PROVINCETOWN — For decades, the waterfront property nestled in an alley at 193A Commercial St. has served as a social center for lesbian life. In the 1950s it was the Ace of Spades, in the 1970s it morphed into the Pied Piper and in the 1980s became today’s Pied Bar. What was once a hotspot has lately become more low-profile. But its new owner, actress, singer, comedian and “professional lesbian” Lea DeLaria, is anything but.

On Jan. 8, the Provincetown Licensing Board approved the transfer of the common victualer and alcohol licenses to DeLaria’s company, which is called A Lea DeLaria Joint LLC. The bar will apparently be renamed “The Club.”

The 3,074-square-foot property has been on the market for about a year with a price of $1.95 million, according to real estate listings. As of Tuesday, it was not clear if DeLaria plans to purchase or is renting the property. Longtime owner Susan Webster could not be reached for comment.

“There will be no change in any aspect of the operation,” DeLaria’s lawyer, John Connell, said last week. “We look forward to livening the space up and making a go of it.” Following the licensing board meeting, DeLaria said she wasn’t ready to disclose details yet but is looking forward to unveiling her plans in the near future.

DeLaria’s most recent stardom stems from her Screen Actors Guild award-winning role as Carrie “Big Boo” Black in the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black.” But her career as a comedian, actress and jazz musician goes back decades. Select Board Chair Cheryl Andrews said she first saw DeLaria perform at the Pilgrim House in Provincetown in 1986.

DeLaria became the first openly gay comic on U.S. television in 1993 when she appeared on “The Arsenio Hall Show.” She has acted in over a dozen hit TV shows and films such as “Cars 3” (in which she is the voice of Miss Fritter) and “Edge of Seventeen.” She has performed on Broadway and at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center and was the featured vocalist at the 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival.

During the licensing board hearing, Frank Christopher, who will manage the new club, said people can expect to see live shows and performances as well as a variety of instruments. Christopher is a co-founder of Smoke, a well-known New York jazz club on Broadway near Columbia University.

“I’m not a big jazz fan,” Andrews said, “but when you’re sitting there listening to someone who is very talented, it doesn't matter the genre. She’s a very gifted musician. I’m glad she’s had success. Her willingness to invest that in Provincetown, to see that kind of energy come into town, is pretty darn exciting.”

DeLaria, who is 60, has been performing stand-up since 1982. Her first comedy album was titled “Bulldyke in a China Shop.” She has also written a book, “Lea’s Book of Rules for the World.”

According to David Dunlap’s “Building Provincetown,” the Pied Bar opened in the 1950s as the Ace of Spades, run by John Atkins and his daughter, Frances.

“The beachcomber décor was in part the work of Jeanne ‘Frenchie’ Chanel,” Dunlap wrote.

“Allegedly the longest continuously running lesbian bar in the United States, the Ace of Spades played a critical role in Provincetown’s history as the first and, for many years, the only social institution at Land’s End that catered specifically to women,” Karen Christel Krahulik wrote in “Provincetown: From Pilgrim Landing to Gay Resort.”

According to Dunlap, the club was legally bound to limit admission to registered members. Anti-gay selectmen would target it for not enforcing this rule. Perhaps this is why in 1961 the proprietors refused to admit First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who was with Gore Vidal, who couldn’t produce an I.D.

“It doesn’t take much imagination to conceive how daunting it would have been to persuade women who were attracted to other women to formally associate themselves with a lesbian-identified institution in 1950,” Dunlap wrote.

In August 1952 the Provincetown Advocate published an article titled “Selectmen Ask Support in Crusade to Stamp Out Degrading Influence,” which described how three selectmen — Ralph S. Carpenter, Frank H. Barnett and William A. White — “announced a campaign to wrest Provincetown back from the homosexual element, beginning with a crackdown on ‘the nightclubs which are the nests where the homosexuals congregate and the attraction that draws them here,’ ” Dunlap wrote.

“In less than a month, eight clubs, including the Ace of Spades, were brought up before a hearing convened by the selectmen to consider a variety of charges, including a failure by the clubs to insist on membership identification or to compel customers to sign registers with their full names and addresses,” wrote Dunlap. “Even in the McCarthy period, however, the selectmen’s strong-arm tactics seemed to offend as many people as they inspired. And hey, this was Provincetown. How seriously could you quarrel with businesses that made money off visitors?”

Pamela Genevrino and Linda Gerard reopened the place as the Pied Piper in 1971. In 1978 the club was damaged by fire and rebuilt shortly after. In 1986, Webster took ownership and added the popular After Tea T-Dance, which attracted not only lesbians but also gay men and straight people. She changed the name to Pied Bar in 2000.