Cabinetmaker Cornelius Allen purchased the land at 14 Hussey Street in 1795 and built this home before selling it to Albert Folger, mariner, in 1798. Albert and his wife, Susan, raised five children here; Susan, widowed in 1812, lived here until 1840, when she sold the property to British-born Robert Ratliff. Among the neighborhood’s most famous residents, Ratliff at the age of twenty-five, while serving in the British Navy, had been shipwrecked off Nantucket. He decided to stay on island and married widow Judith Robinson, who had two daughters. He practiced his trade as a master rigger on Nantucket for more than fifty years and was immortalized in an 1879 painting by summer resident and renowned artist Eastman Johnson. Among the longest residents were Joseph P. Nye, master mariner and his family, who retained the property for over 130 years.
14 Hussey Street is one of the 2014 Summer Kitchen Tour houses
To learn more about the tour and purchase tickets click here