8 Middle Pearl Street
John Terry 1930s to 1940
This garage serviced the island’s early automobiles, which multiplied after the Automobile Exclusion Act was repealed by the state legislature in 1918, following bitter community debate. Operated by “Honest John” Terry, it was on the south side of Middle Pearl Street (now India Street, currently the Nantucket Gourmet), across the street from “Professor Jim’s” bootblack stand. Terry’s Garage offered taxi and livery service, even bicycle rentals, a variety suggested in the billboard: “John Terry & Son, Automobiles and Livery, Baggage Transferred.” Terry’s Garage was destroyed by a gasoline-induced fire around 1940.
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According to Francis Pease, “Honest John” Terry always wore a derby hat on his rather oversized head, “like a pimple on a duck’s egg.”
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