5 Mill Street by Nantucket Preservation Trust

5 Mill Street NANTUCKET

A House History

A Brief History 5 Mill Street

5 Mill Street, c. 1890s

or over a hundred years, local histories have identified the house at 5 Mill Street as the home of Alexander Ray. Historians based their assumption on William Coffin’s 1798 street list of Nantucket, which notes that Mill Street ran from Pleasant Street near the boat builder’s shop of Silvanus Macy, west by Alexander Ray’s house to Charles Bunker’s mill and west to the rope walks. Recent deed research, however, reveals that the house at 5 Mill Street was held by Charles Folger, boatbuilder, who built the house soon after his purchase of the vacant land in 1801. Early deeds for Ray’s house do not provide clues to its exact location along Mill Street, but an 1863 deed suggests it was located on the south side of Mill Street, adjoining his son Obed’s house located just west of the present pony field. The 1834 Map of Nantucket identified several houses located on the south side of Mill near this location—none of which are standing today. Most likely the confusion about the original owner arose due to the fact that the Ray and Folger families intermarried and Charles’s daughter, Clarissa Folger, married Alexander’s grandson, Charles Ray. By the 1870s, the Ray family held title to the property.

Charles Folger (1779–1860) was the son of Charles and Lydia Coleman Folger of Nantucket. He married Judith Coffin (1785–1850), daughter of Robert and Lydia Coleman Coffin, in the early 1800s. His purchase of the land and construction of the house appear to coincide with their marriage. The location, although not on the water, may have been ideal for a boatbuilder, since it was adjacent to the boatyard of Silvanus Macy. Charles had purchased the property, consisting of 30 rods, from his father, Charles, for $90, who bought it from Thomas and Ann Russell of Newport, Rhode Island. The land bordered Silvanus and Obed Macy’s land on the north and east, Mill Street on the south, and the land of Cyrus Hussey on the west. The deed also notes its earlier ownership as part of land surveyed to Richard Coffin Sr. on February 8, 1753, “being near the house [where] Benjamin Coffin formerly kept school.” Charles and Judith Folger raised seven children at 5 Mill Street: Clarissa (1804–66); Eliza (1806–40); Robert (b.1810–92); Mary (1813–93); Sarah (1816–87); Charles C (1818–70); Phebe (1821–72); and Albert (1824–61). The U. S. Census of 1850 lists Charles as a farmer—perhaps his occupation upon his retirement as a boatbuilder—with real estate valued at $3,400. At age 71, his household included his wife Judith, age 65; daughter Phebe, age 27; son Albert, 25, a blacksmith; and Mary Ann, 19, Albert’s wife. Later that year, Judith died and Albert and his wife headed west. Charles remarried another Judith Coffin (1786–1881), daughter of Ebenezer Coffin and Mary Cartwright, on August 31, 1851. Charles lived nine more years and left the house to his daughter Phebe with life rights to his second wife.

Detail of 1858 Map of Nantucket

5 Mill Street, c. 1890s

The 1860 U.S. Census notes that Judith and Phebe remained at the house, but by 1870 Phebe, listed as a “tailoress,” lived with her brother- in-law, Charles B. Ray, and his two youngest daughters, Mary Abby and Emily. It is unclear whether Phebe moved into the Ray house or they resided with her. In 1866, Phebe’s sister Clarissa and Charles’s wife had died, and it is likely that they formed a new household around that time. Charles Ray had previously purchased the house built by Cyrus Hussey to the west along Mill Street and New Dollar Lane. No listing for stepmother Judith Folger was found for 1870, but she may have moved to her own house on Main Street, a property she owned separately and which was noted in Charles’s will as her separate property. In 1872, Phebe, a single woman, died at the age of 49, and the property came into possession of her Ray relatives. By the 1880s, ownership appears to have been in the hands of Charles B. Ray (1798–1884), son of Obed and Lurania Ray, who married Clarissa Folger in 1825. A master mariner, Ray commanded several whaling expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, including one on the Forester, which wrecked off Long Island in 1841 with seventeen hundred barrels of sperm oil aboard. He later served on the Lightship for fifteen years, eventually retiring and taking up farming on-island. In 1866, Ray informed the Inquirer and Mirror that he had just completed his two-hundredth rattan (lightship) basket, a hundred and forty of which he had sold mostly to summer visitors. His son, Charles F. Ray, and grandson Clinton “Mitchell” Ray, continued the lightship basket trade into the twentieth century.

Portrait of Mitchell Ray by Ruth Haviland Sutton, 1948, pastel

Mitchy Ray lightship basket, collection of the NHA

In 1911, Mitchell, or Mitchy, Ray acquired his siblings’ share of the property, and in 1923 sold the house to Sophia Pitts Le Gendre, wife of William Le Gendre of Mt. Kisco, New York. Ray retained surrounding land, including his basketmaking studio on Starbuck Court. The Le Gendres held the house for two years before selling it to Eleanor L. Smith of Northampton, Massachusetts. The house was acquired in 1930 by artist Stanford Stevens (1897–1974), who built a studio at the east end of the house in 1932. Stevens, a native of Vermont, graduated from Harvard and worked on Wall Street before studying art in Paris and New York and pursuing his art career. He summered on Nantucket and later moved to Arizona, where he painted southwest landscapes. Stevens held the property for nine years before selling to noted antiques collectors Lucius D. and Rowena Russell Potter of Greenfield, Massachusetts, in 1939. The house was purchased by Adeline P. Ham, wife of Clifton, in 1957, and held by their daughter, Eleanor Ham (1912–78), into the 1970s. A graduate of Radcliffe College, Eleanor was a great lover of animals, particularly horses, and she also owned the pony field on Mill Street, which was given in her memory, to the Nantucket Historical Association in 1997. Eleanor named Thomas B. and Patricia H. Loring as her trustees, and they acquired the property the year prior to her death. In 1981, the Lorings sold the house at 5 Mill Street to Anne B. Grieves who held it until 2015, when it was sold to DWZ LLC.

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5 Mill Street during the Potter ownership, c. 1940s

Eleanor Ham photographed by Peter Rossiter, 1946

Along the lane with 5 Mill Street at right, c. 1920s

5 MILL STREET: OWNERS Charles Folger, boatbuilder Phebe Folger Charles B. Ray, et al Clinton Mitchell Ray Sophia Pitts Le Gendre Eleanor L. Smith Stanford Stevens Lucius D. and Rowena L. Potter Rowena L. Potter Adeline P. Ham and Eleanor Ham Eleanor Ham Thomas. B. and Patricia H. Loring Anne B. Grieves Dewez family (DWZ LLC)

Prepared by Michael May

Nantucket Preservation Trust

November 2016

Historic images courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association

1801-1860 1860-1872 1872-1901 1901-1923 1923-1925 1925-1930 1930-1939 1939-1952 1952-1957 1957-1969 1969-1977 1977-1981 1981-2015 2015-

Nantucket Preservation Trust Advocates, Educates, and Celebrates the Preservation of Nantucket’s Historic Architecture

his brief history is an important contribution to the island’s architectural record. Documentation is one of the ways the Nantucket Preservation Trust celebrates the more than 2,400 historic homes, farms, and workplaces that contributed to the island’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1966. By providing owners of historic houses, island residents, schoolchildren, and visitors a broad spectrum of programs and projects, we encourage the preservation of irreplaceable structures, architectural features, and cultural landscapes. Lectures, walking tours, house markers, special events, and publications—including the house histories and neighborhood histories—define our unique work on Nantucket. We hope you enjoy the history of this house, its past owners, and its place in Nantucket’s remarkable architectural heritage.

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