3 Allerton Street. [2010, Dunlap]
James Thomas, a member of the Bonedome Construction Company, who ferried people and supplies to the dune shacks in a specially modified Model A Ford (that was how he met the artist Edith Hughes, who was to become his wife), built this house and three-car garage in 1938. Their daughter, Michal (Thomas) Barnes, lives in Ohio but still owns this property. Daniel Towler, one of the town’s more informed and passionate historians, has lived here since 1995. Edith’s backyard studio has been used by the potter Debbi Kahn, the sculptor Paul Bowen, and the painter Bert Yarborough. In recent years, the painter Alyssa Schmidt sold miniature landscapes from a roadside stand here, on the honor system.
Dan Towler. [2013, Dunlap]
The painter Alyssa Schmidt sold miniature landscapes from a roadside stand at 3 Allerton Street. [2011, Dunlap]
Alyssa Schmidt’s stand ran on the honor system. [2011, Dunlap]
3 Allerton Street. [2010, Dunlap]
William and Vivienne Woodhead wrote on 6 December 2012: We are currently planning to donate paintings and ceramic work by the owner and designer of 3 Allerton Street, painter Edith Hughes.
Dan Towler wrote on 10 February 2014: It should be mentioned that the house at 3 Allerton, where I have lived since 1995, was built in 1938 by James S. Thomas, a skilled carpenter also widely known for transporting residents to their shacks in the dunes in his Model A. He and his wife Edith, a talented artist in her own right, who died in 1994, raised two children here. Their son Jonathan, forever remembered for climbing up the outside of the Monument one July night in 1959, died in 1978 from injuries suffered in a fall from a roof near his home in Vermont. Their daughter, Michal Thomas Barnes, still owns the house.
Jim Thomas’s father, Fred, who lived across the street at 620 Commercial Street, outlived both his son and grandson. He died in 1979 at the age of 100.
Jim, incidentally, also built the workshop across the backyard of 3 Allerton that became Arthur Cohen’s home at 313 Bradford Street. He also built the three-car garage in the yard of 3 Allerton, onto which his son, Jonathan, later built the studio for Edith. Many other artists have used the garage and studio as workspace, including the late Debbie Kahn, known for her Scribblefish Pottery.
3 Allerton Street on the Town Map, showing property lines.
Also at this address
• Studio.
¶ Last updated in 2015.