“The town stands on the west side of the harbour and is a mile and a half in length and a third of a mile in breadth. It contains 850 dwelling houses (including 15 at Podpis, Quayz, Squam, etc.) 63 stores, a great number of shops, besides candle works, rope walks, etc., five wharves and five windmills. The town, with exception of one or two houses, is built of wood. The houses are generally two stories in height; some of them have clapboards in front; but the greatest part of them are covered with shingles. Several of them are painted green. They are convenient buildings, but there is not much elegance in their appearance.” Later on in his notes, he states: “House lots in the town sell for from $100 to $200 a square rod; rents are low, few exceeding $100 a year. The greatest part of the houses are owned by those who live in them. The present number of inhabitants is estimated at 6730.” 1811--Joseph Sansom, in The Port Folio, Jan. 1811: “The Nantucket stores and houses are built of timber, are mostly painted red or white and are crowned by the steeples, or rather towers, of two Presbyterian meeting houses. Several new streets have been laid out in straight lines and a number of houses have been built within a year or two with ceilings of 10 feet high. This, however, is considered a piece of useless extravagance, the old-fashioned stories of eight or nine feet being generally reckoned high enough, and to spare. Every other house in this seafaring place has a lookout upon the roof or a vane at the gable end; to see what ships have arrived from sea or whether the wind is fair for the packets.” 1850 (before and after)-- Joseph E. C. Farnham was born in Nantucket in 1849. He was a keen observer of the people of the Island and their customs and wrote at considerable length “Brief Historical Data and Memories of My Boyhood Days at Nantucket.” It delightfully describes the town at the close of the whaling era. Worth observes that “the gambrel-roofed house never attracted the attention of the Nantucket people. The few that are still standing were erected after 1750. After the Revolution, when prosperity dawned on the Island, the common type of house was the square two-story structure, with large center chimney, numerous examples of which are to be seen. The same regard for ancient houses has also led people to retain the large center chimney. While in many towns desire for increased room or for the appearance of a small chimney has led house owners to replace the old structure with one greatly inferior in size, at Nantucket the disposition has prevailed to keep without change this distinguishing mark of the 18th century construction.” 1876--Nantucket after the end of the whaling, at its lowest ebb. Read “Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast” by S. A. Drake.