The Emergence of a Resort 1870-1900

In the spirit of their forefathers, whose determination to find a profitable livelihood led them to take unbelievable risks on the open ocean, Nantucketers and 'Sconseters, beginning in the 1870s, turned to a new industry — one that they considered somewhat beneath them, but necessary, if anyone hoped to make a living on the island: tourism.

The first grand real estate project at the east end of the island was the Sunset Heights development south of the gulley. Charles H. Robinson, a prolific local builder, and his partner, Dr. Franklin A. Ellis, had purchased a large tract of land overlooking the Atlantic, where in 1873 they laid out Ocean Avenue. Robinson and his crew built a hotel, the Ocean View House, and two-story Victorian cottages on the lots they sold, creating an entirely different and separate neighborhood from the early fishing village, now accessible via a wooden boardwalk across the gulley.

On the other side of the village another real estate venture was under way on the north bluff—Sankoty Heights—which extended from the end of Broadway to Sankaty Head Lighthouse. Developer William J. Flagg built the first house on the bluff in 1875; his 1883 plan depicts eighty-seven lots on both sides of an un­named throughway that was later called Baxter Road. The bluff houses were larger even than those in Sunset Heights; the lots were bigger, and, thanks to Flagg's foresight, each piece of property on the east side of the road included a restriction that the footpath that ran along the edge of the bluff be kept open for public use. The man who worked the hardest to establish 'Sconset's fame in the wider world was Edward F. Underhill— journalist, vineyard owner, collector of rare books and china, noted wit, and 'Sconset enthusiast—who first visited 'Sconset in the early 1880s. Underhill was the media spokesperson for 'Sconset for more than a decade, single-handedly advertising the charms of the village in newspapers up and down the eastern seaboard. He had a financial stake in 'Sconset's success as a summer resort: in 1882 he bought land adjacent to the Sunset Heights development, and on Pochick, Lily, and Evelyn Streets built small cottages reminiscent of the fish houses in the original village.

Underhill's charming, inexpensive cottages became the site of the famed "Actors Colony," the summer destination of Broadway luminaries and understudies, who could escape the heat of the city and live modestly during the summer months when the theaters were closed.

Underhill increased the size of his cottage compound in 1888 when he purchased White's Hamlet, thirteen cottages 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. Located on Bank Edge and Bank Edge Place (later Cottage Place), they were at the site of the later Wade Cottages just north of the village on the bluff, and were known as Evergreen Park and Ocean Park in the early twentieth century.

Underhill's vision for 'Sconset, as well as the grand plans of William Flagg and Robinson and Ellis, would probably not have been so successful if all those visitors to 'Sconset had to rely on carriages to transport them over the seven miles of unpaved road to their destination. The Nantucket railroad, whose inaugural run from Steamboat Wharf to Surfside took place in 1881, made it all possible. Tracks were extended to 'Sconset in 1884, and ended at a depot on the beach, just below the Ocean View House and the newly constructed Ocean View Annex.

The phenomenal growth in the size of the village was due to its growing popularity as a summer resort and its accessibility by rail. Accommodations ranged from cottages of all sizes to hotels. The 1848 Atlantic House on Main Street expanded, as did the Ocean View House just south of the gulley, and boarding houses were opened. The numerous visitors, who, according to the July 28,1887, issue of the 'Sconset Visitor numbered 604—96 families occupying cottages, comprising 485 persons, plus 119 regular boarders at the two hotels— demanded varied recreational activities.

Ocean View House, c. 1870s
H. S. Wyer, photographer
P21816

Ocean View House, 1903
P3093

Entrance to Sunset Heights, 1870s
Alanson Barney, photographer
P14282

A digital exhibition by the Nantucket Historical Association