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Welcome he Nantucket Preservation Trust is proud to sponsor its first preservation symposium: Nantucket’s Golden Age.
We are fortunate that our island, nearly thirty miles at sea, perhaps more than any other community, has retained its remarkable wealth of architecture and history from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. The symposium explores this world-class collection of architecture, interiors, and historic landscapes, using Nantucket itself as a classroom.
If this is your first time on-island or even if you have known the island for many years, we hope you will take full advantage of our behind-the-scenes tours of the island’s private homes, gardens, and public spaces.
We value your feedback, and hope that you will tell us about your experience and how we might improve the program in the future. Our hope is that you will find Nantucket the perfect place to learn, that you will leave with a new appreciation of our history and preservation efforts, and that you will join us for future programs. Sincerely,
Michael May
Executive Director 508-228-1387 www.nantucketpreservation.org 55 Main Street, P.O. Box 158, Nantucket, MA 02554
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Nantucket Preservation
Symposium Committee Caroline Ellis & Barbara Halsted |
cochairs
Members
Kathy Arvay | David Brown | Mary Collins | Alan Forster | Nancy Forster Elizabeth Grubbs | Carol Kinsley | Thomas Maxwell Mundy Marcia Richards | Marie Sussek | Anne Troutman
NPT Board
Executive Committee Ken Beaugrand | Chairman David Brown | President Michael Ericksen | Vice President Anne Troutman | Vice President Alan Forster | Treasurer Caroline Ellis | Secretary
Directors Dennis Perry Mickey Rowland Esta-Lee Stone Marie Sussek Pam Waller
Barbara Halsted Carol Kinsley Michael Kovner Mary-Adair Macaire Angus MacLeod Maxwell Mundy
Sam Bailey Michelle Elzay Mark Godfrey Susan Zises Green Andrew Forsyth
NPT Staff Michael May | Executive Director Marisa Holden | Marketing Director Melany Cheeseman | Donor Relations and Administrative Director
Printed by Poet’s Corner Press
Photography and Consultants Aisling Glynn (ACKtivities)
Susan Boardman Kris Kinsley Hancock Gary Langley Michael May Brian Pfeiffer
Event Consultant
Elizabeth Oldham Copy Editor
Sara Feather Farley (Feather Design) Graphic Designer
All historic photographs courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association
www.nantucketpreservation.org Copyright Š 2017 Nantucket Preservation Trust
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National Speakers Keynote Speaker Paul Goldberger Architectural Critic and Educator Paul Goldberger, whom the Huffington Post has called “the leading figure in architecture criticism,� is now a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. From 1997 through 2011, he served as the architecture critic for The New Yorker. He is the author of Building Art: The Life and Work of Frank Gehry; Why Architecture Matters; Building Up and Tearing Down, a collection of his articles from The New Yorker; Christo and Jeanne-Claude; and numerous other books. He also holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at the New School in New York City. He was formerly Dean of the Parsons School of Design, a division of the New School.
National Speakers Peter M. Kenny Co-President, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust Having joined the staff of Classical American Homes Preservation Trust in January 2015, Peter M. Kenny is responsible for the overall management and curatorial vision at its seven sites in New York City, the Hudson River Valley, North and South Carolina, and St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Prior to joining Classical American Homes, he worked for nearly thirty years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, retiring in November 2014 as the Ruth Bigelow Wriston Curator of American Decorative Arts and Administrator of the American Wing. Peter M. Kenny is a frequent lecturer at museums and universities nationwide on the topic of American furniture and decorative arts.
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National Speakers Therese O’Malley Associate Dean, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art Therese O’Malley is Associate Dean at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Her scholarly concerns are in the history of landscape architecture and garden design, primarily in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with a focus on the transatlantic exchange of plants, ideas, and people. She currently serves as advisor to the United States Ambassadors Fund for the State Department. She lectures internationally and has been guest professor at Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University.
Catherine W. Zipf Director of the Bristol, Rhode Island, Historical and Preservation Society Catherine W. Zipf, PhD, is an award-winning architectural historian and author with expertise in historic preservation. Her research examines women’s participation in American architectural and decorative arts history during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She earned an AB from Harvard University and an MaH and PhD from the University of Virginia. Her book, Professional Pursuits: Women and the American Arts and Crafts Movement, was named Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine. Zipf lectures often at universities, conferences, museums, and nonprofit agencies on topics ranging from women in architecture to preserving mid-century-modern structures.
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Local Speakers Penelope Austin Plasterer and Conservation Mason, Building Preservation Associates Penelope (Pen) Austin, a member of the Worshipful Company of Plaisters in London, holds an Honors Degree in Architectural Conservation from Portsmouth University in the United Kingdom. She is experienced in preparing, installing, and conserving lime plasters and mortars, including mouldings, scagliola finishes, modeling, and casting. Pen was the first recipient of the NPT Traditional Building Methods Award in 2010, and, in 2016 she received the NPT Architectural Preservation Award.
Elizabeth Churchill Architect and Board Member, ’Sconset Trust Elizabeth grew up spending summers in ‘Sconset and moved to the Island year round in 1985. She built her own home with her husband and partner in 1986 and has practiced architecture on Nantucket ever since. She has restored a number of historic residences on the Island.
Marsha Fader LEED AP, Assoc AIA After completing a BA degree in American Studies at Simmons College and an MS degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, Marsha worked as a Historical Architect for the North Atlantic Region of the National Park Service. For more than a quarter century, she has engaged in projects on Nantucket, in Arizona, Colorado, and Taiwan. She recently completed her master’s degree in Architecture at Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Arizona and Wisconsin.
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Local Speakers Elizabeth Grubbs Executive Director, ‘Sconset Trust Elizabeth (Betsy) Grubbs is the executive director of the ’Sconset Trust, a land-conservation and historic-preservation nonprofit membership organization formed in 1984. Betsy has been a ’Sconset summer resident since 1979.
Michael Harrison Robyn and John Davis Chief Curator, Nantucket Historical Association Michael Harrison oversees collections and exhibitions at the Nantucket Historical Association. A maritime historian, he has worked in museums for two decades.
Morris (Marty) Hylton III Director of the Historic Preservation program, University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction, and Planning, and Director, Preservation Institute Nantucket Morris (Marty) Hylton III is Director of Historic Preservation for the University of Florida. He oversees the PhD, graduate, and certificate programs and directs the Preservation Institute Nantucket and St. Augustine. He also created and manages the Envision Heritage initiative dedicated to exploring how new and emerging technologies can be used to document, conserve, and interpret heritage.
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Local Speakers James Lentowski Executive Director, Nantucket Conservation Foundation Jim Lentowski is Executive Director of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, a position that he has held since becoming the organization’s first employee in July 1971. He holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from UMass/Amherst. Under his tutelage, the foundation’s land ownership has increased from 1,200 — 9,000 acres — 30% of Nantucket.
Michael May Executive Director, Nantucket Preservation Trust Michael May joined the NPT in the spring of 2006 as Executive Director. Michael has an extensive background in architectural history and preservation planning, having worked in the nonprofit, private, and government sectors in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He holds an MS degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.
Brian Pfeiffer Architectural Historian, Building Preservation Associates Brian Pfeiffer is an architectural historian involved in both the documentation and repair of historic buildings using traditional building materials and techniques. He has supervised preservation projects at the Historic Unitarian Meeting House, the Siasconset Union Chapel, and private homes on Nantucket. Pfeiffer is the founder of Archipedia New England, a website devoted to documenting the building traditions, craft techniques, and materials of New England.
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Local Speakers Allen B. Reinhard Chairman, Nantucket Land Bank Allen B. Reinard, a longtime Nantucketer, has been a member of the Nantucket Land Bank since 2003 and currently serves as chairman. Allen also works as a seasonal ranger for the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.
Catherine Taylor Director of Museum Resources, Nantucket Historical Association Catherine Taylor serves as the Director of Museum Resources for the Nantucket Historical Association, overseeing a department that includes collections and exhibitions, the library and archives, facilities management, historic preservation, and cultural-resource management. Cathy comes to Nantucket following a career at California State Parks where she served as a museum director, district superintendent over seven museums and state historic parks, and as the division chief for archaeology, history, and museums overseeing statewide programs and policy development. She holds a BA in History, and is a graduate of the Museum Management Institute sponsored by the Getty Leadership Institute at UC Berkeley
Betsy Tyler Historian, author, and Nantucket Historical Association Research Fellow Betsy Tyler has conducted research for more than a hundred NPT house-markers. She is the author of several dozen NPT histories of houses, public buildings, and neighborhoods. Currently a free-lance researcher and writer, she was until recently the Obed Macy Research Chair and Library Director of the Nantucket Historical Association. She is the author of the following NHA publications: Greater Light: A House History; ‘Sconset: A History; Sometimes Think of Me: Notable Nantucket Women Through the Centuries; The ‘Sconset Actors Colony: Broadway Offshore 1895–1925; and the NHA’s Historic Properties Guide. 10
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Historic Downtown
Itinerary at a Glance
Tuesday June 6, 2017 Unitarian Meeting House 1:30 – 4:30 pm: Registration
5:00 pm: Welcome Keynote by Paul Goldberger
3:00 pm: Restoration of the Meeting House
6:30 – 8:00 pm: Reception at
Brian Pfeiffer, Penelope Austin
Nantucket Yacht Club
3:00 – 5:00 pm: Tour the Meeting House
Wednesday June 7, 2017
Thursday June 8, 2017
Coffin School, Winter Street
Meet in front of the Unitarian Meeting House
8:30 – 9:00 am: Registration
9:00 am: Bus Trip to ‘Sconset Talks en route: The Natural Landscape Jim Lentowski, Elizabeth Grubbs, Elizabeth Churchill, and Allen Reinhard
9:00 am: Welcome National Trends During the Golden Age Architecture: Catherine Zipf Interiors: Peter Kenny Landscape: Therese O’Malley
‘Sconset Chapel 10:00 am: Welcome
11:00 am
‘Sconset Architecture in the Golden Age Michael May
Nantucket in the Golden Age History: Betsy Tyler Nantucket Architecture: Brian Pfeiffer
11:00 – 12:30 pm: Tour Summer Cottage of the Golden Age
Break for Lunch 1:30 – 3:00 pm
12:45 pm
Optional Case Studies A. Hadwen House Restoration Catherine Taylor, Michael Harrison B. 86 Main Street Restoration Brian Pfeiffer, Penelope Austin C. Historic Interiors and Streetscape Study Marty Hylton, Marsha Fader
Lunch, The Chanticleer
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Self-guided Tour: Nantucket museums and public buildings
5:30 – 6:30 pm
3:00 – 5:00 pm: Tour:
Open House: Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum
5:30 – 7:00 pm: Reception: Artists Association of Nantucket
Closing Reception Great Harbor Yacht Club
Behind the Scenes, Golden Age Houses and Gardens
6:30 – 8:30 pm
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Day One Tuesday June 6, 2017 Unitarian Meeting House 11 Orange Street 1:30 – 4:30 pm Registration
3:00 pm
Case Study: Restoration of the Meeting House Brian Pfeiffer, Project Manager and Penelope Austin, Mason
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Tours of the Meeting House
5:00 pm
Welcome Michael May, Executive Director, NPT David Brown, Board President, NPT Keynote Speaker Paul Goldberger, Architectural Critic and Educator
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Reception Nantucket Yacht Club 1 South Beach Street
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Day One The Unitarian Meeting House
Situated less than a block from Main Street, the Unitarian Meeting House (also known as South Church) has been a town landmark and a beacon for those arriving by sea since its construction more than two hundred years ago. A great example of Nantucket’s Golden Age, South Church has held assemblies featuring dignitaries such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass and today remains an important community gathering place. The meeting house was remodeled several times during the whaling era. A bell installed in the building’s original tower in 1815 proved to be so heavy as to weaken it, leading to the construction of a new, more robust tower in 1830. Renovations at that time also included the addition of a loft to house an organ that was purchased by the congregation in 1831 and is still in use today. In the 1840s, Frederick Brown Coleman, one of Nantucket’s pre-eminent builders and champion of the Greek Revival style, was hired to redesign the church’s interior space. One of the most notable changes was the addition of trompe l’oeil (“trick the eye”) decorative painting, attributed to German artist Carl Wendte. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, major restoration work has been conducted by the South Church Preservation Fund, a nonprofit group established to maintain and protect the historic structure. A philosophy of careful study and continuing analysis of work has guided the SCPF in its stewardship of the building and its restoration efforts. Advances in the historic-preservation field provided an opportunity in recent years to complete a restoration that unlocked new information about the church, and at the same time used the most traditional building methods. SCPF was the recipient of the 2011 NPT Preservation Award. 15
Day Two Wednesday June 7, 2017 Coffin School, 4 Winter Street 8:30 – 9:00 am
1:30 – 3:00 pm
Registration and coffee
Optional Case Study A, B, C A. Hadwen House Restoration Catherine Taylor Director of Museum Resources, Nantucket Historical Association
9:00 am
Welcome Michael May, Executive Director, NPT National Trends During the Golden Age Architecture Catherine Zipf Executive Director, Bristol, R.I., Historical and Preservation Society
Michael Harrison, Robyn and John Davis Chief Curator, Nantucket Historical Association B. 86 Main Street Restoration Brian Pfeiffer and Penelope Austin BPA Associates
Interiors Peter M Kenny Co-President, Classical American Homes Preservation Trust
C. Historic Interiors Study Marty Hylton, Director of the Historic Preservation Program, University of Florida, Director of Preservation Institute Nantucket
Landscape Therese O’Malley, Associate Dean Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts National Gallery of Art
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Tour: Behind the Scenes, Golden Age Houses and Gardens (see map on page 20)
11:00 am
Nantucket in the Golden Age Betsy Tyler, Historian, Author, and Nantucket Historical Association Research Fellow
5:30 – 7:00 pm
Reception: Artists Association of Nantucket Cecelia Joyce & Seward Johnson Gallery 19 Washington Street
Overview of Nantucket Architecture Brian Pfeiffer, Architectural Historian
Break for Lunch Boxed Lunch
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Day Two Coffin School
This imposing Greek Revival brick structure has played an important educational role in the lives of Nantucketers since 1854. The school can trace its origins to 1827, when Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, a veteran of the British Royal Navy with ties to Nantucket’s Coffin descendants, donated funds for the institution’s establishment and the construction of its first school on Fair Street (now demolished). The new brick school on Winter Street, built by James Thompson and Edward Easton, opened its doors in 1854; subsequent additions to the property included the cast-iron fence installed in the late 1850s and rear ells added in 1872 and 1918. Today, the building retains many of its original interior features, including horsehair plaster, doors, windows, wood floors, moldings, and bookcases. Starting in 1903, the Coffin School Trustees offered industrial art classes such as woodworking, mechanical drawing, and home economics, to all island students. By 1941, the school became fully integrated with Nantucket’s public-school system, and various forms of public education continued at the site until 1978. Since that time, the building has served as meeting space for island nonprofits. The Coffin School Trustees donated a preservation easement to the NPT in 2006 to ensure the building’s architectural integrity, and they are undertaking restoration of the structure’s exterior. The Trustees continue to own the building and provide grants and scholarships to island youth and youth-oriented programs. The building is also home to Community Sailing and Nantucket’s Community Preservation Committee, which provides funds for housing, land conservation, and historic-preservation projects. 17
Day Two Case Study Houses 86 Main Street c. 1834
Recent research has revealed that this splendid house was built by Captain Joseph Allen soon after he purchased the property in 1833. Allen’s tenure was short-lived, however, as he lost the property to foreclosure. The house was purchased in 1838 by Ann Crosby, a member of the Coffin merchant family, who the following year married George Macy and resided here until the end of the nineteenth century. Eighty-six Main is the perfect example of Golden Age architecture, integrating elements of several new architectural styles that were changing Nantucket’s built environment. The house is a combination of the most popular modes of the period: Federal, Greek Revival, and even Gothic Revival, as evident in the gable end pointed arch window. The interior features many original elements and is currently undergoing restoration using traditional building methods. Case Study house.
96 Main Street c. 1846
This fine Greek Revival mansion was begun in 1845 and completed in 1846—the year Nantucket’s Great Fire destroyed much of the town’s commercial core. William Hadwen, a silversmith turned whale-oil merchant, and his wife, Eunice, resided here. In 1847, Hadwen constructed the adjacent dwelling (another Greek Revival gem) for his wife’s niece, Mary Swain Wright. Hadwen employed Frederick Brown Coleman as the builder for both structures; dubbed the “Two Greeks”, they are the last great mansions of the Golden Age. Although they vary in design, both houses employ a high-style classical vocabulary. This area of Main Street was a family affair. While William and Eunice lived here, Eunice’s sister, Eliza Barney, and her husband occupied 94 Main after Mary Swain Wright and her husband left for California in the late 1840s, and Eunice and Eliza’s three brothers lived directly across the street in each of the Three Bricks. A property of the Nantucket Historical Association. Case Study house. 18
Day Two Case Study Houses 100 Main Street c. 1795
The house at 100 Main Street was constructed in the 1790s by Mark Coffin, who sold it in 1798 to Richard Mitchell with a new dwelling. By 1829, the property was in the hands of whaleoil businessmen, William Hadwen and Nathaniel Barney and included a candle factory and outbuildings. The 1834 Map of Nantucket indicates that the house was large due to multiple rear additions that exist today. The two families resided here until 1846. The Hadwens and Barneys eventually moved to the fine Greek Revival houses at 94 and 96 Main Street, and the house became the home of Joseph P. Barney, the Barney’s son. In 1866, the house was purchased by master mariner Joseph Mitchell, whose ancestors held the property from 1798 to 1829. Historic photographs show the house had an east chimney as well as a large roof walk.
Behind the Scenes, Golden Age Houses and Gardens 3:00 – 5:00 pm The architecture along Main Street in town is a microcosm of island architecture spanning nearly three hundred years. The largest grouping of houses dates from the Golden Age––the late eighteenth century and first four decades of the nineteenth century. Here, bankers, whale-oil merchants, sea captains and their families constructed fine residences in the latest fashion, but usually with a conservative vocabulary, compared to mainland equivalents.
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DIGITAL VERSION: http://bit.ly/2qUQi7v
MAIN STREET TOUR
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Nantucket Preservation Trust House Tour Unitarian Meeting House Coffin School Artist’s Association - Reception
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Day Two 75 Main Street c. 1833–34
This fine brick mansion, built by master mason Christopher Capen for Henry Coffin, remained in the Coffin family until 2010. Henry and his brother Charles (who built the brick house across the street) were sons of Zenas Coffin, one of Massachusetts’ wealthiest citizens; both were well educated and community leaders. Henry had a passion for garden design and is credited with introducing plants such as the American elm, boxwood, and English ivy to the island. Although Henry’s garden design is no longer evident, it was thought to be the first in the English manner on island. His house has remained in remarkably original condition and is a prime example of an early Greek Revival house built for the whaling merchant elite. Restoration work has been completed with careful study. Among the most visible work was the repointing of the exterior brick using a historically accurate lime mortar. Work also has included small, sensitive projects such as the snaking of electrical wires in the walls to ensure preservation of the original plaster. 2015 NPT Stewardship Award.
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4 Traders Lane c. 1750
Four Traders Lane remains one of the finest examples of the Typical Nantucket House on island—a house form prevalent on island from 1760 to 1820. Of the remaining eight hundred pre-Civil War houses in town, there are 175 Typical Nantucket Houses—by far the largest number of any residential type. Captain Peleg Bunker, believed to have been the first owner of the house, left Nantucket in the 1780s to command whaleships out of Dunkirk, France, and later relocated to England. His British ship was captured by the French, and Bunker spent the next five years in prison, dying soon after his release in 1809. A preservation easement held by the NPT protects the exterior and first-floor interior rooms in the front section of the house. The side yard is also preserved as open space.
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Day Two 88 Main Street c. 1825
This fine Federal style house, with Greek Revival influences, was built about 1825 by Job and Lydia Coleman, who raised five children here. Coleman, a successful mariner, is best known as the captain of the packet Manchester, which in 1849 transported Nantucketers to California in the hope of striking gold. They were among the 650 islanders who traveled to California in the late 1840s. Coleman’s eldest sons remained in California, but he returned the following year and resided on island until his death in 1860. His family retained the property until 1904.
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96 Main Street
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99 Main Street 1799, remodeled 1832
Like many structures on island, this house evolved from an eighteenth-century dwelling. The original house (the east section) was built by Valentine Swain, who had married into the wealthy whale-oil family headed by Zenas Coffin. A later remodeling was completed during the ownership of Thomas Macy and includes fine Federal elements. Note the blind fanlight, decorative balustrade, and modillion cornice. Now a Nantucket Historical Association property, the house’s interior and its furnishing are significant as an early twentieth-century interpretation of a Nantucket Federal house.
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100 Main Street
See description page 19
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Day Two 4 New Dollar Lane c. 1809
This five-bay wide Federal house has a central hallway flanked on each side by two rooms—a new plan on island that gained the favor of Nantucket’s elite in the first decade of the 1800s. It was built by Joseph Starbuck, a butcher who turned to manufacturing spermaceti candles and made a small fortune. He is best remembered as the builder of the elegant Three Bricks on Main Street, which he provided for his three sons and their families. Starbuck and his wife, Deborah, were also parents of four daughters who were well educated and influential Nantucketers—including Eunice Hadwen and Eliza Barney, who resided on Main Street in the “two Greeks” opposite their brothers’ houses. The garden behind the house still links the original stable and Starbuck’s candle factory. 2011 NPT Landscape Award.
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Moors End Garden,19 Pleasant Street c. 1820s
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Garden c. 1920
Moors End, built at the edge of the early whaling community, is one of the most remarkable island houses from the 1820s. Built for Jared Coffin, merchant, and his wife Hepsabeth, the mansion is believed to have been the first brick house in town. Local tradition suggests that the house on Pleasant Street was too far from town to suit Hepsabeth, so Jared had a second brick house built at the corner of Broad and Centre Streets, today known as the Jared Coffin House.
The much admired Moors End garden was first laid out during the ownership of Henry Bigelow Williams (circa 1899). In the 1920s, the garden was restored by architect Fiske Kimball, a leading architectural historian (Monticello, Stratford Hall) and longtime director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art; today it remains one of the most formal early gardens on island. 2010 NPT Landscape Award. Garden open.
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Day Three Thursday June 8, 2017 Meet in front of the Unitarian Meeting House 9:00 am
Bus Trip to ‘Sconset Talks en route: The Natural Landscape Jim Lentowski Executive Director, Nantucket Conservation Foundation Allen Reinhard Chairman, Nantucket Island Land Bank
Betsy Grubbs
Executive Director, ‘Sconset Trust
Elizabeth Churchill
Architect and Board Member, ’Sconset Trust
‘Sconset Chapel, 18 New Street, Siasconset 10:00 am
Welcome T. Maxwell Mundy, NPT Board Member ’Sconset Architecture in the Golden Age Michael May, Executive Director, NPT
11:00 am
Tour: Summer Cottages of the Golden Age (see map on page 27)
12:45 pm
Lunch at the Chanticleer, 9 New Street
2:30 pm
Bus returns to town
3:00 – 5:00 pm
Self-guided tour: Nantucket museums and public buildings, map provided
5:30 – 6:30 pm
Open House Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum, 49 Union Street Stop by on your way to the closing reception
6:30 – 8:00 pm
Closing Reception Great Harbor Yacht Club, 96 Washington Street 24
Day Three ’Sconset Chapel c.1883
According to local tradition, the Siasconset Chapel (circa 1883) was designed by a Detroit architect named Varney—most likely Almon C. Varney, a prolific architect of the late nineteenth century from that city. The chapel was constructed by Charles W. Robinson, an island builder who won the construction contract with a low bid of $1,680. Over the years, the building has undergone sensitive changes and is locally cherished for its fine tin-cladded interior. Today, the building is protected with a preservation easement held by the ’Sconset Trust. 2017 NPT Preservation Award.
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Day Three TOUR
’Sconset Architecture
The earliest dwellings at ’Sconset were small one-room “fish houses” built of scavenged and discarded lumber. They first housed fishermen, but by the mid-eighteenth century these structures had been expanded into cottages with T-shaped plans that were used by entire families during the summer months. Sea captains, merchants, and other well-to-do Nantucketers held them, and new fish houses were built in a similar manner into the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It was not until the 1830s that this form was abandoned and new architectural forms were introduced. Small, symmetrically balanced cottages reflecting the then-fashionable Federal and Greek Revival architecture of the period were constructed along Main Street and New Street by the 1830s. These one-and-a-half-story, rectangular-plan cottages were restrained in their ornamentation compared to mainland counterparts. They contained only a hint of classically inspired features such as columns or tapered piers, symmetrical fenestration, and fanlights at their gable ends. By the 1840s, gable-front houses were constructed on island, and soon the form was used along Main Street in ’Sconset as well. The cottages were often graced by a front porch— possibly the first full porches on Nantucket. As in town, with the construction of Hadwen’s Greek Revival mansion, the largest house of this style in ’Sconset was built in the late 1840s as Nantucket’s Golden Age drew to an end.
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’SCONSET TOUR
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Summer Cottages of the Golden Age: 11:00 am to 12:30 pm DIGITAL VERSION: http://bit.ly/2qUQi7v
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House Tour Chanticleer Public Restrooms ‘Sconset Chapel
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Day Three The Old Gardner House 5 Broadway
The histories of some of the earliest fish houses remain a mystery, including the cottage at 5 Broadway. Local lore notes that it was built c. 1751 by Prince Gardner, but no record of his ownership has yet been found. We do know that in 1847 George C. Gardner (1809–89), acquired the Broadway cottage from Edward Ray (1800–75). Gardner, a gentleman farmer, lived in town during the off season in the grand house at 141 Main Street. Annie Barker Folger purchased the ’Sconset property in 1909 and sold it to the Nantucket Historical Association for use as a library and museum. In1939, Mildred Burgess, a local real estate agent and Gardner descendant, purchased the property and returned it to residential use. The cottage is one of the untouched early fish houses.
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The Maples 14 Broadway
Local lore suggests the house was built during the War of 1812 when iron for hardware was rare, since the house is among the few that was originally constructed with wooden hinges and other wooden hardware. It was held in 1814 by Latham Gardner, who most likely built it. Gardner (1760–1830), a selectman and town clerk, is said to have served with John Paul Jones as a petty officer on the Ranger before becoming a whaling master. By 1858, David Mitchell (1799–1875) a successful blacksmith with a shop in town among the wharves and extensive real estate on island, held the cottage. For much of the late nineteenth century it was known as the Eliza Mitchell (1808–96) house, for David’s fourth wife and widow. Today, the lane between Shanunga and the Maples still bears the Mitchell name. Eliza died in 1896 at the age of eighty-nine and the property passed to Joseph W. Clapp, her son from her first marriage to Timothy Clapp (1800–42).
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Day Three Shanunga 12 Broadway
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Local tradition suggests that this fish house was built in the 1680s and brought from nearby Sesachacha. Although this date cannot be verified, we do know the oldest section is the T-shaped south end. The north end’s tall section probably dates to the late eighteenth century, and the lean-to along the side lane was most likely added in the nineteenth century.
Uriah Swain (1754–1810), the first known owner, was a successful whaling captain who was recruited by merchant William Rotch in 1786 to establish a whaling station at Dunkirk, France. Upon Swain’s death in 1810, the cottage came into possession of his daughter, Elizabeth Swain Cary (1778–1862). Her husband, James Cary, died on a voyage to China in 1812 and, like many widows on island, she operated a public house to make ends meet. In 1860, Harper’s Weekly published an unflattering depiction of her public house and included a sketch of “Betsey” Cary with a whiskey bottle in each hand. The cottage is named for the ship Shanunga, which sank off the south shore of Nantucket in the 1850s, and whose quarterboard and figurehead were found here for many years. The cottage’s authenticity drew the attention of William Sumner Appleton, founder of the Society for The Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England), who purchased the property from the family in 1943 and held it until his death in 1947.
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Day Three 20 Main Street c. 1830
This house is perhaps the earliest of ’Sconset’s Main Street cottages and was constructed by banker Frederick W. Mitchell, who resided most of the year in town in the large Federal brick house at 69 Main Street. Mitchell appears to have spurred development of Main Street ’Sconset, constructing at least one other cottage as well as being one of twenty-seven partners in building of the Atlantic House in 1848.
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Mitchell retained 20 Main until 1855, when he sold it to Eunice Hadwen, wife of William Hadwen and owner of the Two Greeks in town. Interestingly, Eunice’s deed notes her ownership was “free from the interference or control of her husband.” The cottage was expanded in the early twentieth century under the supervision of architect Frederick P. Hill, a McKim, Mead & White protégé.
22 Main Street c. 1831
Successful banker, real estate magnate, and whale-oil merchant Philip H. Folger built this cottage on land he purchased from Mitchell in 1831. Like his neighbors, he resided in town in an opulent house at the corner of Main and Orange Streets—perhaps the most fashionable at the time, employing a brick façade and Bostonian-type bowed windows. However, Folger’s ’Sconset cottage conformed to the fashion of the day, with a simple symmetrical façade graced by a classical columned porch. By 1865, the cottage had acquired a dormer; later changes included the addition of the two-story façade. A milestone marker, placed here in the 1820s, is found out front, noting the mileage to town.
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Day Three 27 Main Street c. 1848
The construction of the Atlantic House, the first hotel built on island to cater exclusively to the summer visitor, marks the end of the Golden Age in ’Sconset. This large structure was owned by a group of the town’s most successful businessmen, who saw ’Sconset’s potential as a summer resort for off-islanders. The demise of whaling and the California Gold Rush a year after the Atlantic House construction, however, were heavy blows to the tourist trade, which would not rebound until the end of the nineteenth century. In the 1920s, Frederick P. Hill was hired to convert the hotel into a private home. The building was repositioned on site and reduced in size. Today, the façade is protected with a preservation =easement held by the ’Sconset Trust.
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28 Main Street c. 1837
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Matthew Crosby, whale-oil merchant, hired carpenter Charles Pendleton to build this cottage at a cost of $1,812, with all the work “to be of the like finish of Frederick W. Mitchell’s” (20 Main Street). The cottage certainly resembles the other Federal/Greek Revival cottages along the road. It remained in the Crosby family until 1881, and has been held by only four families in its 180-year history.
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Day Three The Chanticleer, 9 New Street c. 1837
At the east end of the Chanticleer is an old cottage that for years stood on the ’Sconset bank and was moved to New Street in the 1840s. The restaurant can trace its roots back to the early twentieth century, when Broadway actress Agnes Everett opened the Sign of the Chanticleer here and served tea, sandwiches, and ice cream. The fine additions to the old house were built in the early 1920s.
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Day Three Spend the late afternoon touring Nantucket’s museums and public buildings and then stop by the
Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum 49 Union Street on your way to the closing reception.
Housed in a c. 1821 house, the museum is dedicated to preserving the traditional and rich history of Nantucket’s lightship basket making.
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Stay
Connected Why not take what you learned during the three-day event and continue the conversation? Help the Nantucket Preservation Trust in its mission “to advance the preservation of Nantucket’s interior and exterior architectural history for the benefit of current and future generations.” Advocate for historic preservation and use these social media and contact listings to engage with the symposium attendees, speakers, organizations, and businesses who also participated. Share photos, learn about preservation events, lectures, and happenings, and show your support for architectural preservation. Your support matters.
PEN AUSTIN
JIM LENTOWSKI
penaustin@gmail.com
jlentowski@nantucketconservation.org
ELIZABETH CHURCHILL
THERESE O’MALLEY
echurchillarch@gmail.com
t-omalley@nga.gov
MARSHA FADER
MICHAEL MAY
marsha@mfader.com
mmay@nantucketpreservation.org
PAUL GOLDBERGER
MAXWELL MUNDY
paul@paulgoldberger.com
tmmundy@aol.com
www.paulgoldberger.com
BRIAN PFEIFFER
@paulgoldberger
brpfeiffer22@gmail.com
212-874-0505
ALLEN REINHARD
BETSY GRUBBS
allenreinhard@yahoo.com
egrubbs@sconsettrust. org
CATHERINE TAYLOR
MICHAEL HARRISON
ctaylor@nha.org
mharrison@nha.org
BETSY TYLER
MARTY HYLTON
mhylton@dcp.ufl.edu
CATHERINE ZIPF
PETER KENNY
betsytyler@comcast.net
cwzipf@gmail.com www.catherinezipf.com @CatherineZipf
Peter@classicalamericanhomes.org
NANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST
@ACKPresTrust
@ackpreservationtrust 34
@nantucketpreservationtrust
Notes
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NANTUCKET ISLAND
INVITING YOU TO EXPERIENCE AN UNFORGETTABLE STAY
WhiteElephantHotel.com
n
800.445.6574
39 6061 WE Nan Pres Trust ad fnl.indd 1
3/7/17 4:14 PM
Contributions LEADERSHIP SUPPORT:
EVENT UNDERWRITERS:
$10,000+ Barbara and Amos Hostetter Doug and Caroline Ellis
Community Foundation for Nantucket’s reMain Nantucket Fund
$5,000 – $9,999 Barbara J. Fife Carol and Kenneth Kinsley Ann and Craig Muhlhauser
Susan Zises Green Inc. ASID Interior Design and Decoration
$1,500 – $4,999 BNY Mellon Botticelli and Pohl Chris Dallmus, Design Associates Inc. Richard Doyle and Kate O’Kelly Al and Nancy Forster Mark and Eleanor Gottwald Cassandra Henderson Elizabeth Jacobsen Diane and Art Kelly Carolyn Knutson Chris Mortenson Winnie Mortenson Mark and Gwenn Snider, Nantucket Hotel Harris E. Stone Marie and John Sussek Henry K. Willard II
The White Elephant
IN-KIND SUPPORT AND OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS A special thank you to the homeowners and volunteers for their support in making this program possible.
Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum Nantucket Yacht Club ‘Sconset Trust Siasconset Union Chapel The South Church Preservation Fund David and Barbara Spitler Paul and Melinda Sullivan The Unitarian Meeting House Pam Waller Yellow Productions
Artists Association of Nantucket Mary-Randolph Ballinger David Barham and Lauri Robertson Bartlett’s Farm Cape Cod 5 Coffin School First Congregational Church Great Harbor Yacht Club Maria Mitchell Association Nantucket Historical Association
Nantucket Preservation Trust • PO Box 158 www.nantucketpreservationtrust.org 40