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 The history of The Starbuck-Kilvert House. The history of the house at 105 Main Street began near Capaum Pond c.1690. It was one of dozens of structures built there by Nantucket’s first white settlers. They were seeking a safe haven from the harsh treatment imposed by Puritans against Quakers, Baptists and other non-Puritans. Until the settlers arrived in 1659, Native Americans had lived and thrived on Nantucket for five thousand years. The Waumpanoags left a rich heritage of place names and stone artifacts, burial grounds, traces of fishing stages and settlements, but no lasting structures. The oldest buildings on Nantucket date back to the settlement that began in 1660. A year after receiving the Main Street site from his father, Christopher Starbuck’s uncle Nathaniel is thought to have given him his house from Sherburne to move into the new town. The house was timber-frame construction enveloping two rooms stacked one atop the other, the Great Room below and a Chamber, or bedroom above, with a massive chimney and flue anchoring the west wall of the house. Christopher’s growing family required more room, and so over time first and second floor rooms were added on the west, and a shed addition to the rear, creating the distinctive 1:3 lean-to roof profile, or “cat-slide”. Sarah C. Tobey, Tristram Starbuck’s granddaughter was the last of the Starbucks to own the house, living there from 1890 until 1923. The house was restored and renovated in the 1920s, a time when many of Nantucket’s houses were updated with built-in cupboards, closets, modern plumbing and heating. Marcus L. Ramsdell bought the house in 1923, followed by Brainerd T. Jenkins in 1925; Grace Jarvis Schauffler in 1926; and Mary F. Breckinridge, who owned the house from 1936 until 1937, when the Charles A. Kilvert family began their ownership. The Kilvert Family continued restoration with minimal renovations that contributed twentieth century comfort without harming the historic features. The garden and grounds were created after two houses on adjacent lots were bought and removed, and the one-story front gabled little building that was E. B. Paddack’s dry goods shop, later Worth’s Ice Cream Parlor, was moved to its present northeast corner location from its original site up close to Main Street. The foundation of the old house removed from Gardner Street was kept, and transformed into an award-winning sunken garden. The exquisite copper beech tree on the north lawn is another ever-lasting contribution made by the Kilverts at 105 Main Street. The nineteenth-century architect John Ruskin said, “Take proper care of your monuments and you will not need to restore them”. When the Nantucket Preservation Trust was invited to host a Designer Show House at 105 Main Street, it was clear that considerable hard work and thoughtful study would be required to bring the uninhabited property back to its former condition, for old structures are best preserved by daily use and daily care. The quality of its architecture, the promise seen in old photos of the gardens, coupled with the vast quantity of archival documents and historical records, and the undeniable vulnerability of one of the island’s most respected structures made the decision an easy one. The NPT appreciates the challenge and the opportunity to play a small part in the remarkable History of the Starbuck- Kilvert House. Patricia Butler November 2003 |
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