Perhaps the most robust nonprofit on Nantucket is the Nantucket Historical Association. The NHA’s most popular site is the Whaling Museum on Broad Street, but the NHA also owns and operates the Hadwen House at the top of Main Street (across from the famous Three Bricks); the Old Mill; the Oldest House; and perhaps my favorite of the NHA properties: Greater Light. Built as a livestock barn in 1790, Greater Light was purchased and reimagined as an artists’ oasis by two unmarried Quaker sisters, Gertrude and Hannah Monaghan. Greater Light and its exquisite gardens have been lovingly restored to their former glory by the NHA. To get updates on tour dates and times, visit NHA.org; Instagram: @ackhistory.
African Meeting House, Five Corners: On the corner of York and Pleasant, this post-and-beam cottage was built and occupied by Black Nantucketers in the 1800s. It is now a museum, offering cultural programs and interpretative exhibits. There is a Black Heritage Trail on Nantucket that leads one to sites such as the cemetery on Vestal Street; the Nantucket Atheneum, where Frederick Douglass gave his first public speech to a mixed-race audience in 1841; and abolitionist Anna Gardner’s house. (I mention Anna Gardner and her pupil, Eunice Ross, in my novel Golden Girl!)
The Nantucket Preservation Trust operates walking tours of downtown Nantucket during the summer months. Check at www.nantucketpreservation.org.
One great way to see all of Nantucket at once is to visit the First Congregational Church and climb up to the tower. (Anyone who has read my novel Beautiful Day knows that this is where Jenna and Margot have their heart-to-heart.) The tower has panoramic views across the island; it’s Nantucket’s answer to the Empire State Building.
Are you a movie buff?
Alas, there is only one official movie theater on Nantucket, but it’s a beaut. The Dreamland Theater underwent a gut renovation in 2012 and is now, in my humble opinion, one of the most stunning (and energy-efficient) movie theaters in America. Open 364 days a year! I served as chairperson for the Dream Believer benefit in 2020, which was the year the Dreamland Drive-In movie theater was started, due to COVID. The drive-in operates in the summer months only. Website: Nantucketdreamland.org; Instagram: @nantucketdreamland.
What Is Sconset, Anyway?
Sconset is short for Siasconset (no one calls it Siasconset), which is the village on the eastern end of the island. Sconset has its own vibe (and the residents will no doubt bristle at my use of the word vibe). Sconset is understated; it’s old-school and it despises pretension. Life in Sconset is slower; bumper stickers read TWENTY IS PLENTY IN SCONSET. (This refers to the speed limit.) In Sconset you’re likely to see children on tricycles pedaling down the street and people in straw hats pruning roses; you’ll see picket fences and 1988 Jeep Wagoneers with a rainbow stripe of beach stickers across the back bumpers. It’s easy to be a tourist in Sconset but nearly impossible to become a bona fide Sconseter unless you were lucky enough to buy property there during the Ford administration.
There are two ways to get to Sconset. One is the Milestone Road, which is the only state-maintained road on Nantucket. It’s seven miles long, relatively straight and flat, and fairly uneventful except for the stone markers at every mile (and at Pi, 3.14 miles from town). As you get out toward mile marker five, you’ll have a nice vista so reminiscent of the African savanna that certain artistic pranksters built life-size elephants and lions that make appearances from time to time; look out for them as you drive or bicycle past. The other way to get to Sconset is on the long and winding Polpis Road. Polpis takes you past stone walls and wooden fences, a dramatic over-water view at the Nantucket Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum, the turnoffs for the Wauwinet and Quidnet, and then past Sesachacha Pond, where you’ll glimpse Sankaty Head Lighthouse in the distance before cruising past Sankaty Head golf course. The Polpis Road is nine miles long. Both Polpis Road and Milestone have bike paths, and the very fit and enthusiastic choose to do the “loop.” You can also bike out to Sconset one way, then put your bike on the front of the Wave, Nantucket’s public transportation, and get a ride home!
I made it to Sconset, now what do I do?
Sconset is famous for its colony of summer cottages, many of them tiny (like the one in my novel Barefoot), many of them old (some of the oldest houses on the island are in Sconset, including a house called Auld Lang Syne, part of which was constructed around 1675!), and many of them, for a limited time at the end of June and beginning of July, draped in cottage roses. There is no experience on Nantucket that is more storybook than wandering the quiet streets of Sconset when the roses are in bloom. I go every year—and every year, I am left breathless.
Along Baxter Road is Sconset’s bluff walk, a path on the cliff above the Atlantic. You can walk out Baxter Road all the way to Sankaty Head Lighthouse, which looks like a peppermint stick.
You can also meander down Ocean Avenue to the Summer House, a hotel with a pool that fronts the ocean. There’s a footbridge where you’ll see a large sundial on the side of a private home. The bridge will lead you to the Sconset Rotary, where you’ll find Claudette’s sandwich shop (outstanding turkey salad), a package store, a tiny post office with irregular hours, the Sconset Café (home of the chocolate volcano cake), and finally, the Sconset Market. The market is the beating heart of town—it has not only groceries but ice cream and freshly baked baguettes every day!
Along New Street in Sconset are the Sconset Casino, the Sconset Chapel, and the Chanticleer. This little stretch shouldn’t be missed. The Sconset Casino is now a tennis club, but it’s also an event space used for weddings and benefits and it occasionally hosts movies in the summer. It was once used as a summer stage for the Broadway actors of the 1920s who chose to vacation on Nantucket. It’s a building that evokes the days of old Nantucket.
Siasconset Union Chapel is an ecumenical chapel, used for services in the summer. (I was married in this church once upon a time…) The Sconset Chapel evokes a peaceful simplicity, and all of the kneelers were needlepointed by parishioners. One unusual feature is the Columbarium in the memorial gardens, where the ashes of Sconset residents (and only Sconset residents) are tucked into a tasteful wall.
The Chanticleer will be mentioned in the restaurant section, but even if you’re not planning on eating there, you should be sure to snap a picture of the front garden with its iconic carousel horse.
In a Category by Itself: Cisco Brewers
Dubbed by Men’s Health magazine “the happiest place on earth,” Cisco is, in modern parlance, a “whole thing.” There are three barns, one housing a beer bar, one a wine bar, and one a spirits bar, all serving Cisco products, including their popular Whale’s Tale Ale, Gripah, Triple Eight vodka, and my go-to, the sparkling cranberry pinot gris. However—and I do not say this lightly—alcohol is the least important thing about the place. This is a center of joy. There are food trucks—167 Raw for raw bar and guacamole, Nantucket Poke for bowls and tartare, and Nantucket Lobster Trap for swordfish sliders and lobster rolls. There is often live music. There are dogs and children and people relaxing at open-air picnic tables alongside the gardens that provide the produce and herbs for the mixed drinks. It is the ultimate après-beach scene, a must for any Sunday Funday, and just generally a destination you should not miss. For teetotalers, there are hand-crafted sodas as well. Cisco has proved so popular that satellite locations have popped up in places like Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Stamford, Connecticut. Website: Ciscobrewers.com; Instagram: @ciscobrewers.
To Market, to Market