Signs of the Times: Nantucket Signs Exhibition of the Nantucket Historical Association

Tom Nevers
Franklin Smith and Edgar Linn
1916 to 1938

In 1916, Franklin Smith and Edgar Linn bought 2,000 acres of land at Tom Nevers Head. With no intention of preserving the land, the mainland entrepreneurs began to auction off cottage-sized lots. When few buyers came forward, the business partners tried a different tack, building Tom Nevers Lodge, an attractive, rambling building with charming piazzas overlooking the ocean. Having bought in a bubble, Smith and Linn were doomed to failure. By 1938, the building had become decrepit and became a gathering place for “partying” kids until it burned down in a fire that many considered intentionally set. Although that Tom Nevers bubble burst, subsequent developers have been successful in creating a thriving residential community in the southeast quarter.