Featuring the Partial Contents of the Union Street “Chopping Bowl Tea House” To Be Sold at Auction Saturday, October 10th, at 9:30am at the American Legion Hall, 21 Washington St.,
PREVIEW: Thursday & Friday, October 8th & 9th

The “Chopping Bowl Tea House” was built elsewhere on Nantucket in 1740, a decade or so after Union Street was laid out and constructed, this antique-style house of five bedrooms and six bathrooms with a spacious yard considering its downtown location, was moved to its present location at 22 and 20 1/2 Union St. in 1809, according the Nantucket Preservation Trust. In the early 1900s, the house and its garden were the site of the Chopping Bowl Tea House known for its “colorful flowers”. Also in the early decades of the 20th century, Nantucket Historical Association records show this house as operating as “The Little Shop on the Corner” offering dry goods, clothing, and a circulating library, a business that moved to 2 Cliff Road in 1926.
A hint of what this part of Nantucket town was like in the early 18th century is revealed in the Historical American Buildings Survey’s “Orange & Union Streets Neighborhood Study, 8-31 Orange Street, 9-21 Union Street & Stone Alley, Nantucket, Nantucket County, MA”:
“Part of one of the earliest sections of the town to be laid out, the dwellings span Nantucket’s history from the mid-eighteenth century to 1925 and lie both on and below Quanaty Bank. This neighborhood study considers buildings on Orange Street, Stone Alley and Union Street in the area known as Quanaty Bank. Orange Street was laid out in 1726. In 1730 the east slope of the hill was cut away with material used as fill in lowlands near the harbor and forming Union Street. Stone Alley, formerly Gunter Alley, was opened c. 1800. Architecture in this area reflects the wealth gained by 19th century whaling captains, but includes a number of pre-Revolutionary war dwellings.
Owners of the this house after it was moved to its current location were Thaddeus and Phebe Hussey. Thaddeus Hussey was born on Jan. 1, 1766. Thaddeus Hussey died on March 7, 1830 at 64.