Siasconset’s a Charmer, “Warts” and All

by Elizabeth Gehrman

Nantucketers have always considered their home a place apart — a magical place that those philistines from the mainland, though they descend in droves every summer, will never really be able to absorb into their bones the way the natives have done. And to many, the quintessence of this Shangri-la, Nantucket in its most pure, most perfect form, is Siasconset, a small village at the tip of the island’s elbow, about seven miles east of Nantucket Town.

As early as the mid-1600s, English settlers realized an abundance of cod and bluefish lay off these eastern shores. The fishing shacks the men had jury-rigged soon became the province of wives visiting from town; the kitchens were brought inside, brick chimneys were constructed, and a jumble of additions — known as “warts” in island parlance — were affixed to accommodate growing families. Many of those original buildings remain standing and are still in use today, covered, like most of the houses here, with the rose vines that give ’Sconset its signature burst of fragrant pink, red, white, and yellow every summer.

By the 1800s the hamlet had become the summer resort of wealthy whaling captains seeking to escape the smell of oil burning in the refineries in town. In the 1880s, in the depths of an island-wide depression caused largely by the ascendancy of kerosene for fuel, a few enterprising developers built summer cottages here, and successfully marketed them to affluent professionals from New York to the midwest. But the most visible “immigrants” — as those from the mainland, or “America,” are called — were the theater people. Since filmmaking had not yet been invented, and city playhouses were too hot to enjoy in summer, actors and actresses took to the relative anonymity the district offered for their seasonal escape. They brought with them the playwrights, musicians, artists, and writers that made up their social circle.

It was during this period that ’Sconset’s oldest street was renamed Broadway, and the village reigned as Nantucket’s cultural capital. Plays, operas, and vaudeville were performed here; recitations and lectures were given; dances were performed, masquerade balls held, and hymns to the little enclave composed. Songs included “Buy a Ticket to ’Sconset,” “Won’t You Come with Me to ’Sconset?,” “On the Isle,” “A Day in Fairyland,” and the 1926 “’Sconset Symphony,” which began thus:

London has kingses and queenses,
Paris has shows that are hot
Venice has scenes, and Boston has beans
But none has what ’Sconset has got.

The song has faded into memory, but the sentiment is as strong today as it ever was. And though you’ll need a movie star’s salary to actually own a home here — the little one-room cabins start at around $440,000 — the views are free, and the village, still prized by Nantucketers as an escape from the summer crowds, makes as good a day trip as you’ll find in New England.

Rent a bike or a scooter in town, and make your way over the cobblestones — once used as ballast in whaling ships — to the Polpis Road bike path. At about eight miles, it’s a little longer than the return ride, down Milestone Road, but it’s much prettier, with gentle hills and graceful curves that roll past acres of lush vegetation, a large patch of moor, and the Windswept cranberry bog before rounding the sparkling and serene Sesachacha (that’s “Ses-kah-cha”) Pond. Not far beyond you’ll see Sankaty Head lighthouse, which overlooks the Scottish-style Sankaty Golf Course, an exclusive private club with a waiting list said to be more than a decade long. The lighthouse, built in 1849 and the beau ideal of the Downeast style, is endangered by erosion and not open to the public, but you can get near enough for a decent MIFO (“me-in-front-of”) picture of its red-and-white-striped tower.

There’s not all that much to do in Siasconset itself, but of course that’s the point. The trellised cottages, looking much as they did in the 1890s, are one of the main draws, with their sloping roofs, weathered shingles, and canopies of roses; a few, on Pochick, Evelyn, and Lily streets, are among the first summer rentals in the village. ’Sconset Pump, off Broadway, was the town of Nantucket’s first well, dug in 1776, “when the Declaration of Independence was signed,” according to a Nantucket Nectars bottle cap.

If it’s open, stop by the ’Sconset Union Chapel. It offers Catholic services at 8:45, and Protestant at 10:30, on summer Sundays, and its 200 or so kneelers were designed by island resident and needlepointer nonpareil Erica Wilson. The center of local activity, the ’Sconset Casino, is a private club, but its tennis courts are open to nonmembers a few hours each week; the casino also hosts movie screenings throughout the season. Just across the street is the Chanticleer, a pricey French restaurant. Its main appeal in the daytime is its stunning garden, whose centerpiece carousel horse was once “borrowed” as a prank, sending all of ’Sconset into a tizzy until its return.

One of the best views on the island comes as you cross the footbridge at the end of Ocean Avenue, just past the huge sundial that dominates the side of a three-story house. Here, on the shell-paved Bluff Walk overlooking Codfish Park — a residential area whose future is tenuous due to severe erosion — you can take in miles of sand and surf beneath the bluer-than-blue Nantucket sky. In fact, if it weren’t for that pesky horizon, you’d be able to see all the way to Portugal from this narrow escarpment. To find the “secret” Bluff Walk, the one that only natives and summer residents know is there, turn to your left and continue walking; you’ll feel like you’re trespassing, but the public path simply cuts through private properties almost until it reaches the Sankaty Head lighthouse.

Lunch in ’Sconset can range from the most casual picnic box, available at Claudette’s take-away, to fine dining on the patio of the Summer House, overlooking the ocean. The hotel is a ’Sconset institution, with magnificent gardens surrounding its cottages (one named after past visitor James Cagney), the requisite resident ghost, and a poolside dining area beneath the bluff. After lunch, you can enjoy the rest of the day at ’Sconset Beach — though there may be a riptide, more frequent here than on the island’s protected harbor side but clearly visible from the bluff — and have a leisurely ride back before again facing the bustle of Nantucket Town’s summer hoards.

Photos courtesy of Nantucket Chamber of Commerce/Michael Galvin