The first thing I notice when walking into Century House are the books. Thousands of them, spilling into every corner, packed into every bedroom, of every conceivable genre. Innkeeper Gerry Connick was kind enough to give me a tour of the property just before the 2016 Nantucket Book Festival, during which he welcomed author Michael Patrick O’Neill to stay, compliments of the Inn.
Century House is the oldest continuously running inn on Nantucket. Built in the early 1840’s by whaling Captain Robert Calder (the land on Cliff Road was purchased in 1833), it became a rooming/boarding house in the early 1870’s. Despite extensive renovations since Gerry and his wife Jean Ellen Heron bought the Inn in 1984, they have managed to maintain the charm and style they remember from their own childhoods. Gerry is especially committed to providing guests with a chance to relax and detach from the technology and distractions that can spoil a vacation on Nantucket.
Gerry and Jean Ellen are well-known on Nantucket for being strong supporters of the arts. Each year they host two authors during the Book Festival and even create a special framed picture featuring the authors’ titles which they hang in the Inn. For the rest of the summer they run an “artist in residence” program during which as many as 10 artists are invited to stay at the Inn for free while painting scenes of the island. Dozens of those paintings adorn the walls throughout the Inn.
Gerry and Michael Patrick O'Neill, with the framed Festival schedule and book jacket
Gerry makes sure to stock each room with a variety of “beach reads” which guests are free to borrow and even keep – more are added to the collection each day thanks to Gerry’s own voracious appetite for reading. When asked what books he’s read recently, he immediately hands over a list: in nonfiction, The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin by Steven Lee Myers; Valiant Ambition by Nat Philbrick; and MacArthur at War by Walter R. Borneman. In fiction, Gerry recommends Before the Fall by Noah Hawley; Hotels of North America by Rick Moody (which really is a novel); and Underworld by Don DeLillo. Among his favorite classics, Gerry cites Atlas Shrugged, Huckleberry Finn, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, and Churchill’s Memoirs of the Second World War.
Having such an avid reader as a sponsor of the Nantucket Book Festival is a true privilege, and we are grateful for Gerry and Jean Ellen’s faithful support! For more information about Century House, click here or visit http://www.centuryhouse.com/.