Signs of the Times: Nantucket Signs Exhibition of the Nantucket Historical Association

School Street in ’Sconset
Mary L. Gouin
1920s

Located in Gouin’s Livery Stable on School Street in ’Sconset, the Tavern on the Moors was a charming tea house on the eastern end of the island, run by Mary L. Gouin. It was also the site of the ’Sconset School of Opinion, a forum for intellectual debate established in 1922 by summer resident Frederick C. Howe, the noted lawyer and political scientist. It was attended by many of the best-known scholars and writers of the day, some of them branded as “communists” because of the liberal views they expressed.

The Inquirer and Mirror noted in 1923: “In rambling around the island one sees many attractive tea room signs displayed, among which is The Tavern on the Moors.”

PH13-10