Preservation Institute Nantucket Summer 2025 Final Projects
Project Assignment: During the summer of 2025, Preservation Institute Nantucket (PIN) focused on the historic neighborhood known as West Monomoy, platted in 1726/27, and the smaller, historic area within the neighborhood known as New Guinea, home to Nantucket’s most diverse and dynamic working-class community, including African, Cape Verdean, Portuguese, and Azorean residents. Since the early 18th century, Black whalers, formerly enslaved people, and Wampanoag lived here, as property owners, businesspeople, and champions of equality and freedom during a time when slavery was legal and ubiquitous across the United States.
Many of Nantucket’s notable Black residents are buried in the nearby ‘Coloured Cemetery,’ and from their stories we understand the cultural significance of New Guinea. Today, it is widely accepted that New Guinea has gentrified and many of the original buildings no longer exist, but is this really true? Students worked with PIN faculty and local experts Betsy Tyler and Marsha Fader to examine the existing buildings and the archival record, to discover the long lineage of diversity in New Guinea and West Monomoy, and to connect known social history to place, building an expanded narrative of significance for the neighborhood.
PIN 2025 study area boundaries are Silver, Weymouth, Union, Orange, Bear, Pleasant and S. Prospect Streets. The area includes approximately 365 properties. The student work contributes to the West Monomoy Neighborhood Survey, funded by the Community Preservation Commission, and in partnership with the Town of Nantucket. The research themes and content in the Story Maps below form the basis for the Neighborhood Context Statement, and a future Massachusetts Historical Commission Form B submission of properties constructed before 1975.
Students and Faculty
Rena Braxton, Randolph College
Annette Black, University of Florida
Bryce Bowen, University of Florida
Jill Enriquez, University of Florida
Metolo Foyet, University of Florida
Amada Galceran, University of Florida
Isabella Gonzalez, Jerry A. Tishman Scholar, Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach
Grace Kirkpatrick, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Linda Lyons, University of Florida
Moriah McSharry McGrath, Teaching Assistant Professor, Portland State University
Sullivan Morris, Liberty University
Nick Regan, Southern Connecticut State University
Nicolette Renbarger, University of Florida
Elise Rhinehart, Clemson University
Haley Weltzien, University of Florida
Dr. Cleary Larkin, Director
Erica Mollon, Co-Director
Visiting Faculty and Guest Lecturers
Michael Harrison, Chief Curator & Obed Macy Research Chair, Nantucket Historical Association
Matthew Kuhnert, Reference Archivist, Nantucket Historical Association
Neil Foley, Interpretive Education Coordinator/Ecologist, Nantucket Conservation Trust
Holly Backus, Preservation Planner, Town of Nantucket
Sarah Marshall, Principal Architect & Partner, Napa Design Partners
Mary Bergman, Executive Director, Nantucket Preservation Trust
Dr. Clarissa Carr, Research Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Tony Dumitru, Museum Collections and Exhibitions Manager, Egan Maritime Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum
Maria Mitchell Association
Dr. Nedra Lee, Associate Professor & Director, New England African American Archaeology Lab, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Laura Paisley, Graduate Student, Masters of Historical Archaeology, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Dr. Fallon Samuels Aidoo, Assistant Professor, Real Estate & Historic Preservation, Tulane University
