Provincetown sits at the very tip of Cape Cod surrounded by water on three sides. It was a fishing and whaling village long before artists discovered its quaint streets and brilliant natural light in the early 1900s and made it an art colony. The Church of Saint Mary of the Harbor is home to a rich heritage of both art and the sea.

St. Mary's first service was held in 1904 and its first home was in the building marine painter William F. Halsall once used as a studio. The site of the present church, once a salt house, was purchased in 1919.

Before 1934 the summer services were held in the church building and winter services held at other locations since there was no heat at the church. Under the guidance of their first full-time priest, Rev. Robert Wood Nicholson, and with renovations designed by internationally known marine artist, Frederick Waugh, the building was transformed into the present day church. The Church of Saint Mary of the Harbor was dedicated in 1936.

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