Historic Nantucket, July 1979, Vol. 27 No. 1

The Old Fair Street Rooms WITH THE REVIVAL of interest in the Historical Association's Fair Street building — or the "Fair Street Rooms," as they were at one time called — another part of our Association's history is revitalized. It was only a few years after the formation of the Nantucket Historical Association in 1894 that the need for a new headquarters became ap­ parent. The Quaker Meeting House on Fair Street had been purchased and became the first exhibit building. Within a span of eight years it became so crowded that the historic value of the collections was lost by the numbers of items on display.

At length, at the annual meeting in 1903, a committee was ap­ pointed, headed by Henry S. Wyer, to investigate the costs of erecting a suitable structure at the corner of Ray's Court and Fair Street, which would become the formal home of the Association. The committee reported with plans for a fire-proof structure, to be built of cement blocks, and an architect named George F. Watson was appointed to draw the plans.

The Quaker Meeting House was moved to the South a few feet. At a ceremony held in July, 1905, the corner stone of the new structure was placed in position, and the firm of Aberthaw & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, began the construction. A campaign for contributions launched the fundraising, but a large bequest from NJrs. Susan Wilson Folger enabled the work to proceed to completion in 1905. The stone boulder which had originally served as the door-stone of the home of Sachem Tashama, at the Indian village of Ocawan, near Gibbs' Pond, was moved to Fair Street and placed in the ground before the entrance.

In July, the first meeting of the Association took place in the new structure. From that time until 1971 "Fair Street" was the home of the Nantucket Historical Association. Many new exhibits were added; the building became crowded with displays of portraits, furniture, old china and glass, Indian artifacts, whaling implements (until the Whaling Museum was opened in 1930), tools, books, wagons, and manuscripts.

Not until the erection of the Peter Foulger Museum was the transfer of this collection to the new quarters in 1971 completed. Only the adjacent Quaker Meeting House remained as an exhibit building, and the Fair Street Rooms were virtually abandoned.

In 1976, the potential of the old building was recognized with the opening of the "18th Century Exhibit" developed by Mrs. Harding Greene. The success of this exhibit led to the idea of using the unusual