This landmark is named, for the area’s original land-owner and first resident, Samuel Milligan, who built his home on the landin 1799.
Milligan Place is a sweet, secluded courtyard hidden away from the masses and the chaos that sports a suite of four buildings that date from 1852.
These old buildings inspired a lot of new theater.
George Cram Cooke, founder and director of the legendary Provincetown Players, and his wife Susan Glaspell, winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, lived on Milligan Place from 1913 – 1917.
The pair recognized the genius of playwright Eugene O’Neil, and produced his early work, helping to elevate American Drama to an art form. O’Neil lived on Mulligan Place too!
Today, you can still rent an apartment on Milligan Place. The New York Person-Centered Resource Center, a mental health facility, also has its offices on the street.
Carpe City Trivia
Who was Susan Glaspell?
Susan Glaspell, “The First Lady of American Drama,“ established the basis of Modern American theater.
Glaspell not only helped found the Provincetown Players, America’s first modern theater company, but also wrote fifty short stories, nine novels, fifteen plays, and a biography.
She won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and was the Midwest Bureau Chief for the Federal Theater Project during The Great Depression.
Trifles, Glaspell’s1916 one-act play, is considered among the greatest works of AmericanTheater. It was oneof twelveplays shewrote forthe Provincetown Players, each of whichis regarded as “groundbreaking.“
She was also considered a truly great actress!
While her popularity waned in the post-war years after her death, today, her extraordinary genius is being rediscovered.
