About Us
Hello and welcome back to Saltmeadows Antiques and Crafts. After a decade since closing our store on 78 Union St. in Nantucket, we are happy to announce our return. Allow me to share a brief history of my family and our store.
My grandfather left the Azores islands off Portugal aboard a whaling ship in 1903. In 1905, he and the entire crew jumped ship in Boston Harbor due to an abusive captain. He settled briefly on Martha’s Vineyard before making Nantucket his home in 1906, where he worked as a fisherman for the rest of his life. In 1924, he purchased an acre of land on Union St., which was then on the outskirts of town, from an old family friend for $250.
My grandmother immigrated to the United States from the Azores in the early 1920s. After arriving at Ellis Island among fellow immigrants, she eventually made her way to Nantucket, where she met and married my grandfather. My father, their only child, was born in 1924. After graduating from Nantucket High School, he served as a B-17 mechanic in North Africa and Italy during World War II, from 1943 to 1945. Following the war, he worked as a distributor for Hood Dairy on Nantucket before leaving the island in the 1950s to attend the Milwaukee School of Engineering. After graduating from school, he took a job at a TV/Radio station in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was there that he met my mother.
For four generations, we lived in the house my grandfather built on Union St. before selling the property and relocating to Miacomet Road in 2015. Just over three years ago, we moved to Maine, marking the end of a significant chapter in our family's history.
My father first opened the doors of Saltmeadows Antiques and Crafts in 1983, selling my grandparents' antiques and my mother's handmade quilts and linens. Over the years, the business flourished, and I joined my father in 1989. After more than three decades operating from my grandfather's old barn, we closed our doors upon selling the family property in 2015.
Now, I am reopening an online store to sell many pieces and collections my family has accumulated over the years, This includes my father's postcard collection of over 900 Nantucket postcards, his antique golf collection, our 250 plus, old wooden lobster buoy collection, the last of the copper weathervanes made by John Garrett Thew, our duck and fish decoy collections, my mothers and grandmothers quilt collection, and many other rare and unique pieces, some of which have been in our family for over a century. This then marks the final sale of Saltmeadows Antiques and Crafts. Once everything is sold, I will close the website and bid you all a fond farewell. I will continue listing pieces on the website until everything is posted online. This will take some time. Listings online now are a fraction of what we have. There are many great pieces waiting to be listed so please check back periodically. Hopefully in the next few weeks I can get everything posted.
Selling online instead of in person will be a new experience for me so please bear with us. While many smaller pieces can be shipped, larger ones may not be feasible. I will be making periodic trips to the island to deliver larger pieces as needed, operating on a first-come, first-served basis.
For those unfamiliar, the Steamship has reduced its boat schedule making travel to and from Nantucket challenging. I appreciate your patience during this time. Delivery within the Boston area of New England can also be arranged depending on the location, so feel free to inquire about this service.
If you have any questions or inquiries, please don’t hesitate to ask. For those adventurous souls, our barn and house in Maine are available for in-person viewings of all our pieces, located about an hour from Portland. I hope you enjoy browsing through our collection of antiques and crafts.
All the best,
Tom Mello