The people for whom the old dwellings were built and the conditions
under which they lived were responsible for the architecture.
Here are extracts from most of the older writings, and some later
ones, which writings should be read in full by those interested.
1772--This is the date the author (Crevecoeur) of Letters From An
American Farmer, by J. Hector St. John, visited this island. The
“Letters” were written in English and first published in London in
1782. There was a French edition of 1784 and one of 1787. This is the
earliest descriptive writing of Nantucket with which we are familiar.
It consists of nearly one hundred pages, with a map, and should be
read entire by all who love their old Nantucket. Subsequent articles
and histories of the Island have not failed to make use of what St.
John wrote.
It is best to state that M. St. Jean de Crevecoeur may not have
been accurate in some details, as for instance the extent to which
building frames and foundations were brought from the mainland. The
writer of 1807 quoted hereinafter says of St. John’s Letters.
… “his pictures, though striking likenesses, are always
flattering. Another objection is that he is frequently
erroneous in minute and unimportant circumstances. He gives
the contour and character of the face exactly though, as
said before, in too favorable a light, but he makes strange
mistakes in the sleeve of a coat or the strap of a shoe.
If the reader has good nature enough to pardon these two
faults, he will peruse the Letters with perpetual delight.”
The following quotations are assembled from the “Letters:”
“The Island has nothing deserving of notice but its
inhabitants; here you meet with neither ancient monuments,
spacious halls, solemn temples nor elegant dwellings; not a
citadel nor any kind of fortification, not even a battery
to rend the air. Their rural improvements are all of the
most simple and useful kind. Sherburn is the only town on
the Island, which consists of about 530 houses that have
been framed on the main. They are lathed and plastered
within, handsomely painted and boarded without. Each has a
cellar underneath, built with stones also fetched from the
main. They are all of a similar construction in appearance,
plain and entirely devoid of exterior or interior ornament.
I observed but one which was built of bricks, belonging to
Mr. ----, but like the rest it is unadorned. Quayes is a
small but valuable tract long since purchased by Mr. Coffin
where he has erected the best house on the Island. The
differences which I observed in the people are founded on
nothing more than the good or ill success of their maritime
enterprises and do not proceed from education. That is the
same through every class: simple, useful and unadorned,
like their dress and their houses. They are well acquainted
with the cheapest method of procuring lumber from the
Kennebeck and Penobscot Rivers. All their houses are neat,
convenient and comfortable. Some of them are filled with
two families, for when the husbands are at sea the wives
require less house room. Those who possess the greatest
fortunes at present belong to the Society of Friends.
They yearly go to different parts of this continent,
constantly engaged in sea affairs. Sometimes they have
emigrated like bees. Some have settled on the famous river
Kennebeck, clearing the heaviest timbered land in America,
and instead of entirely consuming their timber as we are
obliged to do, some parts of it are converted into useful
articles for exportation, such as staves, boards, hoops,
barrels, etc. For that purpose they keep a correspondence
with their native island, and I know many of the principal
inhabitants of Sherburn, who though merchants and living at
Nantucket, yet possess valuable farms, on that river, from
whence they draw a great part of their substance, meat,
grain, firewood, etc. Yet there are not at Nantucket so
many wealthy people, after having considered their great
successes. The reason of this, I believe, is that their
island supplies the town with little or nothing (with few
families excepted). Everyone must procure what they want
from the main. Here are neither Scotch, Irish nor French,
as in the case in most other settlements. They are an
unmixed English breed.”
1791--By Walter Folger, jun., dated Nantucket, May 21, (Mass.
Hist. Soc. Coll.)
“In 1790 the whole number of inhabitants was 4619. They for
the most part are a robust and enterprising people, mostly
seamen and mechanics. It is no strange thing to see the
same man occupy the station of a merchant, at other times
that of a husbandman or of a blacksmith or of a cooper or
of a number of other occupations.”
1792--By Zaccheus Macy, dated Nantucket, 15th of 5th mo. 1792
(Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll.)
“In the year 1659 Thomas Macy removed with his family from
Salisbury to the west end of the island to a place called
Madakit harbour. Thither came four from Martha’s Vineyard
for the sake of gunning and lived with them as boarders. At
that time there were near 3000 Indians on Nantucket. They
were willing to sell their land and the English went on
purchasing, beginning at the west end of the island.”
Further on, Mr. Macy, alluding to the then (1792) status of affairs
on the island, states:
“A great many of our most substantial men, lured by the
hope of large bounties, have moved from the island, some to
England, some to France and others to Halifax, where they
carry on the whale fishery. This is a great damage to us.
If these persons had carried away with them their part of
the poor it would have lightened our burden, for we now
have 215 widows, of whom not thirty are able to support
themselves without the assistance of friends and neighbors
and some are maintained by the town. We have besides a
great number of poor, but we have a considerable number of
able and industrious men who carry on the whale fishery.”
1801--Josiah Quincy made a journey through the southeast parts
of New England in 1801. He kept a diary which is most
interesting reading. (Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc.) The following
are brief quotations from it:
“The town of Nantucket appears from the harbor as large as
Salem but exhibits no marks of elegance or splendour. With
one or two exceptions they (the houses) are built wholly of
wood and have but two stories. By far the greater number
are without paint and with those which have it, red is
the predominant color. They are built generally upon the
street. The almost total want of trees, houses and fences
in the interior part of the island makes the road very
uninteresting. Once in every two or three miles a single
farmhouse appears, surrounded by half a dozen dwarf cherry
trees. Such an assemblage is a wood on Nantucket, where
there is not a tree of native growth. We dined with Dr. and
Mrs. Easton.”
1807--A writer, under date of Aug. 1, 1807, (Mass. Hist. Soc.
Coll.) states:
“The town stands on the west side of the harbour and is a
mile and a half in length and a third of a mile in breadth.
It contains 850 dwelling houses (including 15 at Podpis,
Quayz, Squam, etc.) 63 stores, a great number of shops,
besides candle works, rope walks, etc., five wharves and
five windmills. The town, with exception of one or two
houses, is built of wood. The houses are generally two
stories in height; some of them have clapboards in front;
but the greatest part of them are covered with shingles.
Several of them are painted green. They are convenient
buildings, but there is not much elegance in their
appearance.”
Later on in his notes, he states:
“House lots in the town sell for from $100 to $200 a square
rod; rents are low, few exceeding $100 a year. The greatest
part of the houses are owned by those who live in them. The
present number of inhabitants is estimated at 6730.”
1811--Joseph Sansom, in The Port Folio, Jan. 1811:
“The Nantucket stores and houses are built of timber,
are mostly painted red or white and are crowned by the
steeples, or rather towers, of two Presbyterian meeting
houses. Several new streets have been laid out in straight
lines and a number of houses have been built within a
year or two with ceilings of 10 feet high. This, however,
is considered a piece of useless extravagance, the
old-fashioned stories of eight or nine feet being generally
reckoned high enough, and to spare. Every other house in
this seafaring place has a lookout upon the roof or a vane
at the gable end; to see what ships have arrived from sea
or whether the wind is fair for the packets.”