Edward Fitch Underhill
(1830-1898)

Edward Fitch Underhill was a larger-than-life character whose accomplishments were far from ordinary. A Civil War reporter for The New York Times in the 1860s, he was captured by the Confederates and imprisoned, an episode that may have inspired a change in career. He became an attorney; concentrating on law reporting, and was stenographer of the Supreme Court of New York in an era when a stenographer could be famous. Underhill first visited 'Sconset in the summer of 1878, hoping to restore hoping to restore the strength and vitality lost to his demanding occupation, and he did, most heartedly; enamored with 'Sconset, he returned every summer. He spent hours interviewing the oldest residents about their houses and the history of the village, and in the process became the first historian of the village, writing The Credible Chronicles of the Patchwork Village: ’Sconset by the Sea (1886); Pictyure Booke of ye Patchworke Vyllage Sconsett by ye Sea (1886); The Old Houses on Sconset Bank, a series published in the ’Sconset Pump (1888); and ’Sconset in a Nutshell (1895).

In 1879, Underhill purchased "Pochick Lot" from the heirs of Matthew Crosby; created a road down the middle of the property (Pochick Street); built his famous cottage, China Closet, at the east end of the plot; and developed a 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, Center Street, 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, the land became the site of Lily Street (named for his daughter) and Evelyn Street (named for his wife). Asa P. Jones, his "septuagenarian architect and builder," hammered out the little houses with the help of George Rogers. Their charm was as described by the Inquirer and Mirror in 1886: "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." Underhill's cottages would soon become the central locale for the jovial denizens of the Actors Colony, which flourished toward the turn of the century.

Dr. Benjamin Sharp, seated in his mother's house in 'Sconset, known as "Meersheim", at Pump Square.
P5955

A digital exhibition by the Nantucket Historical Association