Nantucket, MA

The Nantucket census-designated place covers 5.82 square miles and had 10,166 residents in 2020. Its historic center reflects the settlement’s move east during the 1700s, after the harbor at the original Sherburne site closed and Great Harbor offered better access. The Great Fire of 1846 destroyed much of the commercial core from the wharves up Main Street; rebuilding widened the commercial stretch and added Greek Revival brick buildings that remain. Local preservation regulation began in 1955, and the historic core became a National Historic Landmark in 1966. Main Street also retains late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century houses, including Federal and Greek Revival mansions associated with fortunes from Nantucket’s whaling trade.