ON A SUMMER’S NIGHT, THE CROWN & ANCHOR CAN’T BE MISSED. IN FACT, IT CAN’T BE IGNORED.

Not only is it one of P-town’s most prominent facades, with its grand columned portico and tower, but performers from the Cabaret—usually in drag—boisterously regale passers-by. The hotel business is a sideline; this is the town’s “largest entertainment complex,” true to its roots in the mid-19th century, when Timothy P. Johnson built the Central House (its first name) as a public hall for shows and entertainment, a bowling alley and—quite as important—a saloon.