The 'Sconset Post Office and 02564

It was evident that 'Sconset was a thriving village in 1872, when Love Baxter became the first postmistress. Mail distribution from her family home on Broadway—Shanunga— was a daily event for the summer crowd, who collected the mail and newspapers brought to the village by Love's father, Captain William Baxter. Shanunga served as the post office until the late 1880s, when the office moved to the building on the west side of the footbridge. In 1902, the house belonging to Harriet E. Gardner on what would become known as "Post Office Square" became the site of the post office; restored in 2007, it continues to serve as the location of village mail distribution, but 'Sconset no longer has a postmaster; that position was last held by Margaret E. Tierney in 1973. In 1983, the village post office became a branch of the Nantucket post office.

When zip codes were introduced in 1963, the 'Sconset post office was still autonomous, securing the digits 02564; that meant that mail coming to the island was presorted into 02554 mail for the town of Nantucket and 02564 mail for the village of' Sconset, a procedure that continues, with an additional sort for 02584, a zip code created for the out-of-town post office on Pleasant Street.

The official list of 'Sconset postmasters, from the records of the U. S. Postal Service, is as follows:

Read letters to Anna Barrett about the post office

A digital exhibition by the Nantucket Historical Association