Evolution of the Old Spouter Gallery
under the eaves
The sea breeze still blows through these walls
By Laura Raskin Independent Arts Writer

Independent chronicles of Nantucket’s historic buildings

Carol Barrett remembers being able to see through cracks in the walls when she visited the Spouter Inn, a business her two eccentric aunts ran during the Depression to stay afloat.

“It was so un-weatherproofed. They’d shut it up in the winter and go to Florida,” said Barrett during a telephone interview from her home in Medford, Ore., last week. “That was the cheapest way to do things. Aunt Marjorie took care of Aunt Elsie.”

Marjorie Ashley and Elsie Ashley Vail rented out rooms, served tea and ran a gift shop in what is now the Old Spouter Gallery, owned by Brent Young and run by his partner Kathleen Walsh. At one time the building’s address was 114 Orange St., but it is now 118 Orange St.

Rob Benchley

The house was built in 1756, according to town documents.

Barrett has fond memories of staying at the inn and taking a buggy into town. She remembers the tiniest closet-size rooms of the home fitting a cot and a dresser. They too were rented out.

The Ashley sisters were Barrett’s maternal aunts and the daughters of A. Davis Ashley of New Bedford. Their brother, Clifford Ashley, was a well-known artist from New Bedford who studied under the landscape painter George L. Noyes.

The house over a century ago, located at 114 Orange St., sans the additions. It now sits at 118 Orange and houses the art gallery.

In 1904 Clifford Ashley was commissioned by Harper’s Monthly Magazine to write an article on whaling with accompanying pictures. He observed whaling firsthand aboard the Sunbeam and wrote an article for Harper’s , which resulted in a book called “The Yankee Whaler,” according to the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Web site.

Few of the antique details, including this stairwell, have changed over the years.

Undoubtedly, it was the family’s ties to the sea and the whaling industry that led the Ashley sisters to call their inn “Spouter,” said Barrett. And perhaps also because that is where Herman Melville had his harpooner Queequeg meet his narrator Ishmael in “Moby Dick”; the two must share a bed at the Spouter Inn in New Bedford before making their way to Nantucket to undertake a sea journey on the Pequod.

Marjorie Ashley had a heart attack at 56 and Barrett was chosen to clean out her aunts’ house and inn to get it ready for sale. Barrett had one week to do so and was pregnant with a third child. It was the late 1950s.

“I look back on that as a horror scene,” said Barrett, laughing. “I had two little ones and I was pregnant. (My aunts) hadn’t thrown anything out in 100 years.” Barrett recalls them burying trash in the back yard.

The inn and most of her aunts’ belongings were sold at auction – Barrett couldn’t afford to ship many things home.

“I burned things night after night,” she said, now with regret. “Nantucket wasn’t a luxurious place at the time. (The inn) was not in high demand.”

At least some of the inn’s history was salvaged. Among Walsh and Young’s memorabilia is a brochure from the Spouter Inn.

“Spouter Inn is one of Nantucket’s oldest and quaintest houses. It is situated on the ‘Sconset road about fifteen minutes’ walk from Main Street … There are four guest rooms, three of which overlook the harbor,” the brochure said.

The largest room, with two twin beds, rented for $20 a week or $25 if a cot was added for a third person. Breakfast was 75 cents, lunch and supper a quarter. Tables were on the terrace for those who enjoyed eating “out-of-doors” and afternoon tea was served. The lawn boasted a hammock, games and lounging chairs. “The view over the harbor is beautiful. You can see the lighthouse and watch the steamers and yachts go in and out, and also have a full view of the sailboat races.”

The ’Sconset bus passed the inn and took guests downtown or to the beach, according to the brochure.

On a Spouter Inn postcard marked June 11, 1934 and sent to a Chicago address, “Mother” wrote the following of her seaside vacation: “Dear Girls – It warmed up considerably yesterday – Sunday – and was lovely. We went to ‘India House’ for (unreadable) and in the afternoon they (unreadable) a car and we drove over the moors and then up and down the lanes of Nantucket. We ate by the fireside, had music and went to bed. xxxxoooo. Mother.”

The Christopher

Baxter House

Walsh and Young also have photographs and documents that trace the history of the house before it was an inn.

Records typed and signed on June 1, 1932 by Emma Cook, examiner from the Nantucket Registry of Deeds, reflect that Cook did careful research from town documents:

“It is impossible to find in the Registry of Deeds the exact date of when a house was built. In the deed from Jabez Macy to Christopher Baxter in 1756, it conveys land, but no buildings are mentioned.

In the book called ‘Nantucket Lands and Land Owners’ by Henry Barnard Worth on page 272 I find the following in regards to the property. ‘At the Railroad Crossing on the East side of Orange Street is an old appearing house of the lean-to style, placed in that location about 1756 by Christopher Baxter.

It remained in the Baxter family for over half a century and was then owned successively by Benjamin and Peter Raymond and Alexander Bunker and in 1895 was purchased by Wm. Modley. Its form suggests an earlier construction than 1756 and there is a possibility that it was erected here by Jabez Macy or moved from a prior situation but the records are silent as to either fact.”

The title chain shows that Ashley purchased the house from Annie D. Modley, the widow of William H. Modley, on April 23, 1930.

The Nantucket Historical Information has some photographs of 118 Orange St., labeled “The Christopher Baxter House.”

In his 1993 book “Holiday Island,” Clay Lancaster wrote: “A newcomer (in 1930) was the Spouter Inn, in the old Christopher Baxter lean-to dwelling (1756) at 114 Orange Street, a combination tearoom, gift shop, and guest house. M.C. Ashley was the proprietor.”

Pottery and beyond

When Young bought the house from Walter Karr in 1986 for $500,000, it was not for sale, but the Karrs were ready to retire. They ran Old Spouter Pottery there, and Young believes they purchased the home from the Ashley sisters.

“The building was pretty derelict,” he said. “They left, thank God, most of the architectural details intact.”

“My father thought I’d lost my mind,” said Young, who builds houses. “It was great commercial space. I always had faith in that.”

He added a new wing to the left of the house in 1987 and removed some lean-to sheds with the idea that it would serve a “mixed use” of commercial and residential space. There is an apartment above the addition where Young and Walsh live and an apartment in the upstairs of the original house.

“I wouldn’t have ever torn it down,” said Young, even if the Historic District Commission had allowed that. “I really liked its authenticity.”

Young winterized the house, but the wind still blows through it, as Barrett remembers.

“It doesn’t help the heating bills, but it’s the only reason it’s still standing,” he said. Young is sure the house would have rotted from moisture if it had been completely sealed.

Taking a tour through what has been Walsh’s gallery and antique store since 1997, Young points out the original details that remain – the slanting and warped wooden floorboards, the fireplace mantle, locust ceiling beams with chamfer detailing. Young points out the borning and milk rooms.

While the only mention of the house being built before 1756 is by Henry Barnard Worth in his book, Young believes that the “gunstock corners” on the posts upstairs suggest an earlier construction. Tapered gunstock corner posts were typical of late 1600s and early 1700s construction.

Young is amazed the wood frame house still stands.

“It’s lived this long, I’m sure it will live another 100,” he said.

Rob Benchley/The Independent