Stan Lair:

250. "Prentis Bodfish Blacksmith Shop Hancock Hardware now at this site."

"Prentiss Bodfish Blacksmith Shop. He and his son, Frank Bodfish, operated from there for a long time, shoeing horses and that was there biggest revenue, I guess, was horseshoeing, and general blacksmith work. It is now Hancock Hardware. I believe some of the old blacksmith shop was still preserved in one of those back rooms. At one time I know the forge was there. I think that is since gone, but the anvil and all that sort of thing, I don't know how much of it is still there. But that was the location, right where Hancock Hardware Store is today.
Between the blacksmith shop and the bend in the road [to the East] was absolutely nothing but beach grass and beach. It was used during the war by Bill Colby and Bill Dugan - they were building barges for the Navy, and they had quite a crew working there. But in the old days there was nothing there but beach. Most of that property was owned by Captain Benjamin Cromwell. Eventually on the next corner was a building used as a garage. It was used by a succession of people. Let's see there was Howard Chadwick, Jesse Oliver, Bob West. A Nantucket firm operated it for a time. There was others, I believe, but I can't remember them all. It is now the corner service station."

[1907 Directory: "Bodfish, Prentiss C., blacksmith, Beach, h. do."]

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