Slade enjoyed a successful career as a portrait painter and painted the likenesses of many dignitaries.  He died in 1961.

The story sequel, set in Truro, takes places in approximately 1992.  Haven’t read Remaining in Provincetown yet?  You can buy a copy, at The Provincetown Bookshop or you can purchase a trade paperback or ebook online.  Please like us on Facebook and keep the conversation going.

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