The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…

The official start of winter is still a week away, but it’s cold here on Nantucket. There’s nothing that transports you back in time more than walking along our historic streets and seeing smoke curling out of chimneys, the smell of woodsmoke filling the crisp air.

In a place where the sun sets at 4:15 in the afternoon, winter means long, cold nights perfect for crackling fires. Today, most of our homes are heated by electricity or gas, and while a roaring fire brings a certain glow to winter nights, we are no longer reliant on fireplaces for heat.

Fireplace chimneys are also central to one of America’s most iconic winter tales: Saint Nicholas (Santa, St. Nick, Father Christmas…) slipping down the chimney to deliver toys to children on Christmas Eve.

We wanted to look a little more into the history of fireplaces and find out just when Santa started shimmying down them.

Colonial fireplaces were quite wide and deep to allow for multiple cooking pots and multiple fires for cooking and baking. These large fireplaces lost a lot of heat, but their huge central chimney masses of stone or brick helped to keep houses warmer overall.

Up until about 1800, homes were primary heated by wood burning fireplaces. In the mid 1700s, Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin Stove, a metal insert for fireplaces. Through a series of baffles, Franklin’s stove intended to direct the flow of air and help retain heat longer.

In 1795, Benjamin Thompson, also called Count Rumford, invented the Rumford fireplace design. Rumford tested firebox designs until he found one that worked best. The Rumford fireplace is shallow, taller than it is wide, with sharply angled walls on either side to reflect heat.

A Rumford fireplace draws air into the fireplace more efficiently, which allows the flame to burn strongly and clearly. Thomas Jefferson was a fan of the ingenious design, and when he remodeled Monticello in the 1790s, Jefferson had eight Rumford fireplaces installed.

When coal, steam, and gas became the preferred methods of home heating, efficient fireplaces were no longer needed. More modern fireplaces have a larger firebox so that a crackling fire is set further away from people.

Homes heated by wood needed large chimneys to support multiple fireplaces, but houses built in the later part of the 19^th century needed only enough space for a stove pipe, which means smaller chimneys.

So how does Santa Claus fit into all this?

In Washington Irving’s 1809 story Knickerbocker’s History of New York, there is a reference to Saint Nicholas flying over the rooftops of houses, pausing to drop “magnificent presents” down the chimneys of his favorite boys and girls.

Another New York writer, Clement C. Moore, helped cement the popular image of Santa clambering down chimneys with gifts in an 1822 poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas.”

Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, 
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; 
A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack. 

If the story of Santa coming down the chimney didn’t enter into our popular imagination until the 1820s, what happened if you didn’t live in a house with a massive chimney? As coal stoves grew in popularity, Santa, legend has it, was also known to shimmy down a stove pipe.

As the years progressed, there were even some traditionalists who worried that modern inventions like steam radiators would put an end to the Santa story.  Yet in 2018, more than 200 years after Irving’s story first appeared, when most homes are heated by electric or gas heat with no fireplace to be seen, children still hang their stockings and wait.

Whatever you celebrate, and however you heat your house, we hope you stay warm this winter!

Thanksgiving is all about coming home and spending time with your family and friends, and there’s no better place to come home to than Nantucket. The Nantucket Preservation Trust works to preserve that sense of place you feel as soon as you arrive on the island—that you have come home to a very special place.

This week, we’re digging into our records and serving up a heaping helping of history about two Nantucket farms. After all, Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate the harvest.

Hinckley Lane Farm
c.1844

The farm at “Watercomet,” containing more than 26 acres, was purchased by Captain Ebenezer (Eben) M. Hinckley in 1844. The house was in existence when he bought the property from Henry Coffin. Henry and his brother Charles G. Coffin were wealthy whale oil merchants, sons of Zenas Coffin, and both of them had homes in town on Main Street. The occupant of the house at the farm prior to 1844 is unknown.

Eben Hinckley (1805-1885) and Nancy Chase Hinckley (1810-1892) lived at Hinckley Farm. They had one child, Caroline S. Hinckley [Cook] (1830-1865).

Reading through the archives of The Inquirer & Mirror, one thing is clear about Hinckley Farm—Captain Hinckley was well known for his berries:

Our kind friend, Captain Eben Hinckley, sent as a bouncing dish of Blackberries, round and plump, not a bruised or scraggy one in the lot… Capt. H. raised a fine lot of them on his farm, which a friend assures us is well worthy of a visit to see.
August 12, 1857

In addition to berries, Captain Hinckley grew pumpkins, sweet corn, field corn, turnip beets, squashes, mottled cranberry beans, and potatoes on his farm. Everything you need for a Thanksgiving feast—except the turkey!

To find turkeys on Nantucket, you’d have to go to the other end of the island at Quaise, where Walter H. Burgess (1856-1934) raised turkeys from the 1890s to the 1910s.

The Inquirer and Mirror visited Burgess in December of 1898:

We visited Burgess’ Poultry Farm at Quaise a few days since, and were impressed with the sight of the twenty-four houses sheltering as fine flocks of barred Plymouth Rock fowl as one could wish to see. They have 500 pullets, many of them now laying, and 100 fowl saved from last year’s stock. Their big brooding house is ready for the next season’s hatchings, and everything about the place indicated successful poultry culture. As we have before remarked, Nantucket offers the field for poultry raising on a large scale. The Messrs. Burgess have gradually increased this branch of their business, until they have become known to the outside poultry and egg markets, and are having frequent applications from commission house for handling their trade. They have been exporting eggs for several months at very remunerative figures.

In 1915, Burgess’ was even filling orders for turkeys from the mainland, and the flock of turkeys on the Burgess farm were said to be the second largest in the state.

Wherever you are enjoying your Thanksgiving this year, we hope it’s a happy one!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Nantucket Preservation Trust.

One of our most visible program at the Nantucket Preservation Trust is our house markers. Chances are, you’ve noticed these wooden tablets on historic homes around town. They tell you the date of construction, who built the house, the original resident (if known), and sometimes the house’s original name or function. We’ve marked over 200 house since the program began.

We’ve recently completed work on two new house markers. Researching and documenting the history of Nantucket’s historic homes–and the people who built them and lived in them–is important work. House markers make a great gift and help us improve Nantucket’s historical record.  Click here for more information about our house marker program, or give us a call at the office, 508.228.1387, to discuss a marker for your house.

Behind each marker is quite a bit of information–read on to learn about two of our newest marked houses.

Fort Sumter

Crosby Family

c. 1870

The house at 23 Ocean Ave to was constructed c. 1870 for the Crosby Family. Matthew Crosby was a wealth whale-oil merchant who owned many properties on Nantucket. His in-town house was 90 Main Street, and his summer estate was on 28 Main Street, ’Sconset. Crosby purchased the lot on Ocean Ave in May of 1894, one month after it was advertised for sale in The Inquirer and Mirror.

The lot was formerly known as the “Elkins Lot” and was owned by Captain Edward W. Gardner before Crosby. After Gardner’s death, Crosby purchased the lot from his son-in-law William G. Gardner, and William’s wife (and Crosby’s daughter), Elizabeth B. Crosby Gardner.

Matthew Crosby and his heirs owned the property until August 1879, when it was sold to Edward Finch Underhill, who was responsible for much of the development in the Sunset Heights area of ’Sconset. Within six weeks of purchasing the property, Underhill began making improvements to the house.

In our research, we found that the house was given a name at one point (at least by 1879)— “Fort Sumter,” the first battle of the American Civil War. We know that when Crosby bought the land in 1864, there was no dwelling on the lot, but there was one by the time Underhill purchased the property in 1879. We believe the house was constructed a few years after the war and the name likely chosen to honor the Union victory.

Charlotte C. Pearson

Educator and Community Activist

c. 1883

Charlotte Swain was born in 1823. She died January 30, 1899. Charlotte married Enoch Ackley, who died at sea on January 2, 1855 when he was 37 years old. Charlotte and Enoch had one child together, Seth M. Ackley. Charlotte married Luther Pearson, originally from Providence, Rhode Island, in 1863.

Charlotte was a prominent Nantucket figure who was active in charitable and literary organizations on Nantucket. She was a teacher at the Fair Street School. She served as a member or officer of the Nantucket Improvement Society, the Sorosis Club, the Nantucket Relief Society, the Children’s Aid Society, and the Massachusetts Volunteer Aid Association.

Charlotte purchased the land at 8 Nantucket Ave and 6 Grant Ave in 1872. In 1880, Wannacomet Water company installed pipes on the Cliff. In 1882, Eben R. Folger built the house at 6 Grant Ave (known later as Franklin Cottage) for Charlotte, and in 1883, she hired Folger again to build the house at 8 Nantucket Ave (known as Oneonta Cottage starting around 1895). Oneota Cottage was advertised in the Inquirer and Mirror for rent from 1895 to 1920. Charlotte owned a property on Orange Street that was her primary residence.

The weather is still warm here on Nantucket, but many of our island visitors and friends have begun their journeys home as the new school year looms on the horizon.

With that in mind, this week’s post looks at the history of the Academy Hill School building on Nantucket.

Did you know that Academy Lane was not named for the big brick building that sits atop it? Instead, it was named for an earlier private school called The Academy, situated north of the public school. The Academy was in existence by 1800, but by 1818 the building had been sold to the First Congregational Church.

In 1856, the first class at Academy Hill had 129 students.  The original Academy Hill building was wood construction and opened on December 2, 1856. The firm of Easton and Thompson constructed the building for a cost of $20,000.

The wooden Academy Hill school underwent modernization and alterations in 1904, totaling $10,700 in improvements. Ten years later, in 1914, further alterations were made, including the addition of a south wing.

But by 1927, there was a need for a new school building. The town was split on what to do about Academy Hill. Some thought the site was too small, others wanted the new building to remain in the same location. The wooden structure was taken down and reconstructed as a three-story brick school building, opening for the school year 1929.

By 1977, the grand brick building was showing its age. It was far too small to keep up with the population on the island. That year, one-third of all Nantucket children went to school in temporary facilities.

In 1979, the Town of Nantucket sought proposals from bidders to transform the old school building into housing for the elderly. In 1986, Academy Hill reopened with 27 apartments for senior citizens on Nantucket, finding new life for the old building.

92 Hulbert Ave “The Bug-Lights”: Ernestine Gilbreth Carey & Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr.

The twin lighthouses that dot the extension of Hulbert Ave are officially called the Nantucket Cliff Beacons but more often called the bug-lights (1838). These structures were the unlikely summer home of industrial engineers and efficiency experts Frank B. Gilbreth, Sr., Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth, and their 12 children.

Originally located on Cliff Beach, the lights worked in conjunction with the range lights on Brant Point and buoys to guide vessels into the channel. The bug lights were decommissioned in 1908.

The Gilbreths purchased the property with the keeper’s toolhouse and the smaller light in 1921. By 1952, the keeper’s toolhouse was replaced with a larger cottage. The larger light tower was moved (by horse!) to the Gilbreth property. The towers were converted to dormitories for the many Gilbreth children.

Frank Jr. and Ernestine wrote two books together chronicling their unique family, Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes. Frank Jr. authored other books inspired by his life on the island, including Innside Nantucket and Of Whales and Women. Ernestine wrote Jumping Jupiter and Rings Around Us.

In 1991, Frank Jr. wrote “We have lovingly preserved [the bug lights], but I can’t overstress how well the structures were built and how amazingly sound they are today. In the seventy years we’ve had them, not a single shingle has needed to be replaced on the sides of either structure.” The bug lights and cottage are still in the Gilbreth family today.