1 lily street comprehensive

1 Lily Street Siasconset

A House History Written by Betsy Tyler Designed by Kathleen Hay

The Nantucket Preservation Trust Two Union Street Nantucket Island, Massachusetts

2007

The Cap’n’s Gig, c. 1910

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The Cap’n’s Gig The cottage at One Lily Street—labeled “The Cap’n’s Gig” on the Sanborn Insurance Company map dated 1909, and spelled out fully as “The Captain’s Gig” on later maps—was one of more than two dozen cottages built by Edward F. Underhill in the 1880s, on Lily, Evelyn, and Pochick Streets in Siasconset.

Fashioned in the style of the former fishing huts on Broadway, Shell, and Front Streets that had evolved into family dwellings, Underhill’s popular cottages were rented for the summer from the time of their construction to 1926, when his widow, Evelyn, and his daughter, Lily, sold them. Many of the cottages were rented season after season by the same families, who then purchased them when they became available. Whether that happened with The Cap’n’s Gig is not known. The first identified occupants of the cottage were “Mr. and Mrs. Russell L. Engs, five children and three maids, from Brooklyn, New York,” listed in the August 25, 1887, issue of the ’Sconset Visitor, a newspaper that unfortunately lasted only one season. The ’Sconset Pump, a daily paper published in the summer of 1888, also printed a list of cottagers; the only listing for Lily Street, which does not specify which cottage, was for Henry R. Tucker and his wife.

Underhill’s compound was known as the “Actors’ Colony” in the late 1890s and early 1900s; rents were comparatively cheap, giving New York City thespians a place to go when theaters closed for the summer. The Cap’n’s Gig more than likely housed a stage family, but there are no Underhill cottage records extant to provide names.

In 1926, when Evelyn Underhill and Lily Doubleday put the cottages up for sale, Elihu and Mary Fowler of Englewood, New Jersey, purchased what is now known as One Lily Street, for $3,500.

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Brief History of the Village of Siasconset Considering the condition of island cart paths and modes of travel in the early years of the English settlement, Siasconset—meaning “place of great bones” in the language spoken by the native Wampanoag— was a long way from the town of Nantucket. The small village that grew at the east end of the island in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was a seasonal destination for local fishermen, whose primary catch was cod. The earliest image of the village appears in an etching

by David Augustus Leonard that accompanied his humorous poem, “The Laws of Siasconset,” published by John Spooner of New Bedford in 1797. Leonard found the simple life at Sconset—free of lawyers and priests and full of chowder—appealing, and praised it in verse laden with classical references, which he explained in footnotes, one of which provides a synopsis of the thesis of the poem:

The Legislature, which has favored us with this useful code of laws, is composed of Conscience, Reason and Philanthropy. No bribes prevent a strict administration of justice. The happy era is not far distant in which this Court, we hope, will give laws to the universe. At that time Priests and Lawyers will be but “Drones of the church and harpies of the State.”

During the economic boom years of the Nantucket whaling industry, in the 1830s and early 1840s, wealthy Nantucket residents built summer homes along Main Street in the fishing hamlet; Matthew Crosby had a home on Main Street in town as well as Main Street, ’Sconset; so, too, did Philip H. Folger, George Starbuck, Matthew Starbuck, and their sister, Eunice Hadwen. These wealthy families did not seek waterfront land for their homes. According to the first historian of ’Sconset, Edward F. Underhill:

. . . the Nantucket family was born within sight of the sea, and many of its members had been tossed upon its bosom. The surf beating on the shore had no charms for them. They preferred a situation whence they could see vehicles, from the aristocratic chaise to the democratic cart, as they passed from and to the town, and salute their occupants.

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Engraving by David Augustus Leonard, 1797

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Painting of ’Sconset by the Reverend L. W. Bostwick, 1879

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It was not until the advent of the tourism era in the 1870s that the village was discovered and eagerly invaded by a summer crowd from the mainland, who were fascinated by the sea and the quaint architecture of ’Sconset. New York attorney and author Ansel Judd Northrup’s book ’Sconset Cottage Life: A Summer on Nantucket Island, published in 1881, certainly helped to advertise the charms of the isolated village, which included surf-bathing, blue-fishing, and “squantums” on the shores of Sesachacha Pond.

In the 1890s, Underhill’s thriving cottage community became the hub of the “Actors’ Colony,” a designation that generally refers to the Broadway actors and actresses who summered in ’Sconset, many of them staying in the Underhill cottages.

Sunset Heights In 1873, noted Nantucket builder Charles H. Robinson and his business partner, Dr. Franklin A. Ellis, purchased a large tract of land south of Main Street in ’Sconset. Their proposed real estate development was reported in the local paper:

The purchasers of the land south of what is known as the “Gulch” at Siasconset, have been busy making preparations in anticipation of the expected rush of visitors during the coming summer. The tract of land secured by them is probably equal in every respect to any to be found along the New England coast; while the sea view from every part of it cannot be equaled. A broad avenue, called Ocean Avenue, has been laid out along the edge of the bank, running north and south, and nearly three-quarters of a mile in length. Other avenues run east and west from this the entire width of the land. The whole tract has been staked off in lots, and two very handsome cottages are already built; the largest one, now finished, fronting on Ocean Avenue, and the other one, nearly completed, fronting on Cottage Avenue. The entrance to the grounds is from the main road at Siasconset Village. A very 9

Plan of Sunset Heights, c. 1873

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handsome gateway has been erected over it, and a substantial bridge built across the “Gulch.” A foot bridge, ninety feet in length will also be built, leading from the end of Broadway, in Siasconset village to the grounds. A handsome restaurant is also being erected, just west of the gateway, fronting north to the main road.

Robinson and Ellis created twenty lots along Ocean Avenue, and sixty-eight more lots along a dozen or so avenues, many of them named for trees: japonica, magnolia, linden, laurel, and cypress. Robinson and his crew built the “modern” two-story cottages in Sunset Heights.

China Closet

Land belonging to Matthew Crosby—a plot on the north side of Cypress Avenue and another west of Grand Avenue— lay undivided on the Sunset Heights plan. In 1879, the Crosby heirs sold the land known as the “Pochick Lot,” bounded by Cypress Avenue on the south, unnamed roads on the east and west, and “land of Ellis and Robinson” on the north, to Edward F. Underhill of New York City for $350. Underhill created a road down the middle of the plot, and named it Pochick. According to the deed there was a dwelling house somewhere on the property. Underhill built his house, China Closet, at the east end of the plot, on the south side of Pochick Street.

Interior of China Closet

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Ocean View House, c. 1875

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Sunset Heights gate, c. 1873

Edward F. Underhill c.1883 – 1898

Edward F. Underhill could easily be the subject of a lengthy biography.

He was a Civil War reporter for The New York Times in the 1860s, a journalist for the New York Tribune in the 1880s, a famous New York court stenographer in an era when a court stenographer could be famous, a vineyard owner, rare book and china collector, noted wit, and ’Sconset enthusiast. In 1878, he spent his first summer on Nantucket, in ’Sconset, and was captivated by the history, architecture, and lore of the place.

Underhill described his first season in ’Sconset in a speech he made at the opening of the ’Sconset railroad in 1884:

I came here after two years’ suffering from nervous prostration caused by overwork, during which I had but little sleep and only the memory of an appetite. I took a little cottage on the bank where myself and family felt that we would have a maximum of comfort and a minimum of care, however the stay might affect my health. My first week’s experience was promising. I slept twelve hours a day. The other twelve I was only sleepy. As for my appetite, the first day I was able to run the gamut of the bill of fare at the Ocean View House, and thenceforward I got around three square meals a day; for I never flinched until I had successfully wrestled with every dish the proprietor dared to present for discussion.

The next summer Underhill returned to ’Sconset, purchased the Pochick property, built China Closet, and developed his plan to create a cottage community for summer visitors. He aspired to recreate the old fishermen’s cottages built along the “bank” on Front Street, Broadway, and Shell Street; their quirky, snug appearance and the unpretentious lifestyle they supported appealed to him, and he thought that quaint charm would be profitable.

Underhill’s development plans took shape in 1882. In January of that year he purchased a little more than two acres of land, once again from the heirs of Matthew Crosby. Located between a “highway” and a “road,” which were in fact Grand Avenue and Atlantic Avenue on the Sunset Heights plan, the land became the site of Lily Street (named for his daughter) and Evelyn Street (named for his wife). The Inquirer and 13

Edward F. Underhill, 1865

Illustrations from ­Underhill’s The ­Patchwork Village,’Sconset by the Sea, c. 1889.

Perspective views of ’Sconset Cottages

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Interiors of ’Sconset Cottages

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Mirror “Personals” column of June 10, 1882, announced that “Edward F. Underhill has arrived and will occupy Pochick Cottage.” The next month another personal note stated that “Edward F. Underhill rented his new and tastily-fitted cottage to Edward C. Almy for the remainder of the season. Mr. Underhill proposed to build several more cottages on the same plan before another season opens.” In March of 1883, the Nantucket Journal reported on Underhill’s plans, and reprinted the first advertising “circular” that Underhill wrote touting the beauties and benefits of cottage life in Siasconset.

Edward F. Underhill, Esq., of New York, whose characteristic good humor and genial ways have won hosts of friends in Nantucket and rendered him one of the most welcome of the regular summer visitors at Siasconset for several years past finds his liking for the quaint old village increase with each succeeding season, and his enthusiasm has finally led him to erect a number of cottages with a view to their occupancy by other visitors.

Underhill’s advertising circular included a detailed description of the cottages available for the season:

They are built . . . following the traditions of the builders of a hundred years ago, who made their houses strong and compact for comfort and convenience and with no thought that the structures they reared would ever be in demand for the residences of families from distant parts during the warm season. The only variations I have made from the strict simplicity of ’Sconset architecture are to have the apartments more commodious, and to avail myself of a few accessories which improve the appearance of the dwellings without, in the least degree, giving them the ornate look of modern built cottages at our fashionable seaside resorts.

Each house has a small cellar, a cistern abundantly supplied with rain water, and is completely furnished for house-keeping, even to the extent of providing crockery, cutlery and bed and table linen. The bedsteads are of modern style and are furnished with spring bottoms and mattresses of the best quality curled hair. Each house is situated on a lot having a frontage of 55 feet with a full area of 3,300 square feet of ground.

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The Sea-Bluff, Siasconset, c. 1890, artist unknown

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The previous September, Underhill had mortgaged all of his property to Horatio G. Brooks of Dunkirk, New York, for $2,500, “including the two cottages now finished, two others now in course of construction, and others that may be built. Nos. 5 and 8 Pochick, under construction, will be completely ready before June 1, 1883.” In 1883, Dunkirk granted Underhill a partial discharge of the mortgage, deeding back to Underhill Lots 1 and 3 on the south side of Lily Street, and Lot 2 on the north side of Lily, the site of what is now One Lily Street, The Cap’n’s Gig. Underhill then secured a mortgage of $500 from Marie L. Stewart of Hudson, New York, for Lots 1 and 3 on the south side of Lily Street, obligating himself to build a cottage on one of the lots before July 1, 1883, and on the other before January 1, 1884.

Since Lot 2 on the north side of Lily was not included in the second mortgage, it is possible that Underhill had already built a cottage on that property in 1882.

In 1884, the Nantucket Railroad extended its tracks along the south shore from Surfside to the ’Sconset station below the Ocean Avenue bank.

Edward F. Underhill is credited with helping to create the ’Sconset line; his efforts in marketing “cottage life” in ’Sconset certainly helped create the demand for transportation there. The grand plans hatched in 1870 by Charles G. and Henry Coffin for a cottage community in Surfside never materialized, although they were instrumental in bringing the railroad to the Surfside station in 1881; that station was eventually abandoned, and ’Sconset became the destination of choice for hundreds of summer visitors.

Pochick Street, 1904

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Lily Street, c. 1900

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’Sconset Station, c. 1890

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. . .’Sconset became the destination of choice for hundreds of summer ­visitors.

Crowd at ’Sconset Station, c. 1910

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The man behind the building spree on Pochick, Evelyn, and Lily Streets was carpenter Asa P. Jones, who built the first of the new houses that heralded ’Sconset’s revival.

Underhill described Jones’s role in the architectural renaissance of ’Sconset in a serial history of the village, published in 1888: In 1858, Asa P. Jones, the only carpenter at ’Sconset, sold his tools to George W. Rogers, who went to Providence, and there for a quarter of a century followed his trade, and then came back, and at last found his home in ’Sconset with most of Jones’s tools still in his possession. In the meantime, Jones did not miss them. There was nothing for a carpenter to do, and he did it all alone. For twenty-five years he did not earn a dollar at his trade. He farmed and fished, and fished and farmed; and he sheared his sheep and set his hens, and sold the wool, and the chickens, and eggs, and tried to make himself think that there was a planet cavorting through space, and he was living on it. One day, in 1875, he was nearly paralyzed with astonishment. Mr. William J. Flagg, of New York, told him he wanted a house built in ’Sconset, and a ’Sconset house at that. When he had recovered from the shock, Asa put his hand to his port ear and asked Mr. Flagg to say it again, and say it slow. It was repeated, and the word ’Sconset, in both cases, was pronounced with an extra big capital S. William J. Flagg had created his own development, Sankaty Heights, along the north bluff of ’Sconset, and it could not have been more different from Underhill’s cottage enclave. With large lots overlooking the Atlantic, Sankaty Heights became the site of grander summer homes. Flagg’s concession to neighborliness and community was the deeded public way that still allows pedestrians to walk along the edge of the north bluff, through the front yards of the property owners, although severe erosion has now eliminated the north end of the walk.

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Turn-of-the-century bathers at ’Sconset beach.

Map of the Village of Siasconset

by Harry Platt, 1888

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Asa Jones was the carpenter of choice for Underhill.

Along with George W. Rogers, who had the tools, Asa built all of Underhill’s cottages. The Inquirer and Mirror records snippets of the progress in ’Sconset, beginning in November 1882: “Asa Jones has two cottages underway,” followed in March of 1883 with: “Asa Jones will erect three more cottages the coming season.” More cottages were built in 1884 and 1885. A brief 1886 newspaper notice states:

On Thursday, Mr. E. F. Underhill completed his cottage, started a little over a fortnight since; and at once began filling it with furniture. It is the daintiest little bit of ’Sconset architecture that has been built since the erection of the old houses ceased, a hundred years ago.

Yesterday, George W. Rogers and Asa P. Jones began another that they expect to complete in ten days. A third will be built in September, and a fourth in October.

Eunice, wife of Asa Jones, in front of Ivy Lodge, c. 1890

Asa Jones was sixty years old when he built the house for William Flagg in 1875; when he was well into his seventies he was still cranking out the cottages for Underhill, who referred to him as the “septuagenarian architect and builder.” Asa and his wife, Eunice Smith, were longtime ’Sconset residents, owners of Ivy Lodge on Shell Street, one of the original fishermen’s cottages that was considered an old house in 1814.

George W. Rogers, who returned to Nantucket from Providence in 1885, was a “ship joiner” early in his career, later becoming a prominent contractor and builder in Providence. He “took charge of the Underhill property for several years,” according to an obituary notice in the Inquirer and Mirror. Asa Jones, his longtime carpenter associate, died in 1893, surviving him by a decade.

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Cottages built by Asa Jones; illustration from Pictyure Booke of ye Patchworke Vyllage Sconsett by ye Sea, 1866.

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Edward Underhill single-handedly advertised the charms of ’Sconset up and down the eastern seaboard. As a journalist for the New York Tribune, he understood the value of the printed word, and dispersed it freely. In a scrapbook kept by him, now in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library, he carefully pasted in tributes to Nantucket and ’Sconset that appeared in the Tribune, The New York Times, and the New York Evening Sun, and he reprinted those paeans in advertisements for his cottages.

Underhill’s most concerted effort to impart the charms of his adopted village to the wide world appeared in 1886: The Credible Chronicles of the Patchwork Village: ’Sconset by the Sea, a 148-page book of history and anecdotes, illustrated with etchings made from photographs taken by Nantucket photographers Henry S. Wyer, Josiah Freeman, and Harry Platt. Those illustrations were separately published the same year as the typographically and orthographically challenged Pictyure Booke of ye Patchworke Vyllage Sconsett by ye Sea. Both books were published by Edward’s wife, Evelyn T. Underhill.

Unlike his later printed brochures and pamphlets advertising the cottages on Pochick, Evelyn, and Lily Streets, the Credible Chronicles does not laud Underhill’s own role in the renewed popularity of ’Sconset. It begins as a straightforward history of the village:

For one hundred and fifty years Siasconset had a sleepy existence and was scarce known off the island. Until 1883 it had neither store, post-office nor church. Its beginning was in a dozen or two of rudimentary dwellings and its increase was scarcely perceptible. A generation since, there were in the village perhaps four score houses, all told. Then its growth ceased. About 1875 the village became somewhat known as a seaside resort. In 1881 it had become so popular by reason of the beauty of its situation, the health-giving properties of its air, and the quaintness of its appearance, that extensive improvements were needed, and building was begun on a considerable scale to meet the demands for the accommodation of summer visitors. The movement has since continued from year to year, and the end is not yet.

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Two of Underhill’s books

The book continues with lighthearted anecdotes about ’Sconset characters and summer high jinks. Although there is no author listed on the title page, the book is written in Edward F. Underhill’s unmistakable style, as is apparent from the preface:

It was written at different times and in varying moods. Like a ’Sconset cottage it was made in sections, without unity of design, and certainly with no thought of inflicting it upon a patient and long-suffering public. Any credible statements contained in it were concocted without malicious premeditation, and I am not conscious of even a mischievous intent rankling within my bosom. Whatever is absolutely false was introduced under the belief that draped fiction would be perused by modest readers in preference to the naked truth. But it did dawn upon my understanding that, if its parts were securely lashed together, the total result would sell and that I would thereby greatly profit.

This small, green, paperbound book is the first history of ’Sconset, pre-dating Underhill’s series of articles— The Old Houses on ’Sconset Bank, published in the season-long daily paper, ’Sconset Pump, in 1888—which was declared by Henry Chandlee Forman to be the first history of ’Sconset ever written. The latter series is admittedly more useful for the architectural historian, but the Credible Chronicles is the first quasi-truthful published account of ’Sconset’s origins.

Illustration from J. E. Murphy’s Souvenir of Nantucket, c. 1885

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Underhill increased the size of his cottage compound in 1888 when he purchased White’s Hamlet, thirteen cottages that were built by Charles H. Robinson for Henry K. White of Detroit. White’s group of cottages was originally dubbed “Detroitville,” in honor of his hometown. He paid Robinson $1,000 to build each modern two-story house in 1883; five years later he sold the houses to Underhill for $1,200 each. These cottages, located on Bank Edge, and Bank Edge Place (later Cottage Place) were at the site of the later Wade Cottages just north of the village on the bluff. Five of them in close proximity faced the ocean, while the other eight lined the small avenue behind the oceanfront buildings.

White’s Cottages, Sanborn Insurance Company map, 1898

In 1888, Edward F. Underhill printed the first lengthy circular advertising his cottages, with illustrations and floor plans of each, testimonials about ’Sconset from “correspondents of the press,” a full-page list of previous occupants, and rents for the season of 1889. The circular shows thirty-two cottages available for the season: thirteen on Bank Edge and Bank Edge Place, eight on Pochick Street, six on Evelyn Street, and five on Lily Street. His Two Lily Street (now known as One Lily Street), with the same floor plan as Four Pochick, had a central living room flanked by two small bedrooms on each side. Behind the living room were a dining room, kitchen, and bedroom arranged one behind the other, shotgun fashion. A small attic bedroom made Two Lily a sixbedroom cottage; it rented for $170 for the 1889 season, more than any other house on Lily or Evelyn Streets. Some of the larger Bank Edge cottages rented for as much as $250 for the season.

Underhill did not increase his ’Sconset property holdings after 1888; for the next decade he printed what were probably annual circulars, some of which survive. His last effort at publicizing his cottages was a tiny booklet titled ’Sconset in a Nutshell, which appeared between 1896 and 1898. It was illustrated with pictures of cottages and playfully terse and sometime fragmentary descriptions of the village:

A place with a history written and unwritten—mostly unwritten. A veritable PATCHWORK village. Many houses begun 100 or 200 years ago by squatters—fisherfolk.

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Floor plan of Two Lily, from Underhill’s advertising circular, 1888

’Sconset in a Nutshell, c. 1896

Map of property from Underhill’s advertising circular, 1888

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A photo from Fifty Views of Siasconset (Actors’ Colony), 1904

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Actors’ Colony

In her reminiscence, ’Sconset Heyday, Margaret Fawcett Barnes— daughter of Broadway actors and later “movie” stars George Fawcett and Percy Haswell Fawcett—describes Underhill’s cottages and their role in the actors’ colony:

The cottages were comfortably enough furnished in simple Victorian manner and aesthetically appealing enough to attract a few writers and artists from Boston, who heard they were not expensive.

They told other friends in the artistic world; a few actors came, and found this out-of-the-way spot the answer to their then enforced long vacations, and gradually they told more stage friends. But, it should be made clear that the actors and their families who came in those early days did not set out to form an “Actors’ Colony,” as it is referred to now. It just happened that way!

The Fawcetts spent their first summer in one of the Underhill cottages with a very young Margaret recuperating from malaria; later they purchased Rosemary, the house at 29 Main Street in ’Sconset.

Ocean View House, 1890s

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Burr McIntosh’s 1904 book of photographs, Fifty Views of Siasconset (Actors’ Colony), includes a scene at the corner of Pochick Street and Ocean Avenue and labels it “View of the Actors’ Colony, with Miss Comstock and her dog in the foreground.” Obviously, all of the Broadway thespians did not stay in the Underhill cottages, but enough did to make it the primary locus of the group, who socialized at the Ocean View House on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Main Street and built, bought, or rented other cottages in the village.

Evelyn Stoddard Underhill and

Lily Underhill Doubleday 1898–1926 Edward F. Underhill was popular on the island, and given much credit for bringing business and renown to ’Sconset, but not much is known about his second wife during the years of their marriage, except that she is listed as the publisher of Credible Chronicles and Ye Pictuyre book in 1886.

In the Inquirer and Mirror in January 1889, there is a brief report of Mrs. Underhill’s application for a divorce based on allegations of “abandonment and refusal to support.”

In May of the same year it was reported that “the parties to the action have agreed to live separate, and the plaintiff has accepted for her support less than one-half the amount she originally demanded at the time the suit was begun . . .”

Edward died “suddenly” on June 25, 1898, at the age of sixtyeight. A will written four months earlier specified that all of his property descend to his wife Evelyn and daughter Lily Doubleday as joint tenants, and that his ’Sconset property “shall not be sold but shall be retained and improved with the view of producing a permanent income for my wife and daughter.” True to the will, Evelyn maintained and managed the cottages for almost thirty years, during the “heyday” of the Actors’ Colony and beyond.

Lily Underhill Doubleday, who was Edward’s daughter by his first wife, Mary S. Post, was born in 1854, when her future stepmother Evelyn was only three years old.

Lily married Charles Dickinson Doubleday, brother of publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday. Lily and Charles were in London when he died in 1914 at the age of sixty-two.

She died thirteen years later in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, at the age of seventy-three, just a year after she and Evelyn sold the ’Sconset cottages they inherited from Edward.

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Edward Underhill, from New York Times obituary notice, 1898

Plan of the Estate of Edward F. Underhill, 1903

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In an article written for Historic Nantucket, “Living in the China Closet,” Frances Ruley Karttunen discusses Evelyn Underhill’s later years and her close association with Florence Higginbotham, an African-American woman who was her housekeeper and, finally, her only friend. Florence began working for Evelyn in ’Sconset during the summers in the 1920s, and she and her son, William, spent winters with Mrs. Underhill in Waltham, Massachusetts, where William attended school. The stock market crash of 1929 ruined Mrs. Underhill financially; she moved to Nantucket year-round, this time living with Florence, who had bought a house on York Street in the New Guinea section of Nantucket Town. Pieces of Underhill china and furniture were sold during the Depression years to help support the elderly widow, who eventually transferred all of her personal property to her caretaker, Florence. When she died in 1935, at the age of eighty-four, Evelyn Underhill was all but forgotten by her former friends. Beatrice Hitchcock wrote a tribute to the former landlady of the actors’ colony, published in May 1935:

Florence Higginbotham, c. 1900

To one who felt both admiration and affection for Mrs. Evelyn T. Underhill, her almost unnoticed death last month in Nantucket, seems a shocking thing. But, in justice to her many old ’Sconset friends, it is only fair to say that the news of her death has not yet reached the majority of them—moreover, the life of absolute retirement she had led, ince the sale of her ’Sconset property in the autumn of 1926, had led many people to believe that she had died some years ago.

Hitchcock goes on to say that Mrs. Underhill had several offers by speculators to buy the cottages as a group.

I feel that all ’Sconset, and indeed, all Nantucket Island, owes her a debt of gratitude for this, as the speculative craze which was nearing its height in 1926, could so easily have destroyed the character of what was known, when first built, as “The Underhill Hamlet.”

The tribute ends with mention of the Actors’ Colony, “which the property was, at one time, about the turn of the century, when many of the foremost players of that day were Underhill tenants.”

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Twentieth-Century Owners

Lily Street, 1933

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The Cap’n’s Gig has had seven owners since Evelyn Underhill and Lily Doubleday parted with it in 1926. None of the owners were Nantucketers, and all were seasonal residents.

Barbara Osborne, now a year-round Nantucket resident, spent summers beginning in 1926 in Bosun’s Bunt, the cottage across Lily Street from The Cap’n’s Gig and remembers what ’Sconset was like in those days, from the livery stable behind the school house to the Dine-amite Tea Room across from the present-day ’Sconset Market. She was eight years old when her parents bought the cottage on Lily Street; her sister Betty was five.

Sanborn Map, 1904

Sanborn Map, 1898

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Sanborn Map, 1923

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Sanborn Map, 1909

Elihu Fowler and Mary Fowler Barbara Osborne recalls that the Fowlers, from Englewood, New Jersey, may have only occasionally stayed at The Cap’n’s Gig. They rented the cottage to other families, including Robert Benchley, who with his wife and two boys stayed at The Cap’n’s Gig for one summer in the late 1920s or early 1930s. One of those boys, Nathaniel Benchley, would later write The Russians Are Coming, a comic novel about the invasion of a small island off the coast of Massachusetts by Russian submarine crewmen.

Electricity and indoor plumbing were added during the Fowlers’ ownership of The Cap’n’s Gig, as they were to all the other cottages that Evelyn and Lily sold in 1926. It is not known if other changes were made by the Fowlers; it appears from Sanborn maps that a small room was added off the kitchen between 1908 and 1923, when the cottage was still part of the Underhill enclave. The Fowlers extended the size of the house lot by purchasing the west half of the lot next door, increasing their Lily Street frontage from fifty-one Robert Benchley at The Cap’n’s Gig, c. 1930 to seventy-eight and seven-tenths feet.

They mortgaged their Lily Street cottage to the Nantucket Institution for Savings in September 1929 for $3,500, just a month before the stock-market crash, and the bank foreclosed on their property in 1940. It was sold at auction, and it appears that no one Notice of Mortgagee’s Sale of Real Estate, bid more than the reserve amount, so the Inquirer and Mirror, April 5, 1940 bank purchased it for $2,000.

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1926–1942

Alice May McRae

1942–1950

When she died in 1944, Alice May McRae owned a house at 9 Union Street in town; the store building on Bridge Street in ’Sconset, known as the Treasure Chest; as well as the cottage at One Lily Street. An estate inventory assessed the “one-story wood-frame cottage, one-car garage, and 4,590 square feet of land at $2,600 and the household furniture in the Lily Street house at $307.25. Alice left all of her real estate to her daughter, Jeanne Morris-Smith Whiteside, of Durham, N. C., who owned The Cap’n’s Gig for five years before selling it to Winfield and Dorothy Perdun.

Winfield and Dorothy Perdun 1950–1964

Barbara Osborne recalls that the Perduns added to the back of The Cap’n’s Gig and bought the little cottage on the west side, the Sea Bee, for their daughter. That property, purchased in 1957, was a part of The Cap’n’s Gig property until it was sold by Kenneth Hess in 1973. The Perduns also added a third parcel to the aggregate lot in 1957, a registered piece of land subdivided from the Reid property at 5 McKinley Avenue, that added thirty-five feet to the north side of the Lily Street property, creating room for a separate one-room cottage with bath.

It is likely that the Perduns added the vaulted room, now used as an office, on the west side of the house, and may have been responsible for the chimney, which was not a part of the original cottage.

Dorothy Perdun

39

Plan showing the cottage “The Sea Bee,” 1957

40

Plan showing McKinley Avenue parcel, 1957

41

One-bedroom cottage behind The Cap’n’s Gig

42

Room with vaulted ceiling

Diane Foster Owens Lederer 1964–1972 Kenneth H. and Virginia Hess 1972–1980 Peter and Bonnie McCausland 1980–1989 The next three owners of The Cap’n’s Gig were each relatively short-term owners.

The Nantucket Building Department, which houses records of changes made to island structures since the early 1970s, has no records for the Lily Street parcel during this period.

Richardson and Pamela Merriman 1989–

Pam and Rich Merriman on the front porch

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Rich Merriman spent summers on Nantucket, where his parents owned a series of historic houses in town—on Quince Street, India Street, and Orange Street— so when Rich and Pam, with three young children, were looking for a summer house, the village of ’Sconset, seven miles from town, was not their initial destination. The small scale of both the village and the house appealed particularly to Pam, however, who wanted her children to be able to safely ride bikes in their neighborhood. Rich acceded to his wife’s wishes, and has since become

a ’Sconset convert, although the desire to restore a historic house was admittedly inherited from his mother. To satisfy that desire, the Merrimans purchased a house on Main Street in town, which Rich carefully restored to immaculate condition, and eventually sold, but The Cap’n’s Gig has remained their summer getaway for almost twenty years.

The Merrimans made a few changes to the Lily Street cottage, covering the bare-stud walls with paneling, adding baseboard electric heat, and building a garage—now filled with bicycles—behind the house. Currently, they are planning the first major building project that The Cap’n’s Gig has seen in half a century. The cottage has been slowly sinking below grade on the west side, so it is going to be lifted up and resettled atop a basement, where a more sophisticated heating and air-conditioning system can be installed. There are also plans to connect the one-bedroom cottage in the rear of The Cap’n’s Gig to the main house via a new mudroom.

One Lily Street garage

Filled with Nantucket art and books, and lovingly maintained, The Cap’n’s Gig has been the perfect summer home for the Merriman family. Lily Street, still paved only with sand and crushed shells, is much the same as it was when the Broadway crowd in their long skirts and white summer suits strolled down to the Ocean View House for dinner, or to the Casino to show off their talents on the stage there.

Edward Underhill’s dream of a cottage community that promoted the simple life, good health, and a variety of summer activities for city families was realized in the 1880s, and it continues today, where his small cottages have, for the most part, remained intact, inhabited, and indisputably an integral part of the charm of the village of Siasconset.

One Lily Street interior, with plans on table

44

Pam and Rich in living room of One Lily Street

Plan of The Cap’n’s Gig, 1989

45

Timeline

1602 1620 1630–48 1641 1659

1660

1663

Bartholomew Gosnold sights Nantucket from the bark Concord Plimoth Plantation Taj Mahal, Agra, India Nantucket deeded to Mayhew and Son by Lord Sterling Nantucket deeded by Mayhew for thirty pounds and two beaver hats to the original purchasers First group of settlers arrive West end of island bought from the Indians Peter Foulger and other tradesmen move to the island; fishing and farming are main occupations 1673 Whaling commenced in boats from the shore 1675 Auld Lang Syne, 6 Broadway, Siasconset 1686 Jethro Coffin House (lean-to house) 1 Sunset Hill 1690 Christopher Starbuck House (lean-to house) 105 Main Street 1693 Nantucket transferred from New York to Massachusetts 1696–1708 St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Sir Christopher Wren 1704 Society of Friends is formally organized on Nantucket 1719 White population, 721 1722 Rotch Counting House (Georgian style) Foot of Main Street 1722–24 Captain Richard Gardner 111 House (lean-to style) 34 West Chester Street 1723 Straight Wharf built

Old North Church, Boston, William Price 1725 North Shore Meeting House, later moved to 62 Centre Street 1726 Thomas Starbuck House (typical Nantucket house) 11 Milk Street

White population, 917 1730 Quanaty Bank dug away to make land from Union Street to the present shore 1746 Windmill, built by Nathan Wilbur, South Mill Street 1763–64 White population, 3,220

Indian population, 358 (Indian plague results in 222 deaths, leaving only 136 Indians) 1765 Shore whaling ceased

North Shore Meeting House moved from site near No Bottom Pond to present site at 62 Centre Street (Old North Vestry of First Congregational Church) 1767 Silas Paddock House (gambrel-roof house) 18 India Street

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1770–1800 1774 1775–81 1784

1790

Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson Population, 4,545 including one clergyman, two doctors, and one lawyer Approximately 1,600 Nantucketers lost their lives during the American Revolution Population, 4,269 Lighthouse erected at Great Point Hezekiah Swain House (typical Nantucket house) also known as Maria Mitchell House, 1 Vestal Street 1791 First whaling ship sails from Nantucket to the Pacific Ocean 1792 Capital of United States, Washington, D.C., Thornton, Bulfinch, Latrobe, Mills,

and Walter 1800 Population, 5,617 1809 Joseph Starbuck House (federal style) 4 New Dollar Lane

Second Congregational Meeting House, 11 Orange Street 1815–23 Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England, John Nash 1818 Pacific National Bank (federal style) 61 Main Street c.1820s The African Meeting House (Greek Revival style) 29 York Street 1821 Nantucket Inquirer begins publication 1822–23 Methodist Church (Greek Revival style) 2 Centre Street, modified in 1840 1829–34 Moors End, built for Jared Coffin (Federal style) 19 Pleasant Street 1830 State House, Boston, Bulfinch and Upjohn 1834 First Congregational Church (Gothic Revival style) 62 Centre Street

Atheneum incorporated 1837 Capt. Levi Starbuck House (Greek Revival style) 14 Orange Street 1836–38 The Three Bricks (Federal-Greek Revival style) 93, 95, and 97 Main Street 1837 William H. Crosby House (Greek Revival style) 1 Pleasant Street 1838 Quaker Meeting House, 7 Fair Street

Atheneum acquires Universalist Church building (1825) Lower India Street 1840 Population, 9,712

Baptist Church (Greek Revival style) 1 Summer Street 1841 Frederick Douglass speaks at the Atheneum 1844 William Hadwen Houses (Greek Revival style) 94 and 96 Main Street 1846 Great Fire, July 13 and 14 1847 E. F. Easton House (Easton-Joy House) (Gothic style) 4 North Water Street

Maria Mitchell discovers the first telescopic comet, named after her

Atheneum (Greek Revival style) rebuilt after Great Fire, Lower India Street 48

1849–61 Population declines due to California Gold Rush and the Civil War 1851 Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition, Hyde Park, London, J. Paxton 1852–54 Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin Lancasterian School (Greek Revival style)

4 Winter Street 1855 Abram Quary, reputed last Indian, dies 1865 Population, 4,748 Nantucket Inquirer and Nantucket Weekly Mirror merge to form Inquirer and Mirror 1872 Nantucket economy begins to revive with tourist trade

Eliza Starbuck Barney House (Victorian style) 73 Main Street 1875 Population, 3,201

Innishail (Shingle style) 11 Cliff Road 1881 Nantucket Railroad constructed to Surfside 1882 Union Chapel, 18 New Street, Siasconset 1884 Nantucket Railroad extended to Siasconset 1888 Eiffel Tower, Paris, Gustav Eiffel 1889 Electric lighting introduced to Nantucket 1894 Nantucket Historical Association established

The Mayflower (American Shingle style) Baxter Road, Siasconset 1897 St. Mary’s Church (Queen Anne style) Federal Street 1900 Siasconset Casino (Shingle style) New Street, Siasconset 1901 St. Paul’s Church (Richardsonian Romanesque) 16 Fair Street 1909 Robie House, Chicago, Frank Lloyd Wright 1916 First telephone transmission from Nantucket to mainland 1931 Empire State Building, New York City, Shreve, Lamb, and Harmon 1955 Historic District Commission created 1957 Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia, Jorn Utzon 1964 Sherburne Associates formed 1966 Island of Nantucket designated a National Historic Landmark 1984 Nantucket Island Land Bank established 1997 Nantucket Preservation Trust established

49

Glossary of Terms

ANTHEMION: pattern of honeysuckle or palm leaves in a radiating cluster, used as a motif in Greek art APPURTENANCE: a minor property, right, or privilege belonging to another more important property, and passing in possession with it BAY: a segment of a structure BAY WINDOW: a window structure projecting beyond a wall’s outside surface BEAM: a horizontal structural support CAPITAL: the top piece of a column or pilaster CASEMENT: a window that swings open CHIMNEY WITHES: masonry projecting from main chimney mass above the roof CORNICE: projecting top element of an interior or exterior wall DOOR SURROUND: structural and decorative elements associated with an entry DORMER: a roofed, vertically framed element with a window, located on a slanting roof ENTABLATURE: the full horizontal crowning of an architectural order (architrave, frieze, and cornice) FAÇADE: the front, or face, of a structure FIREBOX: combustion chamber of a heating unit HALF-HOUSE: early house with rooms on only one side of the chimney HALL: the main, or great room, in an early house; in a later house, the main passageway, with stairs HOMESTEAD: the Massachusetts General Laws in 1851 defined homestead as property occupied as a residence by a family. Homesteads were exempt from certain taxes and from seizure by creditors.

Previous to 1851 the general meaning of the term was that of family residence KEEP: round brick storage area usually located under the kitchen LATCH: device for fastening a door consisting of a moveable bar attached to the door that falls into a hook or catch on the frame of the door LUNETTE: a half-moon window, or fan MESSUAGE: the portion of land intended to be occupied, or actually occupied, as a site for a dwelling house and its appurtenances MUNTIN: thin lead or wood piece that frames each pane of glass MORTGAGE BUTTON: customary on Nantucket — a round ivory disk placed prominently on the newel post after the final mortgage payment NEWEL POST: the upright support at the base or head of a stair railing PANE: a piece of glass, also called a light 51

PANELING: a flat surface surrounded by a border or frame of wood PILASTER: rectangular columns projecting slightly from a wall, with base, shaft, and capital PLASTER: pasty material used for covering walls and ceilings, historically composed of a mixture of lime, sand, hair, or shells, and water PLINTH: square block at the base of a column PORCH: early term for front hall and stair, later referred to as rear kitchen area PORTICO: a classic porch POST: an upright support PROPRIETOR: one of the original purchasers of the island of Nantucket. The term later came to mean an owner of shares in the common lands ROD: a measure of length (16.5 feet) and a measure of area. In most local deeds of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries the total land area of a property is given in rods ROOF HATCH: opening in the roof providing access to the chimney, for cleaning or in case of fire ROOF WALK: A platform with a railing on the roof ridge SALTBOX: A lean-to house; tall in front with long roof sloping down to low eaves SASH: window element that may be raised and lowered SHEEP COMMON: pasturage for one sheep on the common and undivided land. One sheep common equaled 1/19,440 of the common land, or one acre. Eight sheep commons equaled one cow common SIDELIGHTS: windows on either side of a door or window SILL: the bottom element of a house, door, or window frame SPLASHBOARD: area at the base of a wall stained a dark tone to mitigate discoloration from dirt and use STOOP: Uncovered entry steps and platform TENEMENT: a portion of a house tenanted as a separate dwelling, or a large house constructed or adapted to be let in portions to a number of tenants TIMBER FRAME: First settlers’ construction method, using principal post-and-beam ­members built around a massive chimney with walls formed by filling spaces between members with plaster TRANSOM LIGHTS: small windows over a door or another window TRANSVERSE HALL: passage that extends from front to back VOLUTE: a spiral or scroll form, as seen on an Ionic capital YEOMAN: a man of respectable standing holding a small landed estate, especially one who cultivates his own land

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Illustrations

p. 4 p. 7 p. 8 p. 10 p. 11 p. 11 p. 12 p. 12 p. 13 p. 14 p. 15 p. 17 p. 18 p. 19 p. 20 p. 21 p. 22 p. 23 p. 24 p. 25

p. 26

p. 27 p. 28 p. 29

p. 29 p. 30 p. 31 p. 32

p. 33 p. 34 p. 35 pp. 36-37 p. 38

p. 38 p. 39 p. 40 p. 41 p. 42 p. 42 p. 43 p. 43 p. 44 p. 44 p. 45 p. 45

courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P12507, Cap’n’s Gig courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, 1979.66.1, engraving by David Augustus Leonard, 1797 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, 1979.18.1, painting of ’Sconset by Rev. L. W. Bostwick, 1879 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, MS 1000.5.3.10, Sunset Heights map, c. 1873 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, SC 612-30A, China Closet courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, SC 612-30B, interior of China Closet courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P10048, Sunset Heights gate and Ocean View House courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P14282 , Sunset Heights gate and two houses Photograph of Edward F. Underhill from online archive, Picture History.com, MES18221 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, MS 17, Underhill cottage exteriors courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, MS 18, Underhill cottage interiors courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P11064, drawing of ’Sconset fishermen’s houses courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P14192, Pochick St., 1904 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P14194, Lily St., c. 1900 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, F3584, ’Sconset Station courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, F647, crowd at ’Sconset Station, c. 1900 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, GPN 3468, turn-of-the-century beach crowd courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, MS 1000-6-2-16, Platt map, 1888 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P508, Eunice Jones in front of Ivy Lodge Ancient houses built by Asa Jones, from Underhill’s Pictyure Booke of ye Patchworke Vyllage Sconsett by ye Sea (New York: E. T. Underhill, 1886) Book covers: The Credible Chronicles of the Patchwork Village, ’Sconset by the Sea (New York: E. T. Underhill, 1886), and Pictyure Booke of ye Patchworke Vyllage Sconsett by ye Sea (New York: E. T. Underhill, 1886), Betsy Tyler, 2007 Illustration from J. E. Murphy’s Souvenir of Nantucket, c.1885, showing “Detroitville” Detail from 1898 Sanborn Insurance Company map, “White’s cottages” “Map of Property of E.F. Underhill, at Siasconset” and “Floor plan 2 Lily” from Patchwork Village: ’Sconset by the Sea (Nantucket: Underhill, 1888-189?), an annual publication, sometimes titled ’Sconset by the Sea; various copies in the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library First page of Underhill’s ’Sconset in a Nutshell, c.1895, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Picture from Fifty Views of Siasconset (Actors’ Colony), 1904, by Burr McIntosh courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, F1041, Ocean View House, 1890s courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, MS 64, Scrapbook 68, photograph of Edward F. Underhill from obituary notice in the New York Times Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 3, p. 52, estate of Edward F. Underhill courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P19179, Florence Higginbotham courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P1547, Lily St., 1933 Sanborn Insurance Company maps: 1898, 1904, 1909, and 1923 Robert Benchley at door of The Cap’n’s Gig, from A Casino Album 1899–1974: a Seventy-Fifth Anniversary History of the Siasconset Casino Association, by Mary Wheeler Heller Ad for mortgagee’s sale of real estate, Inquirer and Mirror, April 5, 1940 courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, P690, Dorothy Perdun Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 15, p. 54, Lily Street, 1957 Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Plan 14189-D, 1957 One-bedroom cottage, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Room with vaulted ceiling, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Façade of The Cap’n’s Gig, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Pam and Rich Merriman at front door, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Garage, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Interior of The Cap’n’s Gig, with plans on table, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Pam and Rich Merriman in living room, Betsy Tyler, 2007 Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 25, p. 26

55

Notes & Sources

Abbreviations:

HN Historic Nantucket I&M Inquirer and Mirror MS Manuscript NHARL Nantucket Historical Association Research Library NJ Nantucket Journal NP Nantucket Probate NRD Nantucket Registry of Deeds OSHB Underhill’s The Old Houses on ’Sconset Bank: The First History of Siasconset, Nantucket Island, America’s Most Unique Village, edited, illustrated, and with a preface by Henry Chandlee Forman. (Nantucket: Myacomet Press, 1961).

BRIEF HISTORY “A View of Siasconset” was published as a frontispiece to The Laws of Siasconset: A Ballad (New Bedford, Mass.: John Spooner, 1797) written by David Augustus Leonard. According to Georgia B. Bumgardner, Curator of Graphics at the American Antiquarian Society in 1975, in a letter addressed to Mrs. Harding Greene of Siasconset, Leonard was also the artist of the scene. A copy of Mrs. Greene’s letter is in NHARL – Siasconset file.

Underhill’s history of Siasconset was published serially in the ’Sconset Pump in 1888, and reprinted as OSHB. Roland B. Hussey used Underhill’s material in his 1912 booklet, The Evolution of Siasconset, without acknowledging Underhill’s authorship.

SUNSET HEIGHTS A clipping from the I&M May 17, 1873, “Sunset Heights” is in NHARL MS 335/folder 858. For deed references see “Title Trail” section of this history.

EDWARD F. UNDERHILL See “Edward F. Underhill” by John Lacouture (HN vol. 35 no. 3, January 1988) for details of Underhill’s life.

An I&M obituary notice June 25, 1898, includes the text of a New York Times obituary. On July 12, 1884, the I&M printed a lengthy description of the opening of the ’Sconset Railroad, including the text of Underhill’s speech. Local newspapers commented frequently on Underhill’s activity in ’Sconset in the 1880s; the NJ article of March 29, 1883, is in NHARL MS 335/folder 858.

For the1882 mortgage and 1883 discharge of same, see NRD Book 67/page 399 and Book 67/page 565.

See OSHB, p. 17, for Asa Jones story. An obituary notice of George W. Rogers is in the I&M July 4, 1903.

Edward F. Underhill’s scrapbook is in NHARL MS 64/Scrapbook 68. Following is a bibliography of Underhill’s ’Sconset books: 58

The Credible Chronicles of the Patchwork Village: ’Sconset by the Sea (New York: E. T. Underhill,1886)

Pictyure Booke of ye Patchworke Vyllage Sconsett by ye Sea (New York: E. T. Underhill, 1886)

The Old Houses on ’Sconset Bank (published in ’Sconset Pump, 1888)

The Patchwork Village: ’Sconset by the Sea (Nantucket: Underhill, 1888 – 189?); an annual publication, sometimes titled ’Sconset by the Sea.

’Sconset in a Nutshell (author., [1895])

Underhill’s agreement to purchase White’s Hamlet is in NRD Book 72/pages 405–06. The property reverted back to Henry K. White in 1897. See NHARL “Siasconset” vertical file for page titled “Cost of White’s Hamlet”; I&M March 3, 1883, for “baker’s dozen of cottages which Mr. Charles H. Robinson is now building for H. K. White, Esq., of Detroit”; and I&M Dec. 11, 1886, ad for sale of White’s Hamlet by Almon T. Mowry, Agent.

ACTORS’ COLONY The Actors’ Colony is discussed by Margaret Fawcett Barnes in ’Sconset Heyday (Nantucket: Island Press, 1969) and illustrated by Burr McIntosh in Fifty Views of Siasconset: Actors’ Colony (Boston: Josiah Murphy, 1904) EVELYN and LILY See NJ Jan. 10, 1889, “Mrs. Underhill’s Motion Denied,” and May 16, 1889, “Underhill Divorce Suit Compromised.” A synopsis of Edward F. Underhill’s will is in NHARL MS 335/folder 726. Lily Doubleday’s death is listed in The New York Times May 6, 1927; a death certificate, indicating a birth date of 1854, can be found in NC State Archives. North Carolina Deaths, 1908–-1967. An obituary notice for Charles Dickinson Doubleday is in The New York Times Sept. 13, 1914.

See Frances Ruley Karttunen’s “Living in the China Closet” (HN, v. 48, no. 3, Summer 1999) for details about Evelyn Underhill and Florence Higginbotham. Beatrice Hitchcock’s tribute is in an unidentified newspaper dated May 18, 1935, in the NA’s People File.

TWENTIETH-CENTURY OWNERS Thanks to Barbara Osborne, who shared her memories of ’Sconset with the author. See NP2678 for Alice May McRae’s will and inventory of her real estate. An obituary notice of Mrs. McRae is in the I&M April 15, 1944.

For deed references, see “Title Trail” section of this history. Thanks to Rich and Pam Merriman for a tour of Cap’n’s Gig, and conversation about the house and their family, and to Chris Dallmus, architect, for a peek at the plans for the current project.

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Deed Trail

BOOK 67/PAGES 113–15 1882 William H. Crosby, Matthew Crosby, Sylvanus Crosby, Charles C. Crosby, Frank L. Crosby, Emma L. Crosby, Martha B. Wood, Susan B. Lowen and Elizabeth B. Gardner, devisees of Matthew Crosby, to Edward F. Underhill

A certain tract of land situated at or near the village of Siasconset in Nantucket aforesaid, described

as follows: beginning at a point in the east line of a highway which is designated as Atlantic Avenue on

the map of Sunset Heights on file in the Nantucket Registry of Deeds, which point is at the north west

corner of land sold by us to Ellen Miner Round, and running thence in the line of Atlantic Avenue

… to land sold by us to Maria L. Nichols, then by land of said Nichols and land of Wm. M. Barrett

…to another highway which is called Grand Avenue, on said map of Sunset Heights, thence in

the line of Grand Avenue … to land of said Round, thence by said land of Round …to the point

of beginning, containing 2 acres 117 64/100 rods BOOK 103/PAGES 230–31 1926 Evelyn T. Underhill, widow, and Lily Doubleday, widow, to Elihu W. Fowler and Mary H. Fowler

The land in Nantucket … near the village of Siasconset, at a place called “Sunset Heights”: and being

Lot Number Two (2) Lily Street, shown on a plan entitled Plan of Estate of Edward F. Underhill at

Siasconset, Nantucket, Mass.” recorded with Nantucket deeds in Book of Plans No. 3 page 52, bounded

and described as follows: Northerly by land of William M. Barrett, 49.21 feet; Easterly by Grand

Avenue, 60 feet; Southerly by Lily Street, 51.2 feet; Westerly by Lot No. 4 on said plan, 60 feet.

Together with the dwelling house thereon, and all the household goods and personal property now

contained in or upon the premises.

BOOK 104/PAGES 561–562 1929 Elihu W. Fowler and Mary H. Fowler, to the Nantucket Institution for Savings

Mortage for $3,500.

BOOK 109/PAGES 311–312 1940 Nantucket Institution for Savings to Nantucket Institution for Savings

Foreclosure deed BOOK 109/PAGE 478 1942 Nantucket Institution for Savings to Alice May McRae

The land in said Nantucket near the village of Siasconset, at a place called “Sunset Heights,” together

with all buildings thereon, and being Lot 2 and the easterly half of Lot 4, Lily Street, shown on a plan

entitled “Plan of Estate of Edward F. Underhill at Siasconset, Nantucket, Mass.” recorded

with Nantucket Deeds in Book of Plans No. 3, page 52, bounded and described as follows:

Northerly by land of William M. Barrett, 76.7 feet; Easterly by Grand Avenue, so-called,

60 feet; Southerly by Lily Street, 78.7 feet; Westerly by the westerly half of Lot No. 4, now or

formerly owned by Waldon and Anne E. Fawcett, 60 feet.

63

PROBATE 2678: ALICE MAY MCRAE 1944 “To my daughter Jeanne Morris-Smith Taber, of 1520 Hermitage Court, Durham, N. C., all my property

–real, personal and mixed BOOK 113/PAGE 59 1950 Jeanne M. Whiteside to Winfield H. Perdun and Dorothy M. Perdun

The land in that part of Nantucket called Siasconset, together with the dwelling house and all buildings

thereon, being Lot 2 and the easterly half of Lot 4 Lily Street shown on Plan of Sunset Heights, recorded

in Nantucket Registry of Deeds Book of Plans No. 3, page 52, bounded and described as

follows: Northerly by land now or formerly of William M. Barrett, 76.7 feet; Easterly by Grand Avenue,

60 feet; Southerly by Lily Street, 78.7 feet; Westerly by the westerly half of Lot No. 4 on said Plan, 60

feet. For my title see will of my mother Alice May McRae . . .

DOCUMENT 9443 1964 Winfield H. Perdun and Dorothy M. Perdun to Diane Foster Owens

Land in that part of the town and county of Nantucket called Siasconset, together with the building

thereon, bounded and described as follows: Easterly by McKinley Avenue, 35 feet; Southerly

by other land of the Grantors, 76.7 feet; Westerly 35 feet and Northerly by Lot 2 on Plan hereinafter

mentioned, 76.7 feet. Said land is shown as Lot 1 on Plan numbered 14189-D filed with Certificate of

Title No. 4146 at Nantucket Registry District. [cottage behind Cap’n’s Gig] BOOK 126/PAGE 460 1964 Winfield H. Perdun and Dorothy M. Perdun, to Diane Foster Owens

The land in that part of the Town and County of Nantucket called Siasconset, together with all buildings

thereon, bounded and described as follows: First Parcel: Land shown as Lot 2 and the Easterly

half of Lot 4 on Lily Street, shown on Plan of Sunset Heights recorded in Nantucket Registry of

deeds, Book of Plans 3, Page52. Second Parcel: Land shown as Lot F on Plan recorded

in said Deeds, Book of Plans 15, page 54 BOOK 138/PAGE 95 1972 Diane Foster Owens Lederer to Kenneth H. Hess and Virginia D. Hess

First Parcel: Unregistered land shown as Lot 2 and the Easterly half of Lot 4 on Lily Street, shown on

Plan of Sunset Heights recorded in Nantucket Registry of deeds, Book of Plans 3, Page 52. Second

Parcel: Unregistered land shown as Lot F on Plan recorded in said Deeds, Book of Plans 15, page

4. Third Parcel: a parcel of registered land … shown on Plan numbered 14189-D, drawn by

Josiah S. Barrett, Engineer, dated April 26, 1957, filed with Certificate of Title No. 4146 at the Registry

District of Nantucket County, and said land is shown thereon as Lot 1.

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BOOK 176/PAGE 235 1980 Kenneth H. Hess and Virginia von Schlegell (formerly Hess) to Peter McCausland and Bonnie McCausland

The land in Siasconset … together with the dwelling house and all other buildings thereon, situate on

McKinley Avenue and Lily Street Parcel 1: Land shown as Lot 2 and the Easterly half of Lot 4 on Lily

Street, shown on Plan of Sunset Heights recorded in Nantucket Registry of deeds, Book of Plans

3, Page 52. Parcel 2: a parcel of registered land … being shown as Lot 1 on Plan numbered 14189-D,

filed with Certificate of Title No. 4146 at the Nantucket Registry District for the Land Court.

BOOK 330/PAGES 84–85 1989 Peter McCausland and Bonnie McCausland to Richardson T. Merriman and Pamela Merrriman

Parcel One: unregistered land, being shown as Lot 2a on plan entitled “Perimeter Plan of Land in

Nantucket, Mass., prepared for Richardson T. and Pamela Merriman” dated July 4, 1989, and

recorded with the Nantucket Registry of Deeds in Plan Book 25, page 26. Parcel Two: registered land,

located as shown upon plan numbered 14189-D, drawn by Josiah S. Barrett, Engineer, dated April 26,

1957, and filed with Certificate of Title No. 4146 at the Nantucket Registry District for the Land Court.

67

Thank you for Celebrating Nantucket’s Architectural Heritage with the Nantucket Preservation Trust This comprehensive house history is an important contribution to the island’s architectural record. Documentation is one of the ways the Nantucket Preservation Trust celebrates the more than 2,400 historic homes, farms, and workplaces that contributed to the island’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. By providing owners of historic houses, island residents, schoolchildren, and visitors a broad spectrum of programs and projects, we encourage the preservation of irreplaceable structures, architectural features, and cultural landscapes. Lectures, walking tours, house markers, special events, and publications, including the house histories, define our unique work on Nantucket. We hope you enjoy the history of this house, its past owners, and its place in Nantucket’s remarkable architectural heritage.

Betsy Tyler, a professional librarian, worked at the Nantucket Atheneum and the Nantucket Historical Association before beginning free-lance historical research and writing. She is the author of more than a dozen Nantucket Preservation Trust house histories as well as the NPT guide, A Walk Down Main Street: The Houses and Their Histories. Her articles on various facets of Nantucket history have appeared in Nantucket Magazine and Historic Nantucket.

Kathleen Hay has been in the design field for over twenty years. She started her own firm in January 2000, with practices in both graphic design and interior design. Her work has been featured in books and magazines including At Home on Nantucket, Victoria, The Catalogue of Antiques and Fine Art, Cape Cod Life HOME, New England Home and Beautiful Homes magazines. She was a featured designer at the NPT Designer Show House in August 2004, and the Hamptons Designer Show House in the summer of 2007. Kathleen received top honors in the 2007 International Interior Design Awards and will be a featured designer in the 2007 Interior Design Review.

With special thanks to Nantucket artist Susan Boardman, a director of the NPT, for her guidance, inspiration, knowledge, and support.

To Nantucket Looms for providing the exquisite fabric used on the cover of this book.

To Elizabeth Oldham, Nantucket Historical Association Library Research Associate, for her keen eye in the editing of this book.

To Marie Henke, Nantucket Historical Association Photo Archivist, for her assistance with historic images and maps.

Copyright Š 2007 Nantucket Preservation Trust Limited Edition All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the Nantucket Preservation Trust.

The text of this book was set in High Tower Text.

Researched and written by Betsy Tyler, Nantucket, Massachusetts Designed, printed, and hand-bound by Kathleen Hay Designs Nantucket • New York