Downtown Storefront Demolished At 1 Cambridge Street

It's not every day that a building in downtown Nantucket gets demolished.

But on Tuesday, a portion of the building at 1 Cambridge Street was torn down in short order.

The shingled storefront that was demolished is located across from The Atheneum library's garden and was most recently the home of the former Sweet Inspirations chocolate shop, the Kit Noble gallery, and Nantucket Crisps in the summer of 2024. It was taken down to make way for a two-story addition. What's going into the new building after it is constructed is not yet known, although a source told the Current Tuesday that it will be a new retail space.

The portion of 1 Cambridge Street that was torn down was attached to a historic brick structure that dates back to 1846 when it was built after the Great Fire in downtown Nantucket. The shingled portion that was taken down on Tuesday dates to the period between 1923 and 1949.

The demolition and addition project was approved by the Historic District Commission earlier this year.

1 Cambridge Street is owned by Zero India Street LLC, a company registered to the Cotton family of Michigan, which sold Meridian Health, that state's largest Medicaid provider, for $2.5 billion in 2018.

The Cotton's limited liability company acquired 1 Cambridge Street in 2020 for $2.4 million, according to Nantucket property records.