History of Nantucket, Massachusetts

Nantucket is an island and historic town in Massachusetts. Located 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Nantucket has a rich maritime history.

The following is a timeline of the history of Nantucket:

Pre-Colonization:

• Prior to colonization, the island is inhabited by about 2,000 to 3,000 members of the Wampanoag tribe and is home to at least six Wampanoag villages.

1602:

• English explorer Captain Bartholomew Gosnold spots Nantucket while exploring the east coast of North America and explores Nantucket Sound.

1621:

• The island is granted to the Plymouth Company of London.

1635:

• King Charles I grants the island to William, Earl of Sterling.

1639:

• King Charles I also grants the island to Sir Ferdinand Gorges, resulting in conflicting claims to the island.

1641:

• Thomas Mayhew, a settler in Watertown purchases the land rights to Nantucket from William, the Earl of Sterling.

1643:

• Thomas Mayhew begins missionary activities among the Native Americans on the island, attempting to convert them to Christianity.

1659:

• The island is officially settled after Thomas Mayhew sells it to a partnership of nine other investors: Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Tristram Coffin Sr, Christopher Hussey, Thomas Macy, William Pile, John Swain, Stephen Greenleaf and Richard Swain of Martha’s Vineyard for thirty pounds sterling and two beaver hats.

• The first settlement is established at Madaket Harbor during the winter.

• The number of settlers on the island is about 15 to 25.

1660:

• In the spring, new settlements are established in the Reed Pond area and Hummock Pond area.

• The Nantucket partnership of investors is expanded to 20 investors.

• The investors also purchase the rights to the western half of the island, half the marshes and meadows on the rest of the island, all the timber and the rights to graze cattle anywhere on the island from sachems Wanackmamack and Nickanoose.

• The Old Poplis Burial Ground is established on Poplis Road sometime in the mid 1660s.

1661:

• Sachem Wanackmamack sells the rights to half of Tuckernuck Island and portions of eastern Nantucket to the Nantucket partnership.

1671:

• Nantucket is incorporated as a town in the Province of New York.

1673:

• The settlement is named Sherburne.

1675:

• The number of settlers on the island is about 150 to 250.

• The number of Native Americans on the island is about 2,400.

1682:

• The Auld Lang Syne Cottage – Zaccheus Hussey House – Captain Henry Coleman House, a fishing cottage, is built on what is now Broadway.

• The Shaununga – Uriah Swain House, a fishing cottage that later served as a tavern and also as a post office, is built on Broadway.

1686:

• The Jethro Coffin House, a First Period house also known as the Oldest House in Nantucket, is built on Sunset Hill Lane.

1690:

• The Christopher Starbuck House, a Colonial-style house, is built on Main Street.

• The Richard Gardner II House, a Colonial-style house, is built by Richard Gardner on Main Street.

1692:

• The island is annexed to the Province of Massachusetts Bay.

1695:

• The Thomas Macy and Deborah Coffin House is built on Tattle Court.

1696:

• A jail is built on Vestal Street.

1700:

• The Traders Lane Twin Factory, also known as the San Souci House, is built on Broadway.

• The Richard Macy Blacksmith Shop, also known as Hearts Ease, is built on Center Street.

• Quakers begin settling on the island between 1700 and 1750.

1711:

• A Quaker Cemetery is established near Macey’s Pond.

1713:

• Tuckernuck Island is granted to the town.

1722:

• The Richard Gardner Jr. House, a Colonial-style house, is built by Richard Gardner for his son Richard Gardner III on West Chester Street.

1723:

• The William Russell and Mary Coleman House, a Colonial-style house, is built on Orange Street.

1724:

• The Major Josiah Coffin House, a Georgian-style house, is built by Major Coffin for his son Josiah Coffin Esquire on North Liberty Street.

1725:

• The Barnabas Gardner House, a Colonial-style house, is built on Main Street.

1740:

• The Jabez Bunker House, a Federal-style house, is built on Main Street.

1745:

• The Macy-Christian House, built in old Sherburne in 1723, is moved to Liberty Street.

1746:

• The Windy Hill Mill, also known as Old Mill, is constructed on Prospect Street and is used to grind corn.

• The Old North Cemetery is originally established on New Lane as the private burial ground for the Gardner family sometime between 1709 and 1746.

1750:

• The William Ray Bunker and Charlotte Ramsdell House, a Georgian-style house, is built on Charter Street.

1763:

• An epidemic breaks out among the Wampanoag which greatly reduces their population to a few hundred.

1765:

• The overall population of Nantucket is 3,320 people.

• The native population is about 149, which includes 88 males and 66 females.

• The population of African Americans is about 44.

1766:

• The Newton Cemetery is established on Sparks Avenue sometime prior to 1766.

1774:

• The Seneca Boston – Florence Higgenbotham House is built for Seneca Boston, a formerly enslaved African American man, on York Street.

1775:

• The Norton House, a Saltbox-style house, is built on Tuckernuck Island, making it one of the first houses built on Tuckernuck.

• Nantucket is home to 150 whaling vessel, more than any other colonial port, but most of them are destroyed shortly after by British warships during the Revolutionary War.

1776:

• The Sconset Pump, a pump that served as the town’s main water supply, is built on New Street.

1790:

• The Reuben Clark and Deborah Bunker House is built on Fair Street.

• The Hanna Monaghan and Gertrude House, also known as Greater Light, is built on Howard Street.

• The Mitchell House is built on Vestal Street and becomes the birthplace of astronomer Maria Mitchell in 1818.

• The population of African Americans is about 90.

1792:

• The native population is about 20, which includes four males and 16 females.

1795:

• On June 8, the settlement of Sherburne is renamed Nantucket.

1800:

• The population of African Americans is about 228.

1802:

• The Masonic Lodge is built on Main Street.

1805:

• The Nantucket Old Jail is constructed on Vestal Street.

• Mill Hill Cemetery, an African American burial ground, is established on Mill Hill sometime prior to 1805.

1807:

• The Methodist Episcopal Meeting House Parsonage, a Federal-style house, is built on Lyon Street.

1809:

• The Second Congregational Meeting House, a Federal-style building, is built on Orange Street.

1811:

• The Prospect Hill Cemetery is established sometime around 1811 on Hummock Pond Road.

1823:

• United Methodist Church of Nantucket, a Greek Revival-style church building, is built on Centre Street.

1824:

• The African Meeting House is built on York Street and serves as a school and church for the local African American community.

1825:

• The Simon Cooper Starbuck Shop is built on Vestal Street.

1830:

• The population of African Americans is about 247.

1831:

• Main Street is paved with cobblestones.

1834:

• First Congregational Church of Nantucket, a Greek Revival-style church building, is built on Centre Street.

• The Nantucket Jail Keeper’s House is built on Vestal Street.

1838:

• The Quaker Meeting House, a Greek Revival-style building, is constructed on Fair Lane.

• The Sconset School is built on New Street.

1840:

• Fisher’s Hand Laundry, a Greek Revival-style building, is constructed on Brooks Court.

• The population of Nantucket is 9,012.

1844:

• The Hadwen House, a Greek Revival-style house, is built for wealthy whale oil merchant and ship owner William Hawden on Main Street.

1846:

• The Sons of Temperance Hall is built on Federal Street.

• On July 13, the Great Fire of 1846 breaks out on Main Street and destroys between 250 to 300 buildings.

1847:

• A new Atheneum building is constructed on India Street.

1848:

• The Atlantic House Hotel is built on Main Street.

1849:

• The Episcopal Church is rebuilt on Fair Street after the first one was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1846.

1850:

• The Sankaty Head Light, a 70-foot-tall brick and granite lighthouse, is built on Sankaty Head Road.

• The Brant Point Lighthouse is constructed on West Sankaty Road and is later moved to Sconset in 1856.

1852:

• The Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin Lancastrian School, a Greek Revival-style building, is constructed on Winter Street.

1855:

• Nantucket’s whaling fleet consists of 44 whaling ships.

• The population of African Americans is 186.

1856:

• A public high school is built on Academy Hill.

1858:

• The Sons of Temperance Hall is converted to the first Roman Catholic Church.

1865:

• Nantucket’s whaling fleet consists of seven whaling ships.

1869:

• The Antone Sylvia Grocery Store, an Italianate-style building, is constructed on Orange Street.

• The last existing whaling ship leaves Nantucket.

1870:

• The population of Nantucket is 4,123.

1872:

• The Tuckernuck Humane Society Lifesaving Station is built on Tuckernuck Island.

1874:

• The Nantucket Civil War Soldiers Monument, a granite obelisk, is erected on Milk Street with an inscription that reads: “Eternal honor to the sons of Nantucket who, by land and sea, gave their lives to preserve a united country 1861-1865.”

• The Wauwinet Hotel, a Colonial Revival-style building, is constructed on Wauwinet Road.

• The Surfside Lifesaving Station, a Victorian Gothic building, is constructed on Western Avenue.

1881:

• The West Jetty is constructed at Jetties Beach.

• The Nantucket Railroad Company builds a single, narrow gauge rail line from Steamboat Wharf at Nantucket Village to the south shore at Surfside Beach. The line was extended east to the fishing village of Siasconset at the eastern end of the island in 1884.

• A commercial scallop fishing industry is established in Nantucket.

1883:

• The Siaconset Union Chapel, a Victorian Gothic building, is constructed on New Street.

1886:

• The Fire Hose Cart House is built on Gardner Street which houses the fire department’s hose carts and pumpers.

1887:

• The Willard Hall – Women’s Christian Temperance Union building is constructed on Gardner Street and was originally a grocery store. Sometime around 1904 it began serving as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union building and now serves as a Christian Science Church and Reading Room.

• Saint Paul’s Catholic Church Rectory, a Victorian Eclectic-style building, is constructed on Gardner Street.

1890:

• The Brant Point Bath House is built on Bathing Beach Road.

• The U. S. Post Office – Siasconset Branch, a Victorian Eclectic-style house, is built on Main Street.

• Beach Street Railway Company establishes a horse car service from Main Street along Brant Point Road to the lighthouse.

1893:

• The Siasconset Package Goods Store is built on Main Street.

1894:

• A new macadamized (compacted crushed stone) state road is built from Nantucket Village to the fishing village of Siasconset at the eastern end of the island.

1895:

• The Walter B. Marden House and Plumbing Shop, a Victorian Eclectic-style house, is built on Milk Street.

• The rail line to Surfside Beach is abandoned and replaced by a shorter more direct rail line between Nantucket Center and Surfside Beach.

1897:

• A new Roman Catholic church is built on Federal Street.

1899:

• The Siasconset Casino is constructed on New Street.

1900:

• The Marconi Wireless Station, which was the first wireless station in the U.S. to communicate with ships at sea, is built on Main Street.

1901:

• The Brant Point Lighthouse is built on Brant Point.

• The Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church, a Neo Gothic Church, is built on Fair Street.

1903:

• The Gordon Folger Hotel, a Colonial Revival-style building, is constructed on Easton Street.

• The Maria Mitchell House on Vestal Street opens as a museum.

1904:

• The Massachusetts Humane Society House – Station 52 is built on Baxter Road.

1905:

• The Nathaniel E. Lowell Shop is built on Main Street.

• The population of Nantucket is 2,930.

1906:

• The Quidnet Humane House Life-saving Station is built on Quidnet Road.

1908:

• The U.S Coast Guard Range Tower, an observation tower, is built on Brant Point.

• The Maria Mitchell Observatory is built on Vestal Street to house a telescope that had been given to Maria Mitchell, the first American woman astronomer, in 1859.

1909:

• The Sconset Inn is built on Magnolia Avenue sometime between 1909 and 1923.

• The Casino Bowling Alley is built on New Street as a new addition to the casino.

1910:

• The Eelskin Inn is built on at the boatyard and served as a rum runners shack before being moved to Maine Avenue and becoming an inn.

1915:

• Cady’s Bakery is built on Main Street and may have served as a twine factory before becoming a bakery.

1916:

• New England Telephone and Telegraph Building is constructed on Fair Street.

1917:

• The Siasconset Public School, a Colonial Revival-style building, is constructed on West Sankaty Road.

1919:

• The Westmoor Inn, a Colonial Revival-style building, is constructed on Westmoor Lane.

1925:

• The Siasconset Water Department Office is built on Main Street.

• The Nantucket Water Tower is built on New Street.

1927:

• The Massachusetts State Police Barracks, a Colonial Revival-style building, is constructed on North Liberty Street.

1929:

• The Siasconset Flagpole Monument, also known as the David Grey Memorial Flagpole, is erected on Main Street.

1930:

• The Whaler Restaurant is built on Easton Street.

• The Telegraph House is built on Park Lane.

1931:

• The Cyrus Pierce High School, a Greek or Colonial Revival-style building, is constructed on Atlantic Avenue.

1935:

• The U. S. Post Office – Nantucket Main Branch is built on Federal Street.

1938:

• The Parsonage, a Colonial Revival-style house, is built on Baxter Road.

• The Walter B. Marden Plumbing Shop Garage is built on Milk Street.

• The Surfside Lifesaving Station Captain’s House is built on Station Street.

1940:

• The Nantucket Cottage Hospital Building is constructed on West Chester Street.

1944:

• The New England Telephone Company Building, a Colonial Revival-style building, is built on Main Street.

1946:

• Nantucket gives the deed to the Nantucket Old Jail to the Nantucket Historical Association.

1947:

• The Brant Point Inn, a Colonial Revival-style house, is built on North Beach.

1949:

• The Siasconset Public Restrooms are built on Folgers Court.

• The Siasconset Market is built on Main Street.

1950:

• The Brant Point Tennis Club is built on Bathing Beach Road.

• The Coskata Lifeboat Station, a Colonial Revival-style building, is moved to Brant Point.

• The Nantucket Conservation Foundation Office is built on Cliff Road.

1955:

• The Beachside Resort Motel is built on North Beach Road.

1961:

• The U.S. Coast Guard – Loran C Station is built on Low Beach Road.

1968:

• The Jethro Coffin house on Sunset Hill Lane is designated a National Historic Landmark.

1970:

• The Cliff Road Geodesic Dome, a modernistic-style house, is built for Dr. Richard Morgan on Cliff Road.

1975:

• The Sandandweede Gazebo is built on Hulbert Avenue.

• On May 2, the Nantucket Garden Club hosts the first annual Nantucket Daffodil Festival.

1977:

• The Sea Cliff Tennis Club is built on North Beach Street.

1979:

• Larsen Park is established on Main Street is dedicated to Boston publisher and conservationist Roy E. Larsen.

1987:

• On October 1, the Jethro Coffin House suffers severe structural damage, with a toppled chimney, damaged roof and melted electrical wiring, after being struck by lightening.

• On October 15, the Sankaty Head Light is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

2007:

• In October, the Sankaty Head Light is moved back 400 feet away from the eroding bluff on Sankaty Head Road.

2022:

• On May 3, residents vote in favor of the Gender Equality on Beaches bylaw amendment which authorizes any person to go topless on any public or private beach in Nantucket.

• On December 6, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office officially approves the Gender Equality on Beaches bylaw amendment.

Sources:
Macey, Obed. History of Nantucket. Hilliard, Gray and Co, 1835.
Nantucket Historic Walking Tour. Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce, 1992
MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report – Nantucket. Massachusetts Historical Commission, 1984.
“Cemeteries.” Nantucket Historical Association, cemeteries.nha.org/
“Nantucket Location.” Museum of African American History, maah.org/nantucket-location
“Friday Find: LOST Properties.” Nantucket Preservation Trust, nantucketpreservation.org/friday-find-lost-properties-5709/
“Historic Mitchell House.” Maria Mitchell Association, mariamitchell.org/historic-mitchell-house
Soverino, Michelle Cartwright. “The Great Fire of 1846.” Egan Maritime, eganmaritime.org/news/the-great-fire-of-1846
Carr, Rita. “The Great Fire of 1846 and Nantucket Architecture.” Nanatucket Preservation Trust, nantucketpreservation.org/the-great-fire-of-1846-and-nantucket-architecture-8452/
“Brief History of the NHA.” Nantucket Historical Association, nha.org/about-the-nha/brief-history-of-the-nha/
“About Nanatucket.” Nanatucket, MA – Official Website, nantucket-ma.gov/1608/About-Nantucket
“Historic Properties.” Nantucket Historical Association, nha.org/visit/historic-sites/
“Gender Equality on Beaches.” Nantucket, MA – Official Website, nantucket-ma.gov/2499/Gender-Equality-on-Beaches
“Oldest House History.” Nantucket Historical Society, nha.org/research/nantucket-history/histories-of-historic-sites/oldest-house-history/
MACRIS, Massachusetts Cultural Resource Information System, mhc-macris.net