Maury family buys the Tonkin building

The Maury family is opening a new retail business on Main Street, the first since the family's Emporium department store closed 20 years ago. Larry Maury, a building contractor whose father John Maury, Sr., founded the Emporium, is buying the former Tonkin Antiques building at 33 Main on the corner of Federal Street where he and family members will help his son, Andrew, launch Nantucket Brand, a line of casual wear for men and women.

DON COSTANZO/The Independent Workers spruced up the recently acquired 33 Main Street building this week in preparation for the opening of Nantucket Brand. The historic brick building with a basement, two floors and an attic, was built after the Great Fire of 1846 and has housed not only the headquarters of the Grand Army of the Republic, but merchants as well, including phramacies, a women's clothing shop, and other ventures. It was listed for sale at $5.4 million by Robert Tonkin who had his antique business there for 30 years, and after nearly two years on the market almost sold to partners in J Pepper Frazier Real Estate last October until the partners decided to relocate to a Centre Street building the Frazier family already owned.

Renovation of the first floor of 33 Main St. is underway, and a display window on the Federal Street side already shows a sampling of what Nantucket Brand will carry when it opens May 25 - soft cotton and cashmere sweaters in cheerful colors that will pair easily with khaki pants, shorts and jackets.

"We got to work right away," said Maury, who created the line's whale logo and has wanted to have a Nantucket business based on products that signify the simple island lifestyle. "It's a special place and it means a lot to me."

Initially, the store will also offer polo and button-down shirts, women's skirts, accessories and beach chairs and towels. Next year a children's line will be added. The clothing reflects existing styles the 24-year-old Maury favors, but which he has his own designers alter to improve fit, stitching and fabrics with final products manufactured by several companies that are principally of international origin.

Maury said he began working on the Nantucket Brand towards the end of 2005. He will be joined in the business from time to time by his father, Larry, and mother, Michelle (Boyes), who met when they were working at the Emporium. Maury's brother, Dustin, 18, will work in the store this summer, as well as a few family friends, but his brother Stephen, a real estate salesperson at The Maury People and a substitute teacher, will just assist as needed and as his time allows.

The Maury People, two doors down from the new Nantucket Brand, was founded as Maury Real Estate by Andrew's grandmother, the late Terry Maury, who died in 1995. She sold the business to Lindsey Perry in the early 1970s and it was purchased last year by brokers Gary Winn and his mother, Sharon Doucette.

But the Maury family has a more extensive island history. John Maury, Sr., came to Nantucket in 1946 and opened the Emporium as a general store. He moved it to Main Street next to The Hub, and then he and his wife Terry relocated and ran the store where Cavalier Galleries and Vis a Vis are now at 34 Main St. until it closed in 1988. After that, John Maury, now retired in Florida, became very involved with the Emergency Food Pantry.

Larry and Michelle Maury once ran the island's Little League and Babe Ruth programs. He built the Babe Ruth field at Tom Nevers, and she was formerly a physical therapist at the hospital and Our Island Home. Larry's brother, Chris, is a builder and designer and for 14 years has been head coach of the high school softball team. Larry's oldest brother, John, is at St. John the Evangelist monastery in Cambridge, Mass.

The family's plan at this point is to do a major renovation of the entire Tonkin building when this summer's season closes, including installing a handicap lift. The store will reopen next summer on a year-round basis with lowered prices in the offseason to accommodate islanders.

"We're really excited to have something on

Main Street again," Andrew Maury said. I