8 quaise comprehensive

Blueberry Hill

8 Quaise Pastures Road Ellis House - 1994

A House History Written by Betsy Tyler Designed by Kathleen Hay

The Nantucket Preservation Trust Two Union Street Nantucket Island, Massachusetts

Prehistory

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he human history of that point of land called Quaise on the south side of the Great Harbor of Nantucket begins with what little is known about the Wampanoag Indians who lived there long before the English settlers arrived, and even before the area comprising Nantucket was insular. Nantucket became an island about 5,000 years ago at the terminus of a glacier that had been slowing melting for about 10,000 years; once fifty miles inland, Nantucket was gradually surrounded by the rising waters and found itself almost thirty miles off shore. As the polar ice cap continues to melt, Nantucket may be completely under water in another half a millennium or so.

In Abram’s Eyes, a study of the first Nantucket people, Nathaniel Philbrick describes the local Wampanoag Indians as nomadic hunter-gatherers who moved their portable wigwams to fishing and agricultural grounds throughout the island as the seasons dictated. They enjoyed the natural resources of Quaise and other points along the south side of the harbor where shellfish were plentiful. The 1916 Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Association reports the discovery of an Indian grave at Quaise, containing in addition to human skeletal remains pieces of pottery and “the bones of the Indian’s dog, which was buried near the feet of its master, and which also had its bowl of pottery.”

In 1992, a Christian Indian burial ground was discovered nearby in Shawkemo; the discovery of that site prompted archaeologist Elizabeth Little, who authored a series of Nantucket Algonquian Studies, to consider the Wampanoags’ use of the area: It has long puzzled me why the Indians would sell their useful harbor land, and why there is little further mention of it . . . Since I’ve found few or no deeds to or from Indians for this land, I see it as land held in common among the proprietors of Nantucket, now including Indians, with Indians allowed to live on it without deeds and without paying tribute.

By the mid-eighteenth century, most of Nantucket’s Indian population was centered in the swamplands around Miacomet; any Indian occupation or use of Quaise and adjacent areas was no longer a question after the Indian Sickness of 1763–64 decimated that population by almost two-thirds.

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English Arrival

When the portion of the island west of Hummock Pond was sold by Thomas Mayhew (who had been deeded the island by an agent of the crown in 1641) to a group of settlers from mainland Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Mayhew reserved for himself the land known as Quaise, a term that probably comes from the Algonquin “Uhquae,” and means “at the end or extremity of.” “Masquetuck” is another name frequently used in local deeds for the area extending from the east side of Shawkemo Creek to Polpis Harbor; it means “reed river land.” The Indians wove the reeds that grew along the creeks and harbor into mats that were used in and on their wigwams, and for clothing as well; the plant was one of their most valuable resources.

Thomas Mayhew had made a number of missionary trips from his home on Martha’s Vineyard to proselytize among the Indians of Nantucket and knew the island well enough to recognize the value of Quaise, with its protected harbor access, rich shellfish beds, and prime agricultural and wooded land.

What went on at Quaise in the first hundred years or so after the English settlement can be surmised: Wampanoags still lived in the area and continued their traditional uses of the land while the early settlers gathered “salt hay” near the shore and transported some of their sheep up the harbor to graze there. Thomas Mayhew remained at his home on Martha’s Vineyard, never relocating to Nantucket. Although there appears to be no deed recording his transfer of Quaise to other parties, as early as 1678 the Proprietors, or landholders of Nantucket, doled out twenty-five one-acre parcels among themselves in “Masquetuck.”

An important eighteenth-century document describes the division of Quaise among property owners, providing the first clear picture of who held title to this choice piece of land at the end of the colonial era. In 1775 common owners of Quaise divided the land into east and west tracts: John Coffin and his cousin Abigail Swain were given the west half, while nine other parties (Zaccheus Coffin, David Coffin, Shubael Coffin, Josiah Barker, Benjamin and Lydia Fosdick, Richard Coffin’s heirs, Lydia Coffin, Abishai and Dinah Folger, and Susannah Coffin) were allotted the east half. The west half was deemed sufficient to graze 279 sheep, the east half 249 sheep.

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Postcard of Quaise Commons

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Deed of Division - 1775

Throughout most of the nineteenth century Quaise was divided into two or three sections, and at various intervals one person owned all of those pieces.

A map drawn in 1910 shows the division of Quaise into east and west portions: Quaise Road, which runs from Polpis Road north to the Great Harbor, on the east side of Bellows Pond, is pretty close to the original dividing line.

In the early nineteenth century Obed Mitchell owned most of Quaise, except for the west half of the west side, which was known as the Hiram Folger Farm. Mitchell sold the east half of West Quaise to Simeon Macy in 1820, and his heirs sold all of East Quaise to the Town of Nantucket in 1822.

Two important episodes in Nantucket’s history took place in Quaise: Kezia Folger Coffin’s purported smuggling activity during the Revolutionary War at her “country seat” in West Quaise and the operation of the town’s poor farm, known as the Quaise Asylum, from 1822 to 1855 in East Quaise.

Plan Book - 1910

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Kezia Folger Coffin’s Country Seat Kezia Folger Coffin is the most notorious woman in Nantucket history; over the centuries she has been fictionalized, lampooned, and reviled for her support of the crown during the American Revolution, and for her smuggling of embargoed goods, which she sold to an impoverished town at inflated prices. It is hard to know what is true about Kezia, except that she was an intelligent, capable woman who may have been an unpopular opportunist. J. Hector St. Jean de Crevecoeur, in his book Letters from an American Farmer, written before the Revolution and published in 1782, describes her specifically as a model of the good wife: The richest person now in the island owes all his present prosperity and success to the ingenuity of his wife . . . for while he was performing his first cruises, she traded with pins and needles and kept a school. Afterward she purchased more considerable articles, which she sold with so much judgment that she laid the foundation of a system of business that she has ever since prosecuted with equal dexterity and success. . .

[She and her husband] have the best country seat on the island . . . where they live with hospitality and in perfect union.

That country seat in West Quaise was built by John Coffin, Kezia’s husband, in the summer of 1777, as recorded in their daughter Kezia’s diary: “July 7 – Father about to build a house in his part of Quaise. Stephen Hussey, Henry Macy, Shubael Pinkham, & Elijah Swain carpenters.” Kezia Junior’s September 17 diary entry for the same year states that the new house was finished and partly occupied.

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Kezia (“Miriam”) Coffin House

What really transpired at Kezia’s house in Quaise is a matter of conjecture. Although she was accused of treason for her business activities during the Revolution, she was eventually acquitted, and some of her property seized by the court was returned to her. The location of the smuggling tunnel leading from her house in Quaise to the harbor is not now known. However, there is a description of it in a reminiscence written by Eliza W. Mitchell (1808-1896) when she was 87 years old. Mitchell refers to Kezia Coffin as “Miriam,” because that is how she became known to readers of Joseph C. Hart’s novel Miriam Coffin, or the Whale-Fishermen, published in 1834.

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Persons who read of Miriam Coffin, or books on early Nantucket, are curious to know if her country home at Quaise did really have a private passage, practically concealed that led to the water, when she frequently had contraband dry goods conveyed in small boats late in the eve, when all was quiet, by two or more men who were pledged to secrecy, and I will tell the story as Benjamin Franklin Folger [1777–1859], who is good authority of much that took place during his day and time told me. He said “I was very anxious as well as curious to find about there being anything of the kind, so one day I went out berry picking alone. As was my usual custom, I managed not to be seen and I went where I often had been told the entrance might be found, and while I was scrambling away grass and wild rubbish, there came along an old farmer man and said “What you up to? trying to find that old Tory’s smuggling hole?” I was a little vexed, but just laughed and said “well perhaps there is no such hole as you call it.” “Yes, there is, he replied, I have been in it.” So I then said “Well, am I on the right track?” He said “there is some work to be done for I found stones and all kinds of rubbish, and that was several years ago. . . .” I went to work and soon came to an opening and in a few days, after the air had passed through the opening, I crawled in and found just as he had told me, quite a strange place, and in the center I could stand nearly straight, all was time worn and very much decayed, but I saw all that I needed to convince me of what had been told of the crafty business she had the private room arranged for, no doubt she was a very capable woman, but lacking much in principle. The present owner Mr. William Starbuck (present tax collector) lives there. His wife’s father (Simeon Macy), great grandson of the famous Zaccheus Macy, owned and lived there with his family, just as Miriam built it and was quite a farmer for several years. After his death, Mr. and Mrs. Starbuck came in possession of the place, and had the old mansion removed and a more modern one erected in its place, so that all traces of the former fixture of Miriam Coffin’s have passed away.

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1890s view of Kezia (“Miriam”) Coffin House as reconstructed by William Starbuck

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Three bricks from Kezia’s house at Quaise are in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association, signifying the importance of her country home to the history of the island and the imagination of local residents. The house that William Starbuck built on the site of Kezia’s house became the summer home of Harriett Hollister sometime after 1912 until 1927 when she sold it to Josephine Wherry, who opened the doors of the “Miriam Coffin Tea House” to summer visitors.

The Wherrys capitalized on Kezia’s story which was revived by Edouard Stackpole in his novel of the American Revolution, Smuggler’s Luck, first published in 1931. In this delightful story, young Nantucket patriot Timothy Pinkham, after a series of near captures by a band of evil Tories, manages to find refuge at Kezia’s house in Quaise, and is secreted in her cellar where he stumbles upon the secret tunnel that led to the shore.

The era of tea houses on the island unfortunately ended, and the house built by William Starbuck on the site of Kezia’s country seat is now a private residence at the end of Bassett Road, overlooking the Great Harbor.

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Miriam Coffin Tea House Sign Miriam Coffin Tea House Sign

Tea House Ad - Inquirer & Mirror, 1931

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Tea House Ad - Inquirer & Mirror, 1931

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“A

ny of these good things may be had, combined with a view that surpasses any on the island.�

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Quaise Asylum In 1822 the town bought from the heirs of Obed Mitchell a 273-acre farm in Quaise and built four new buildings there, creating the town’s Poor Farm. Known as the Quaise Asylum, it opened its doors in 1823 to the town’s indigent, intemperate, and insane residents, as well as orphans and the infirm elderly, most of who were sent to the asylum by relatives who found their care too burdensome. The town appointed three overseers, whose responsibilities included hiring a keeper and making Saturday inspections and recommendations.

The Quaise Asylum, in addition to being a working farm, included a house of correction; those who were able-bodied worked, and those who were insubordinate or intemperate were temporarily placed in the farm’s jail. The farm produced vegetables, beef, and pork, kept sheep for shearing, and was not only self-sustaining but sold its surplus agricultural products to the town. The main residential building was two stories high, more than one hundred feet in length, and forty feet wide “with a cookery and ample accommodation for colored people in the rear.”

A devastating fire destroyed the main asylum building in February 1844, burning ten inmates to death; they are buried in the Quaise Cemetery on the south side of Polpis Road. The town rebuilt the Quaise Asylum on the same site in

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Lucy Macy Map Quaise Farm - 1830

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1845, at a cost of $12,000, but decided to move the entire building to lower Orange Street in 1854, where it was transformed into “Our Island Home,� a residence facility designed for the sick and elderly.

The Quaise Asylum property, or Quaise Farm, included all of East Quaise, from Polpis Harbor and the Great Harbor to Polpis Road, bounded on the west by the dividing line created in 1775.

The exact location of the farm buildings is not known, although Walter Ballinger, formerly of 5 Quaise Pastures Road, wrote a letter to the Nantucket Historical Association in 2003 describing the probable site : I am a property owner just to the northeast of this area and walked many times over the site of the asylum. There is still a rock lined space for what might have been a storage cellar, the stones blackened from fire of many years past.

I showed this burnt area to Edouard Stackpole some years before his death and he agreed it must have been part of the old asylum.

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Our Island Home

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Quaise Cemetery Although few people know the location of the Quaise Cemetery today, it can be fairly easily discovered if you know where to look. Maurice Gibbs, a Polpis Road resident and local-history aficionado, was made privy to the location of the cemetery by his elderly relative James H. Gibbs.

The cemetery was at one time on Maurice’s property, and James made him promise to keep it marked; the land is now owned by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation. Back in 1933, James H. Gibbs, then aged 83, realized that he was the only person living who had definite knowledge of the location of the burial ground, so he made a sworn statement for the public record, published in the Inquirer and Mirror, concerning the location of Quaise Cemetery. He described walking from his Shimmo home to the Polpis Schoolhouse when he was a boy and remembered the small burying ground on a knoll near the “east line” of Quaise; at that time the burying ground was enclosed by about fifty square feet of fence. As an adult in the 1880s Gibbs was employed

by Harrison Gardner and worked on his farm in Quaise for four years; it was in that decade that a section of Polpis Road bordering the south side of East Quaise was moved farther north, leaving about ten acres of East Quaise on the south side of Polpis Road. Included in that section of what used to be East Quaise was the small cemetery, no longer fenced in, but bounded by four cement posts installed by James H. Gibbs, at the request of Edgar J. Hollister, owner of the land in 1933.

There are no headstones in the cemetery, which is the final resting place for the ten residents of Quaise Asylum who died in the fire of 1844. Maurice Gibbs suggests that other indigent asylum residents were also buried there, making a total of seventeen graves. Not visible from the road, the site is still unmarked, although the four corners are delineated by sections of split-rail fence.

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Quaise Cemetery - 2005

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Land Court Plan 11647A

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George C. Gardner, John C. Gardner, Harrison Gardner The town sold Quaise Farm to George C. Gardner in 1855; he, as well as previous and subsequent owners, referred to the property as the “John Elkins Farm� in deeds of purchase and sale, referring to John Elkins who was the owner in 1807 when the parcel was sold to Tristram Hussey. The legal description of the area did not change until 1927 when it was surveyed and documented by the Massachusetts Land Court as Original Certificate 1363, Plan 11647A.

Quaise landscape - 1880s

George C. Gardner (1807-1898) was the gentleman farmer who built the house at 141 Main Street in the town of Nantucket, and is known for having grown the formerly famous Nantucket white turnips and selling the seeds to a prominent national seed company. Whether he grew turnips in Quaise is not known, 25

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but he did graze sheep there.

He and his sons John C. and Harrison purchased all of Quaise in the late nineteenth century.

George C. bought East Quaise from the Town in 1855 and the Hiram Folger Farm at the other end of Quaise in 1862. He sold both those parcels to his son Harrison in 1891. In 1899 Harrison’s brother John C. Gardner bought the east part of West Quaise from William B. Starbuck, securing the land between Harrison’s two parcels, and selling that middle parcel to Harrison in 1902. Harrison then owned all of Quaise for a few months. Later in 1902 Harrison sold East Quaise and the Hiram Folger Farm to Ella B. Harps, keeping the middle section for himself.

When the map of Quaise was drawn in 1910, Harrison’s heirs still owned the middle section of Quaise, and Edgar J. Hollister owned the rest; he had purchased his portion from Ella Harps that year. Two years later he purchased the remainder of Quaise from Harrison’s heirs, becoming the owner of all of Quaise, with his daughter Harriett, by 1912.

Wooly residents of Quaise

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Gathering at Harrison Gardner’s farm

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Quaise Land Trust Edgar J. Hollister and Harriett E. Hollister created the Quaise Land Trust in 1911, holding in trust the property once known as the John Elkins Farm, or East Quaise, as well as the Hiram Folger Farm in West Quaise. Middle Quaise, or what was referred to in deeds as the east part of West Quaise, remained in Harriet’s name; she lived in the house William Starbuck built on the site of Kezia Folger Coffin’s “country seat.” In a thirteen page “Declaration of Trust” recorded at the Nantucket Registry of Deeds, the purpose of the trust is described as one of turning land into money.

All the trust property shall, for the purposes of these trusts be considered as converted in equity into money . . . and the profits or income, if any, accruing from said property before its sale shall be applied in the same manner and for the benefit of the same persons as if the same were income derived from investments of the proceeds of sale in personal securities. The shareholders shall have no estate or interest, legal or equitable, in the lands or other property held upon these trusts, and they shall have no right to call for any partition of the real estate. . .

The trust planned to issue twenty thousand preferred shares at $10.00 each and a hundred thousand common shares at $1.00 each, thus creating $300,000.00 worth of stock for property that Hollister purchased in 1910 for $6,000.00. The Quaise Land Trust was in existence until 1924; the only parcel it sold was a small 200′ x 200′ lot on the Great Harbor at the end of Quaise Road.

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Edgar J. Hollister was well known in New Jersey as a reclaimer of swampland; although he originally planned to turn 700 boggy acres in Bergen County, New Jersey, into agricultural land, when his investment in that project failed he was hired by new owners who turned the reclaimed land into an industrial area. Although that accomplishment might be reviled today as wetland encroachment and natural-habitat destruction, it was touted as progress in the 1940s. Hollister’s sympathies appeared to lie with more benign uses of land, however, as evidenced by an article he wrote in 1908 for The Craftsman, titled “Getting Back to the Base of Supplies: What the Revival of Small Farming Would Mean to This Country.” Fortunately for Quaise, his ownership of several hundred acres there was also benign. An obituary notice for Mr. Hollister, who died in 1949, mentions his residence in Quaise.

Mr. Hollister first came to Nantucket over forty years ago. He purchased Middle Quaise in 1912 and saw it expand from one house to a colony of about 14 homes. The Miriam Coffin country house of Hart’s novel was located on his property at Quaise. A fire destroyed most of the historic house and a new dwelling, following the style of the original, was constructed on the foundations. The old doors in the dining room are also from the original building. But the old tunnel which Miriam Coffin is supposed to have dug there was never discovered.

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Sharp Family In 1911 Dr. Benjamin Sharp (1858–1915) purchased from the Quaise Land Trust a small lot situated on the Great Harbor in a location perfectly suited for his scientific interests.

Professor of Zoology of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, he had studied marine animals of the Mediterranean and the Lesser Antilles in the 1880s; his 1883 doctoral dissertation written for the University of Wurzburg, Bavaria, was titled “The Eyes of Molluscs.” Dr. Sharp was a medical doctor (who chose not to practice) as well as a famous zoologist; he accompanied Robert E. Peary to the Arctic in 1891 as the official zoologist of the expedition. The small beach shack he built on his property in Quaise was a perfect site for the study of local marine life, and was a favorite relaxation and recreation spot.

Dr. Sharp died unexpectedly at the age of fiftysix near the Dismal Swamp of North Carolina while on a winter yachting expedition with friends. The town was shocked and saddened by the loss of its “foremost citizen – a man whom everybody respected and who was everybody’s friend.” In his will Dr. Sharp stipulated that his estate, both real and personal (after the distribution of scientific books, “microscopical” materials, postagestamp collections, and orchestral scores), be put in trust for the benefit of his wife, and after her decease, his three children: Benjamin 31

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Karl Sharp, Dorothea (Sharp) Richmond, and Harold Sharp. Acting as trustee of his father’s estate, B. Karl Sharp purchased all of East Quaise from the Quaise Land Trust in 1924; Dr. Sharp’s love of the area was obviously shared by his children, who acquired the land surrounding their father’s small lot. The property remained in the family until the parcel—except for a lot deeded to Randolph G. Sharp, son of Harold, on the northwest side—was purchased

by Robert and Cynthia Jay in 1957.

Dr. Benjamin Sharp’s shack

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The small beach shack he built on his property in Quaise was a perfect site forbeach the shack study he of local life, and inwasQuaise a favorite T he small builtmarine on his property was relaxation and recreation spot. a perfect site for the study of local marine life, and was a favorite relaxation and recreation spot.

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Aerial View of Quaise - 1927

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Salt haying at Quaise

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Quaise - 1979

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Jay Family - Quaise Pastures Road Robert and Cynthia Jay built their house in Quaise south of the point on a parcel that fronts on Polpis Harbor. During the last half of the twentieth century, the Jays subdivided various parcels of East Quaise and sold them to people who built the first houses in this area since the time of the Asylum. The first lots were sold to Allen P. Mills and Sarah Mills (1965), Walter F. Ballinger (1970), and Frances M. Ferguson Conroy (1970).

The Jays deeded Quaise Point to the “Inhabitants of the Town of Nantucket� in 1977, with the stipulation that no vehicular traffic be allowed on the point from June 1 to September 15; after September 15 those persons with noncommercial shellfish licenses are permitted access by vehicle, as long as they stay below the mean high water line.

Quaise Point - Town of Nantucket Web GIS

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In 1990, the Jays constructed Quaise Pastures Road, subdividing house lots on each side of it; the lots were reconfigured a number of times, resulting in a lengthy series of Land Court Plans. At the same time, a portion of their East Quaise property at the end of Quaise Pastures Road bordering Polpis Harbor was deeded to the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, and is now known as the Masquetuck Reservation.

This protected area includes several diverse habitats, the primary one being a hardwood forest of white and black oak trees, tupelo, red maple, American beech, and sassafras; it is one of Nantucket’s rare “hidden forests.” Other habitats in the reservation include a kettlehole freshwater bog colonized by sphagnum moss and a salt marsh where herons and egrets feed. A circuitous trail through the reservation provides a short hike over hilly terrain through the woods and bogs to the salt marsh and Polpis Harbor.

Not only did the Jays set aside land for conservation and recreational shell-fishing, they also placed conservation restrictions on the building lots on Quaise Pastures Road. These restrictions, held by the Nantucket Land Council, guarantee that the land be kept in its “natural, scenic and open condition for conservation purposes, for the protection of relatively natural wildlife habitat, relatively natural plant communities, and relatively natural ecosystems, to specifically preserve the wetland adjacent Quaise Pastures Road, to provide scenic views, and to prevent any use of the Premises that will significantly impair or interfere with the conservation values of the Premises.”

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Property owners are allowed to build one single-family home within the “building restriction line” established by a Declaration of Protective Covenants recorded October 30, 1990. The various limitations outlined in the conservation restriction serve to maintain a natural landscape, allowing for meadows and the growth of native plants – a happy compromise between the barren landscape created by hundreds of sheep in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the artificial “instant” landscapes created around so many twentieth-century Nantucket houses, where the sod is rolled out and mature and nonnative ornamental plants and trees are planted.

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University Of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station In the late twentieth century, the three sections of Quaise represented in the 1910 map continued to develop separately. The Sharp and Jay families owned East Quaise, Harriet Hollister lived in middle Quaise and partitioned off house lots in that area on Quaise Road and Bassett Road, and the western part of West Quaise—the old Hiram Folger Farm—became the University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station through the will of Stephen Peabody, whose estate in 1963 transferred the 110-acre property to the Trustees of the University of Massachusetts for use as a teaching and research facility, and to be maintained as a wildlife reserve.

By the early twenty-first century UMASS was in critical need of funding and saw the Nantucket Field Station as a small goldmine. Through state legislation, collaboration between UMASS and the Nantucket Conservation Foundation (NCF) was authorized, and a plan to increase the university’s revenue while preserving the research facility was established. As owner of the property, purchased for $20 million, NCF has agreed to protect the land from development and preserve the natural habitats and scenic environment of the field station, which will continue as a base for UMASS students, faculty, and scientists involved in research and educational activities. One major benefit of the new stewardship of the property was the opening to the public of forty-five acres for “low-impact use” that does not interfere with the university’s activities on the adjoining sixty-five acres. Like the Masquetuck Reservation in East Quaise, the field station property in West Quaise—renamed the Grace Grossman Environmental Center in August 2004—has walking trails open to the public.

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Quaise Pastures Road: Douglass and Caroline Ellis The Ellis house at 8 Quaise Pastures Road, designed by Christopher F. Holland, is a discreet addition to the natural landscape that attracted Douglass and Caroline Ellis to Quaise.

Former residents of “Bluff Cottage” on Front Street in Siasconset, they chose to move to the end of Quaise Pastures Road for privacy and access to the harbor, and to enjoy the natural assets of the land.

Although they have a house in Brookline, the Ellises consider Nantucket their home. Douglass commutes to his law practice in Boston and daughter Sarah works and lives in Greenwich Village in New York City, but Nantucket is their family center.

Approach to house

Caroline and Douglass purchased their land in Quaise in November 1994 and worked with architect Chris Holland over the course of 1995 to plan a house that would simply and comfortably accommodate them on the property they call “Blueberry Hill.” Lucinda Young, a landscape designer known for her 1992 publication Naturalistic Landscaping for Nantucket: An Ecological Approach, was involved in the planning from the beginning, working to protect the natural landscape from the destruction so often incurred at worksites by construction vehicles and machinery. She created a fence-lined construction road over the meadow to the building site that limited 42

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traffic to one path; when the construction was completed, the road was seeded over with native bluestem grass making the track indistinguishable today.

The Ellis house, situated in the building envelope defined by the conservation restriction on the property, is appropriate in scale to its site. In her discussion of twentieth-century architectural design on Nantucket in SeaCaptain’s Houses and Rose-Covered Cottages, Patricia Egan Butler compliments Holland’s design of the Ellis house.

His work is known for its innately appropriate scale and complementary relationship to site topography and vegetation.

In a house he built in 1995 in Quaise on Polpis Harbor, Holland gave great attention to an overall low massing, facing south on a gentle rise.

A muted palette is respectful of surrounding nature. A rural historic reference is provided by the cupola. Holland’s subtle and appealing architecture is contemporary, yet firmly informed by Nantucket’s building customs.

Driveway entrance

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Blueprints of 8 Quaise Pastures - 1995 Chris Holland, Architect

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Chris Holland has designed more than sixty houses on Nantucket, and almost two hundred additions to houses; as in all of his projects he elicited as many specific ideas from his clients as possible, particularly orientation of the house—views and sunlight —as well as desired living space. Having known Douglass and Caroline since their high school days, it was easy for him to translate their requirements into an environment that was appealing to them and their daughter Sarah. The house is a compilation of structures, following the pattern of New England farmhouse accretion: a main mass (or farmhouse), a secondary mass (or barn) and an enclosed connection between the two. In the case of the Ellis house, the “farmhouse” includes kitchen, dining room, and Caroline and Douglasss’s master-bedroom suite, with an office and guest room on the second floor; the “barn” is a separate garage with Sarah’s private space above, and the link is the living room, which was originally intended to be a screened-in porch between the main and secondary masses but is now a central room with views of the meadow and harbor on one side and an enclosed and protected garden on the other.

Architect Holland cited as a guiding document “Rural Scenic Road Design Guidelines on Nantucket: Traditional Farmhouse Architecture – the Classical Vernacular,” a 1994 Nantucket Historic Districts Commission project. This short treatise presents specific guidelines for rural design; the recommendation is to preserve the natural landscape and scenic vistas, and to consider the “traditional extended farmhouse complex” as the model, which is exactly what Holland did. The resulting house is neither oversized nor overgrand, made of high-quality traditional materials that blend with the natural landscape.

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Nantucketer Lucinda Young, who studied botany and art history at Connecticut College and brings that knowledge and aesthetic sensibility to her work, has been designing island gardens since 1980. The garden that she created on the west side of the house reflects a love of Italian gardens and landscapes shared by Lucinda and Caroline Ellis: they refer to the space as “Italy meets Nantucket.�

A three-phase project to date, the first step was to create a garden in the walled enclosure off the back side of the living room. This space, a summer room with the sky for a ceiling, became a natural outdoor extension of the house that is occupied and enjoyed whenever the weather cooperates. Two-footsquare bluestone tiles are laid out in a diagonal pattern to form the terrace and espaliered crab-apples cover the garden walls. Tupelos and red maples, plants commonly found in the surrounding landscape, were brought into the garden space, along with sky pencil hollies that mimic in a diminutive version the cypress trees seen on Italian hillsides. Sweet pepper bush, ink berry, heathers, and heaths are interspersed with boxwoods and many varieties of hosta.

Garden Designer Lucinda Young

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Garden prior to pool

After pool was added...

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This first garden room was expanded in 1998 to accommodate a pool. Because the building envelope for the Ellis property is limited by the conservation restriction, the challenge was to place the pool where it was not a focal point; no one wanted to look at a pool-cover all winter.

Lucinda was house-sitting for Douglass and Caroline in the wintertime when she had the idea of extending the garden room and making a right angle turn along the west side of the house, adding the pool where it was not visible from the living room but was in a natural extension of the garden room. The garden walls and bluestone terrace were continued in this second section, to just beyond the end of the pool, with similar plantings along the perimeter.

Phase three of the garden saw the space extended past the pool to include a vine-covered pergola and additional seating and dining space within the garden walls. Lucinda wrote a paean to the garden in 2001.

A two-sided garden connecting inside with outside. On one side, Nantucket, soft and natural, preserved pastureland rolling softly down to Polpis Harbor. On the other, a hint of Italy brought home, pattern and symmetry, proportion and scale, order. Juxtaposed human touches on the land, a blurring of two versions, a tension and delight between them. Similarities and distinctions. One soft, one harder edged, both serene. Water connects the two landscapes. One managed with motors and measured chemicals, pumps and filters. The other controlled by the pull of the moon, the ebb and flow of the tide, wind and sun. Both constantly in flux with changing light, weather and wind. A Nantucket house placed between two gardens, two views, and two versions of how and where we place ourselves.

The Ellis place.

The Ellises, along with 378 other Garden Conservancy “garden hosts” across the U.S.— including eight on Nantucket—opened their garden for a day of public viewing in 2003, sharing their favorite spot with those fortunate enough to take advantage of the day.

Caroline wrote the description of her garden for the 2003 Open Days Directory.

Vegetable garden hidden from view

An oak forest and tupelo grove protect the house and garden from ocean winds. The naturalistic landscape designed by Lucinda Young contrasts rolling serene meadow views of West Polpis Harbor with an enclosed garden set in a small building envelope on a conservation restriction, consisting of heaths, heathers, and a crab apple espalier. A vegetable garden and chicken yard are hidden from view.

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A

vegetable garden and chicken yard are hidden from view.

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Wildflowers are an important part of the natural landscape of Quaise; they are varied and prolific, and well documented by island naturalist and photographer Cheryl Comeau Beaton, who literally crawled over every square foot of the Ellis property photodocumenting the botanical specimens there.

Cheryl spent the summers of her youth camping with her family and learning the lore and uses of native plants; after graduating from high school she moved to Nantucket, and as a self-taught photographer and botanist began documenting Nantucket’s native species. Caroline and Cheryl met through the Nantucket Garden Club, and before the Ellis house was built in Quaise Caroline asked Cheryl to document the wildflowers as a surprise gift for Douglass. She neglected to tell her daughter Sarah, who was shocked one day to find a stranger crawling around their property peering intently at the ground.

Wildflower Photographer Cheryl Beaton

Cheryl’s investigation of plant life at Blueberry Hill resulted in the identification of several species found on the “Massachusetts List of Endangered, Threatened, and Special Concern Species”: Sandplain Blue-eyed Grass (special concern), New England Blazing Star (special concern), Bushy Rockrose (special concern), and St. Andrew’s Cross (endangered).

The most colorful and easiest of these plants for the novice to identify are the Sandplain Blue-eyed Grass and the New England Blazing Star, both a brilliant blue. Nantucket has a larger population of these two species than any other site in Massachusetts.

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Photography: Cheryl Beaton

Sand-plain blue-eyed grass

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According to Cheryl, there are several species of Rockrose on Nantucket and it is hard to differentiate among them, but she believes that it is the Bushy Rockrose that grows on the grassy hills of the Ellis property.

The medicinal uses of this plant and many others found in Quaise and around the island were known by the Wampanoags, and are being rediscovered by modern medical practitioners.

The rarest of the plants identified

by Cheryl is St. Andrew’s Cross; Nantucket is the only place in New England where it has been found, and it is difficult to locate unless the tiny cross-shaped flowers are blooming, a late summer occurrence.

Photography: Cheryl Beaton

Two orchids are also found on the Ellis property: Spiranthes tuberosa or “Little Ladies’ Tresses,” and Habinaria, or “Fringed Orchid.”

Both orchids are white, although one of the two species of fringed orchid— the “Ragged” Fringed Orchid—has flowers with a slight greenish tint. The six-inch tall Little Ladies’ Tresses, the most diminutive of the four species of Spiranthes that occur on the island, can be found along the edges of Quaise Pasture Road in August and September.

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Bushy Rockrose

Photography: Cheryl Beaton

St. Andrew’s Cross - The rarest of the wildflowers

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Photography: Cheryl Beaton

Ragged - Fringed Orchid

\Little Ladies’ Tresses

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Cheryl documented Cheryl has has documented more than one hundred more than one hundred differentspecies speciesof of different plants on the Ellis’s small plants on the Ellis’s small portion of Quaise; portion of Quaise; the the number is large because number is large because of variety the variety of habitats of the of habitats that commingle in this that commingle in this of the island. areaarea of the island.

HerHer stunning photographs stunning photographs capture a world of natural capture a world of natural beauty that showcases beauty that showcases the interaction of insects the interaction of insects plants, revealing and and plants, revealing secret life at ground secret life at ground level. level.

GIS map - Nantucket Conservation Foundation GIS map - Nantucket Conservation Foundation GIS map - Nantucket Conservation Foundation

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Photography: Cheryl Beaton

Photography: Cheryl Beaton

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Caroline’s interest in documenting her property in a variety of ways led her to Susan Boardman, needlework artist, who created an embroidered narrative depicting Blueberry Hill from a bird’s-eye view, showing the house and garden, the hens and the hen-house, the family cats, Douglasss unloading his red truck, Caroline trimming the espalier, and Sarah reading in her hammock.

Of all the water-adjacent places on Nantucket defined by the geography of the island— its points, creeks, marshes, and harbors—Quaise has somehow evolved with more care and consideration given to its natural assets than most other areas. Of the approximately 430 acres that comprise Quaise, almost twenty-five percent is now under the auspices of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation: 110 acres at the Grace Grossman Environmental Center and 13.5 at the Masquetuck Reservation.

Individual families —the Gardners, Hollisters, Sharps, and Jays—have over the centuries acquired large portions of Quaise for their own benign uses and have ensured that the land and the natural habitats of wildlife thereon are preserved for future generations to enjoy. The Ellis family chose Quaise as the site of their home largely because of the conservation restrictions that emphasize a respect for the natural contours of the land, the trees, wildflowers, vistas, and harbor; “Blueberry Hill”, their Nantucket home, respects and complements the site and reflects their appreciation of it.

Ellis Family

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House at dusk

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The Ellis family chose Quaise as the site of their home largely because of the conservation restrictions that emphasize a respect for the natural contours of the land, the trees, wildflowers, vistas, and harbor;

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Timeline

1602 Bartholomew Gosnold sights Nantucket from the bark “Concord” 1620 Plymouth Plantation 1630-1648 Taj Mahal, Agra, India 1641 Nantucket deeded to Mayhew and Son by Lord Sterling 1659 Nantucket deeded by Mayhew for thirty pounds and two beaver hats to

the original purchasers 1660 First group of settlers arrive

West end of Island bought from the Indians 1663 Peter Foulger and other tradesmen move to the Island. Fishing and farming are main occupations 1673 Whaling commenced in boats from the shore 1675 Auld Lang Syne, 6 Broadway, Siasconset 1686 Jethro Coffin House (Lean-to house) 1 Sunset Hill 1690-1757 Christopher Starbuck House (Lean-to house) 105 Main Street 1693 Nantucket transferred from New York to Massachusetts 1696-1708 St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, Sir Christopher Wren 1704 Society of Friends is formally organized on Nantucket 1719 White population, 721 1722 Rotch Counting House (Georgian style) Foot of Main Street 1722-24 Captain Richard Gardner 111 House (Lean-to style) 34 West Chester Street 1723 Straight Wharf built

Old North Church, Boston, William Price 1725 North Shore Meeting House, later moved to 62 Centre Street 1726 Thomas Starbuck House (Typical Nantucket house) 11 Milk Street

White population, 917 1730 Quanaty Hill dug away to make land from Union Street to the present shore 1746 Windmill, built by Nathan Wilbur, South Mill Street 1763-64 White population, 3,220

Indian population, 358 (Indian Plague results in 222 deaths leaving only 136 Indians) 1765 Shore whaling ceased

North Shore Meeting House moved from site near No Bottom Pond to present site at 62 Centre Street 1767 Silas Paddock House (Gambrel-roof house) 18 India Street

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1770-1800 1774 1775-81 1784

1790 1791 1792 1800 1809

1815-23 1818 c.1820’s 1821 1822-23 1829-34 1830 1834

1837 1836-38 1837 1838

1840

1841 1844 1846 1847

Monticello, Virginia, Thomas Jefferson Population, 4,545 including one clergyman, two doctors and one lawyer Approximately 1,600 Nantucketers lost their lives during the American Revolution Population, 4,269 Lighthouse erected at Great Point Hezekiah Swain House (Typical Nantucket house) also known as Maria Mitchell House, 1 Vestal Street First whaling ship sails from Nantucket to the Pacific Ocean Capital of United States, Washington, D.C., Thornton, Bulfinch, Latrobe, Mills and Walter Population, 5,617 Joseph Starbuck House (Federal style) 4 New Dollar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, 11 Orange Street Royal Pavilion, Brighton, England, John Nash Pacific National Bank (Federal style) 61 Main Street The African Meeting House (Greek Revival style) 29 York Street Nantucket Inquirer begins publication Methodist Church (Greek Revival style) 2 Centre Street, modified in 1840 Moors’ End, built for Jared Coffin (Federal style) 19 Pleasant Street State House, Boston, Bulfinch and Upjohn First Congregational Church (Gothic Revival style) 62 Centre Street Atheneum incorporated Capt. Levi Starbuck House (Greek Revival style) 14 Orange Street The Three Bricks (Federal-Greek Revival style) 93, 95 and 97 Main Street William H. Crosby House (Greek Revival style) 1 Pleasant Street Quaker Meeting House, 7 Fair Street Atheneum (Greek Revival style) Lower India Street Population, 9,712 Baptist Church (Greek Revival style) 1 Summer Street Frederick Douglas speaks at the Atheneum William Hadwen Houses (Greek Revival style) 94 and 96 Main Street Great Fire, July 13 and 14 E.F. Easton House (Easton-Joy House) (Gothic style) 4 North Water Street

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1847-con’t

1849-61 1851 1852-54

1855 1865

1872

1875

1881 1882 1884 1888 1889 1894

1897 1900 1901 1909 1916 1931 1955 1957 1964 1966 1984 1997

Maria Mitchell discovers the first telescopic comet, named after her Atheneum (Greek Revival style) Lower India Street Population declines due to California Gold Rush and the Civil War Crystal Palace, Great Exhibition, Hyde Park, London, J. Paxton Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin Lancasterian School (Greek Revival style) 4 Winter Street Abram Quary, last reputed Indian, died Population, 4,748 Nantucket Inquirer and Nantucket Weekly Mirror merge to form Inquirer & Mirror Nantucket economy begins to revive with tourist trade Eliza Starbuck Barney House (Victorian style) 73 Main Street Population, 3,201 Innishail (Shingle style) 11 Cliff Road Nantucket Railroad (Carpenter Gothic style) constructed to Surfside Union Chapel, 18 New Street, Siasconset Nantucket Railroad extended to Siasconset Eiffel Tower, Paris, Gustav Eiffel Electric lighting introduced to Nantucket Nantucket Historical Association established The Mayflower (American Shingle style) Baxter Road, Siasconset St. Mary’s Church (Queen Anne style) Federal Street Siasconset Casino (Shingle style) New Street, Siasconset St. Paul’s Church (Richardsonian Romanesque) 20 Fair Street Robie House, Chicago, Frank Lloyd Wright First telephone transmission from Nantucket to mainland Empire State Building, New York City Historic District Commission created Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia, Jorn Utzon Sherburne Associates formed Town of Nantucket designated a National Historic Landmark Nantucket Island’s Land Bank established Nantucket Preservation Trust is established

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Illustrations

p. 4

Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, PHOTO NHA MS1000.3.4.1a: “Map of Nantucket” drawn by Lucy Macy, ca. 1829 p. 7 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association, PHOTO NHA PC-Quaise-1: postcard by Henry S. Wyer, 1905 p. 8 PHOTOCOPY – Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Book 9/page 228: deed of division of Quaise, 1775 p. 9 PHOTOCOPY Nantucket Registry of Deeds, Plan Book 4/page 49: “Plan of Land of Edgar J. Hollister, 1910 p. 11 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P15929: “Miriam Coffin” house in distance p. 13 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P15932 :“Miriam Coffin” house 1890s p. 15 PHOTOCOPY – NHA MS57/folder 38: “T. House” ad from Grace Brown Gardner file, Quaise p. 15 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA 2005.21.21: “T. House” sign p. 16 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA F2162: background image, two women at tea house p. 17 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P10466: postcard “Miriam Coffin T. House” p. 17 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA F2162: two women at tea house p. 19 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA MS1000.3.4.1a: “Map of the Town of Nantucket” drawn by Lucy Macy, ca. 1829 p. 21 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P15731: Our Island Home p. 23 PHOTO Quaise Cemetery, Kathleen Hay 2005 p. 24 PHOTOCOPY Nantucket Registry of Deeds PLAN 11647-A p. 25 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA GPN2975: open Quaise landscape 1880s p. 26 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA GPN 3024: Harrison Gardner’s Farm p. 26 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA GPN 3025; sheep at Harrison Gardner’s Farm p. 27 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P5957: gathering at Harrison Gardner’s farm p. 30 PHOTOCOPY NHA MS 270/folder 35: Dr. Benjamin Sharp p. 32 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P9688: Dr. Sharp’s shack and harbor p. 32 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P9692: Dr. Sharp’s shack p. 33 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P9689: Dr. Sharp’s shack with car p. 34 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P8051: aerial view of Quaise 1929 p. 35 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA GPN2774a: salt haying at Quaise p. 36 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA F5843: Quaise landscape 1977 p. 37 Town of Nantucket Web GIS: parcel Quaise Point p. 39 PHOTO Masquetuck Reservation, Betsy Tyler 2005 p. 41 PHOTO UMASS Field Station/Grace Grossman Environmental Center, Betsy Tyler 2005 p. 42 PHOTO approach to Ellis house, courtesy of Lucinda Young p. 43 PHOTO driveway entrance, courtesy of Lucinda Young p. 44 BLUEPRINTS HDC approved house plans, Christopher Holland, architect p. 45 BLUEPRINTS HDC approved house plans, Christopher Holland, architect p. 47 PHOTO Ellis house exterior, courtesy of Lucinda Young p. 48 PHOTO walking person sculpture, Kathleen Hay 2005 p. 49 PHOTO woman reading sculpture, Kathleen Hay 2005 p. 50 PHOTO garden, courtesy of Lucinda Young p. 51 PHOTO Lucinda Young in garden, Kathleen Hay 2005 86

p. 52 p. 53 p. 53 p. 54 p. 55 p. 56 p. 57 p. 58 p. 59 p. 60 p. 61 p. 62 p. 62 p. 63 p. 64 p. 65 p. 66 p. 66 p. 67 p. 68 p. 70 p. 71 p. 72 p. 73 p. 74 p. 75 p. 76

p. 84 p. 88 p. 93

SKETCH of garden by Lucinda Young 1996 PHOTO garden prior to pool, courtesy of Lucinda Young PHOTO after pool was added, Kathleen Hay 2005 PHOTO vegetable garden, Kathleen Hay 2005 PHOTO vegetables in garden, Kathleen Hay 2005 PHOTO hen, courtesy of Caroline Ellis PHOTO hen house, Kathleen Hay 2005 PHOTO Cheryl Beaton, Betsy Tyler 2005 PHOTO Sandplain Blue-eyed grass, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO Bushy Rockrose, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO St. Andrew’s Cross, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO Fringed Orchid, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO Little Ladies’ Tresses, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO GIS Map of Ellis Property, courtesy of Nantucket Conservation Foundation PHOTO wildflower and insect, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO wildflower and insect, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO wildflower and insect, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO wildflower and insect, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO Queen Anne’s Lace, courtesy of Cheryl Beaton PHOTO Susan Boardman needlework, courtesy of Jack Weinhold PHOTO silhouette of house at dusk, courtesy of Lucinda Young PHOTO top of the hill, courtesy of Lucinda Young PHOTO balancing rocks, courtesy of Lucinda Young PHOTO brush pile on harbor path, courtesy of Lucinda Young PHOTO catboat in harbor, Kathleen Hay 2005 Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P8711: Polpis Harbor Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association PHOTO NHA P15931: looking northeast from Polpis Road to Middle Quaise, 1890s PHOTO walking person sculpture, Kathleen Hay 2005 PHOTO view of east elevation Ellis house, courtesy of Lucinda Young PHOTO harbor path, Kathleen Hay 2005

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Notes & Sources

Abbreviations: HN Historic Nantucket MS Manuscript NA Nantucket Atheneum NCF Nantucket Conservation Foundation NHARL Nantucket Historical Association Research Library NRD Nantucket Registry of Deeds PREHISTORY For details about the geological formation of Nantucket and its first inhabitants, see Nathaniel Philbrick’s Abram’s Eyes (Nantucket: Mill Hill Press, 1998). Henry Barnard Worth, in Nantucket Lands and Land Owners (Bowie, MD: Heritage Books Inc., 1992. facsimile reprint, previously published: NHA Bulletin, v.2, no. 1–7, 1901–1913), translates and explains Algonquian place names “Masquetuck” and “Quaise,” pages 292–94. For notice of the Indian grave discovery see Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Association, 1916, page 53. Elizabeth Little’s “Whales, Grass and Shellfish: Land Use Issues at Nantucket in the 17th Century,” Nantucket Algonquian Study No. 14 (NHA, 1992) provides insight into Indian land use on the island.

ENGLISH ARRIVAL The early history of Nantucket is explored in Nathaniel Philbrick’s Away Off Shore (Nantucket: Mill Hill Press, 1994). The 1678 document of division is in the Proprietor’s Record Book 1/page 15 in the NRD; the 1775 deed of division is in NRD Book 9/page 228. The 1910 map can be found in Plan Book 4/page 49 in the NRD. The 1820 deed from Mitchell to Macy is in NRD Book 26/page 12, from Mitchell’s heirs to the Town NRD Book 27/pages 55–56.

KEZIA FOLGER COFFIN’S COUNTRY SEAT In Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720–1870 (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2000) historian Lisa Norling cites Crevecoeur on page 42, and discusses Kezia further. Extracts from Kezia Coffin Fanning’s diary were published in HN over the course of several years. See October 1953 – April 1959.

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Eliza Mitchell’s reminiscence is in NHARL MS 23. The deed from Hollister to Wherry is in NRD Book 103/pages 168–69. For a fictional account of Kezia Folger Coffin see Joseph C. Hart’s Miriam Coffin, or the Whale-Fishermen (NY: Harper & Brothers, 1834); a salacious twentieth-century version

by Diana Gaines was titled Nantucket Woman ( NY: Dutton, 1976). Edouard Stackpole’s Smuggler’s Luck (NY: William Morrow & Co., 1931) was reprinted by Mill Hill Press in 2005.

QUAISE ASYLUM Information about the Quaise Asylum can be found in the following sources: R. A. Douglas-Lithgow, Nantucket: A History (New York: Knickerbocker, 1914) pages 161–63; Alison M. Gavin, “The Asylum at Quaise: Nantucket’s Antebellum Poor Farm,” HN v. 52, no. 4, Fall 2003 ; NHARL Blue File – “Quaise Asylum,” which includes Walter Ballinger’s letter to the NHA. QUAISE CEMETERY Thanks to Maurice Gibbs for providing excellent directions for the location of the cemetery.

GEORGE C. GARDNER, JOHN C. GARDNER, HARRISON GARDNER The 1807 deed from Elkins to Hussey is referred to in NRD Book 21/page 474; from the Town of Nantucket to George C. Gardner in 1855, NRD Book 52/pages 100–02; the Hiram Folger Farm, NRD Book 57/page 121, 1862; George C. Gardner to Harrison Gardner NRD Book 82/pages 65–66, 1891; William B. Starbuck to John C. Gardner NRD Book 82/pages 322–23, 1899; John C. Gardner to Harrison Gardner NRD Book 84/pages 241–42, 1902; Harrison Gardner to Ella B. Harps NRD Book 84/pages 282–83, 1902; Ella B. Harps to Edgar J. Hollister NRD Book 94/pages 341–43, 1910; Harrison Gardner’s heirs to Hollister NRD Book 92/page 304, 1912.

QUAISE LAND TRUST The Declaration of Trust is in NRD Book 94/pages 559–71; two obituary notices for Edgar J. Hollister are in the NA People File.

SHARP FAMILY The Quaise Land Trust deed to Benjamin Sharp is in NRD Book 95/pages 46–7. Details of Benjamin Sharp’s life and career are in several obituary notices and letters in the NA People File; a copy of his will is in NHARL MS 270/28, and many other letters and documents are in NHARL MS 270, the “Sharp, Benjamin and Family/Richmond Collection.”

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JAY FAMILY - QUAISE PASTURES ROAD Land Court Certificate 4172 in the NRD lists the various lots created and sold by the Jays from 1957 to 1998. The deed from the Jays to the Town of Nantucket in 1977 is NRD Document 18364; and from the Jays to the Nantucket Conservation Foundation 1990, NRD Document 51808. For information on the Masquetuck Reservation see the NCF web page at www.nantucketconservation.com. The 1990 Conservation Restrictions on the lots on Quaise Pastures Road are in NRD Document 52327; Declaration of Protective Covenants, NRD Document 51707.

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS NANTUCKET FIELD STATION See the University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station 25th Anniversary Report 1964–1989, in the NHARL subject file, for background information; details of the NCF’s acquisition of the Field Station at www.massachusetts.edu .

QUAISE PASTURES ROAD: DOUGLASS AND CAROLINE ELLIS Meetings and conversations with Caroline Ellis, Lucinda Young, Cheryl Beaton, and Christopher Holland in September and October 2005 provided details about the evolution of Blueberry Hill and included a short hike to Quaise Cemetery as well as optimistic plans to locate Kezia Coffin’s infamous tunnel.

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With special thanks to Patricia Egan Butler, Director of Educational Programs of the Nantucket Preservation Trust and to Nantucket artist, Susan Boardman, a Director of the NPT, for their guidance, inspiration, knowledge and support.

To the Nantucket Looms for providing the exquisite fabric used on the cover of the handbound edition.

To Libby Oldham for her keen eye in the editing of this book.

To Marie Henke, Nantucket Historical Association Photo Archivist, for her assistance with historic images and maps.

Special thanks to Cheryl Beaton and Lucinda Young for their generous contributions of time and talent to this project.

Copyright © 2005 Nantucket Preservation Trust Handbound Limited Edition Copyright © 2010 Nantucket Preservation Trust Hardbound Edition All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the Nantucket Preservation Trust.

The text of this book was set in High Tower Text.

Researched and written by Betsy Tyler, Nantucket, Massachusetts Designed, printed and hand-bound by Kathleen Hay Designs Nantucket • New York

Thank you for Celebrating Nantucket’s Architectural Heritage with the Nantucket Preservation Trust This comprehensive house 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 2400 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, 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.

Betsy Tyler (Author) has lived on Nantucket for over twenty years with her husband Jim and children Sam, Caitlin and Rebecca. She has worked as a professional librarian at the NantucketAtheneum and the Nantucket Historical Association, and has established a business, Research and Library Services. Her articles on various facets of Nantucket history have appeared in “Nantucket Magazine” and “Historic Nantucket.”

Kathleen Hay (Designer) started her own design firm after twenty years as the general manager of WEEDS, an antiques and design business owned by Geo. P. Davis. She practices in both the graphic design and ­interior design fields with clients throughout the US. Her work - featured in books and magazines, both ­nationally and internationally - have won international acclaim and honors.