"48 West Chester Street" Historic Nantucket article from the Nantucket Historical Association

Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 50, no. 3 (Summer 2001), p. 8-9

48 West Chester Street: A Stucco Bungalow on Nantucket
by Margaret Moore Booker

SITUATED IN ONE OF THE ISLAND'S OLDEST neighborhoods is one of Nantucket's most remarkable early modern buildings: Number 48 West Chester Street. Built about 1916 in the "Craftsman bungalow" style, it is distinguished by a bright white, relatively sparse stucco facade with dark green trim, dramatic overhanging eaves, and a red-shingled roof. The stark and modern feeling of this stucco house is a startling departure from the historic styles that dominate the area. Within a few minutes' walk are many typical early gray-shingled Nantucket houses and lean-to structures, including the Oldest House of 1686 on Sunset Hill Lane and the Richard Gardner House built in 1722-24 at 32 West Chester. West Chester Street, formerly called West Centre Street, is considered to be the oldest road on the island. It once ran from the original settlement at Capaum (now Capaum Pond) to the Great Harbor.

Upon approaching 48 West Chester, at the corner of New Lane, one of the most visually striking features is the stucco-on-wood-frame construction — it is one of only three stucco houses on the island. The other two are in 'Sconset: a bungalow at 15 Baxter Road, also built about 1916, and a Mediterranean Revival-style house on Low Beach Road. Another unusual feature of 48 West Chester is the strong Oriental influence present in the building: the upswept gable peaks and elaborate dormer windows are reminiscent of Japanese pagodas. Also rare for Nantucket are the massive porch columns, which resemble those of the Prairie-style houses developed by Frank Lloyd Wright and other Chicago architects around 1900 to 1920.

The Oriental influence and use of stucco — a durable finish generally composed of cement, sand, and lime that gives a textured, handcrafted appearance — are frequently seen in Craftsman bungalows, a style of building that was predominant in America from about 1890 to 1940. The West Chester Street home has many of the typical characteristics of this style, including low dimensions (one-story), gently pitched broad gables, wide window openings, ridge beams that extend beyond the wall and roofline, a gabled dormer window, and a front porch tucked beneath a gable. It is not known who designed or built this bungalow; however, there were many contractors, builders, and masons working on the island in 1916. Among them was Leo P. Quigley, who advertised his services as a "practical mason" who specialized in brick, stone, and concrete construction, and no doubt was versed in the use of stucco as well.

The small size, simple and informal design, and inexpensive building costs made the bungalow an attractive style for vacation cottages, and bungalows began appearing on Nantucket in the early 1900s and continued to be built through the 1940s. There are quite a few shingled "cottage" bungalows around town and a particularly large group in the neighborhood of Easton Street. As one 1908 design book states, bungalows were perfect holiday homes because they had "restfulness of appearance [that] refreshes the tired city dweller" and were "homey ... that ideal you have seen in the dreamy shadows of night when . . . you have yearned for a haven of rest."

Craftsman bungalows like 48 West Chester became popular during the Arts and Crafts movement in America, which advocated a revival of handcrafted furniture and objects and in architecture a return to fine craftsmanship in the design and building of homes. In the early decades of the twentieth century the Coffin School on Nantucket helped spread the Arts and Crafts aesthetic on the island. The school offered classes in manual training (woodworking, metalwork, etc.) to public schoolchildren, as well as evening classes in advanced woodworking for adults, in which students learned the principles of craftsmanship and made furniture and objects in the Arts and Crafts style. Photographs of the school's interior from about 1904 show the handcrafted furniture being made, and the school's library included such design books as Artistic Bungalows: Unique Collection of 208 Designs, Best Modern Ideas in Bungalow Architecture, published by Radford's Architectural Company in 1908.

48 West Chester Street — a lone white stucco bungalow that was an outgrowth of the Arts and Crafts movement on Nantucket — spices up an otherwise banal though historically noteworthy island streetscape. As the Radford design book states, artistic bungalows are "a tangible protest of modern life against the limitations and severities of humdrum existence."

Margaret Moore Booker is associate director and curator of the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies at the Coffin School. She has written for Historic Nantucket and is the author of The Admiral's Academy: Nantucket's Historic Coffin School and a recent biography of artist Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin. The author wishes to thank Patricia Butler of the Preservation Trust for assistance in researching this article.