Did you know?

That ’Sconset was among the first summer resorts in the nation? Established as a fishing station in the late 1700s, its unique charm eventually lured many of Nantucket’s leading families to settle there on a seasonal basis.

Beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, they would spend the spring, summer, and sometimes early fall in ’Sconset to fish, relax, and to catch a cool breeze away from the bustling town. Among those calling ’Sconset their home away from home were whaling captains’ families who summered in the historic fishing shanties along Broadway and Center and Shell Streets and prosperous whaling merchants several of whom built summer cottages along ’Sconset’s Main Street in the 1830s. ’Sconset was often home to retired mariners, including Benjamin Lawrence, a survivor of the ship Essex, as well as several “whaling wives”—those who accompanied their husbands on the long whaling voyages. It was not until the second quarter of the nineteenth century when the village became to lure large numbers of mainlanders for the season. By the end of the century the village became known as the Actors Colony due to the large number of Broadway actors and artists who summered there.