Elephant Walk Inn is a large Mission/Craftsman style house located near the center of Provincetown. The house was built by the Days family in 1917. Legend says that it was ordered out of Sear-Roebuck catalogue, shipped down on the train and assembled on site.

In 1922, the Days family left Provincetown. Sometime thereafter the house was converted into tourist lodging. Its close proximity to the then existing railroad made it a favorite stop for early Provincetown visitors. One of Provincetown's most famous artist, Charles Hawthorne, had his studio directly behind the inn and it became a gathering place for visiting artists and art students. Today, the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center is located directly behind the property and the Cape Cod School of Art is just one block away.

During World War II, the inn was requisitioned by the Navy and officers were quartered here. The officer's mess was in the basement and the original paymaster's safe is still there. This is now staff quarters.


During the fifties, the inn, reflecting Provincetown's Portuguese heritage, was known as "Casa Brazil." Later in the seventies, it was known as "Fredericks." In 1984, it was re-christened as the "Elephant Walk."

The name Elephant Walk is derived from both the 1949 novel by Robert Standish and the 1953 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Finch. In both the book and the movie, the setting was a tea plantation in Ceylon. Elephant Walk was the name of the great teak mansion built across the elephant trail to the only watering hole that does not dry up in a time of drought. One guess as to what happens. The name seemed befitting to the inn, for when guests are up on the second floor deck above the owner's quarters, it sound like elephants are walking.