Capt. John Bunker House (ca. 1790)
209 Main Street, Fairhaven
(Private residence, not open to the public)
Once a Robert Bennett property, it is unknown who built the house or precisely when it as built. Captain John Bunker was originally from Nantucket and commanded several whaling vessels. He moved here about 1826 after buying the house from the heirs of his father-in-law Benjamin Sisson. The eastern portion of Oxford St. was once known as Bunker’s Lane. Bunker sold the “Chapel Lot” on North Street in 1850. He died in 1854 and is buried in Woodside Cemetery.
In an 1845 letter to his daughter Rebecca, Capt. Bunker reported that “Mr. Bates family is well and in the house with us,” an indication that Joseph Bates Jr. was living here after having sold his own Fairhaven property. The Bates family appears in census records with the Bunkers. According to the stories of a later owner of the house, it was here where Bates penned the religious treatise suggesting the Sabbath should be celebrated on the Seventh Day.
