Walter Beinecke and the Reimagining of Nantucket: How Preservation, Conservation, and Redevelopment Transformed the "Gray Lady"

Following the demise of whaling in the late 1800s, the island of Nantucket fell into economic torpor. Its population declined and many of its homes and local businesses fell into disrepair.

In the mid-twentieth century, Walter Beinecke, a lifelong summer resident and an heir to the S&H Green Stamp fortune, started to buy retail buildings in the town of Nantucket as well as many of the wharves along the town’s waterfront. He and others interested in preserving the historic character of the is...