A welding studio, reforged

In 1946, Clarence Kacergis, a native of Pennsylvania coal country, opened Provincetown Welding Works at what was then the end of Bradford Street. The shop kept the fishing fleet running, repairing boats and building the equipment the industry needed.

Over time, Provincetown's artists and sculptors came to the studio to stretch themselves and work in metal, and it became a place where folk art and fine art met. Clarence's son Michael carried it on, passing his knowledge to his son Peter and grandson Aaron.

For nearly 80 years the Kacergis family forged sunflowers, birds, mobiles, and fantastic beasts from ball bearings, chains, quahog rakes, and retired oxygen tanks. You can still see them in the studio yard and around town, from the railing at Local 186 to the Bob Gasoi Memorial Art Alley.

The anvil that sits on the roofline gives the new space its name.

The building

The long, low building at 3 Bradford Street predates the welding studio. The 1912 Sanborn fire insurance map labels it a fish house, and later maps call it a storehouse and then auto stalls, a record of the garages and workshops that once stood among the wooden houses on this stretch of Bradford Street.

We're renovating it into a mixed-use arts space: about 1,000 square feet on the main floor, 600 more usable square feet below, and a year-round apartment that adds much-needed housing in town.

New vertical cedar siding in silver gray and charcoal replaces the worn exterior, and the studio's own pieces stay: the scrollwork front gate, the anvil, and the weathervane.