16 Sunset Hill Lane, Nantucket
1686
When this house was built in 1686, Nantucket belonged to New York and the town was called Sherburne. “The keenest rivalry for leadership” developed in the 1670’s between Tristram Coffin, representing the original proprietors, and Capt. Gardner, a cod fisherman representing the newcomers, over the governance of the island. (Douglas-Lithgow, Nantucket, p. 64) A faction of old planters, led by Coffin, favored a half-share of land and a half the voting power for newcomers. The newcomers, led by Gardner, insisted on a full share and vote. The newcomers prevailed, but with hard feelings on each side.
The sparring families were united in the marriage of Tristram Coffin’s grandson Jethro and Capt. Gardner’s daughter Mary, and this house was built as a wedding present, with Gardner land and lumber from the Coffins’ sawmills. Jethro was a blacksmith and shore whaler, as well as maintaining his interest in his family’s lumber businesses on the mainland.
The Coffins moved to the mainland, and sold the house to weaver Nathaniel Paddack in 1707. His family lived there for over 130 years, then sold the house to the Turner family, who after a while abandoned it. Descendants of the Coffins purchased the house in the 1880’s as a curiosity, and the Nantucket Historical Association acquired it in 1923.
Over the centuries, the Coffin House has been heavily modified from its original form, and now shows restoration work begun in 1927 by William Sumner Appleton of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England) and his architect Alfred F. Shurrocks. “Although Shurrocks determined that the house had originally had twin front gables, a decision was made to restore the structure to its more familiar [side-gabled] appearance and to replace eighteenth-century double-hung sash windows with diamond-paned casements, which they felt more suited a seventeenth-century dwelling.” (Nantucket Historical Association, “Oldest House,” p. 8. See p. 4 for a conjectural rendering of the twin-gabled house.) The house was struck by lightning in the fall of 1987, significantly damaging the chimney and roof, which have now been restored to their 1927 baseline.
Further reading:
Coffin, Ida Gardner, and Anna Starbuck Jenks. The Oldest House on Nantucket: In Two Parts. C. Francis Press, 1905. (archive.org/details/oldesthouseonnan1905coff/page/n9)
Douglas-Lithgow, R.A. Nantucket: A History. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1914. (archive.org/details/nantuckethistory1914doug/page/n5)
Harris, Patricia. “Jethro Coffin House Tells Tale of Old Nantucket.” Boston Globe, 22 June 2013. bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2013/06/22/site-seeing-jethro-coffin-house-tells-tale-old-nantucket/hkeZQfxtflxlnKE24WHf3K/story.html
Macy, William F. The Story of Old Nantucket: A Brief History of the Island and Its People from Its Discovery Down to the Present Day. The Inquirer and Mirror Press, 1915. (archive.org/details/storyofoldnantuc00macy/page/n5)
Nantucket Historical Association. nha.org/visit/historic-sites/oldest-house/
Nantucket Historical Association. “Oldest House.” nha.org/wp-content/uploads/History-of-Oldest-House.pdf
Ritchie, Duncan. “The ‘Ancient Dwelling’ on Sunset Hill: Preliminary Archaeological Investigations at the Jethro Coffin House.” State University of New York, 2010. sunypress.edu/pdf/62057.pdf
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