The architecture of the dwellings of Nantucket may be divided into
three periods:
The English mode of the settlers. This is the early Colonial; the
lean-to type. Say, from the time of building the first houses up to
about 1740.
The next arbitrary division is the architecture of the Colonial and
early Federal times, approximately, as far as Nantucket is concerned,
dating from prior to the Revolutionary War to about 1830. Most of our
old dwellings belong in this division.
Finally, the Classic period. Commencing about 1830 and continuing to
about 1860, after which there was not much building of consequence of
any dwellings which need to be considered here.