Announcing the 2023 Preservation Award Winners!

In the historic candle factory, a team led by project manager Boris Braun and site manager Robert Aschwandenby from Todd Burns Building and Restoration oversaw updates that included plasterwork completed by Oscar Erazo of EC&P, Inc. The main living space retains its open stud walls and tall vaulted ceilings. The Simpsons respected the quirks of a building not originally constructed as a dwelling, which required a new foundation for stability. Mason Kevin Martin did period-appropriate work in the old and new building. Custom doors by Nantucket Millworks complement existing features, as does custom millwork by William Green Woodworking. The rest of the team included crews from Barret Enterprises, Strang LLC, Liberty Concrete, One Time Painting, O’Shea Electric, Dussault Plumbing, Maine & ACK HVAC, and Mac Davis Flooring. Julie Wood of Hither Creek Gardening collaborated with the homeowners to install simple gardens that complement the buildings and contain many native plants.  Mike Misurelli of J&M Landscape Services, completed all the hardscaping and larger plantings. 

Carpenter Michael Gault has a love of old buildings and a refusal to cut corners. Originally from New Hampshire, he came to Nantucket in 2003 and worked as a lobsterman alongside Chuck Butler for a couple of years. Mike returned to New Hampshire, but Nantucket was never far from his mind, and in 2011 he made the island his permanent home. Mike used his woodworking skills to make furniture for designers and carved quarterboards for Nantucket homes. He established his own business, Gault Woodworking, in 2013. Mike has worked on numerous previous NPT-Award winning projects, including the historic restorations of 55 Union Street, 84 Main Street, 86 Main Street, and the Hospital Thrift Shop, where he is the building’s caretaker. Mike believes in reusing and repurposing historic materials wherever possible. Mike consistently and creatively employs perhaps the most traditional of building methods – especially in Nantucket – the reuse and repurposing of building materials. At a recently completely renovation of a 1903 beach house in Quidnet Mike re-hung and re-fit the existing windows, created flooring for a new bedroom from shelving reclaimed in New Hampshire, built the outdoor shower floor with lumber from a porch in Wauwinet, repurposed doors from his personal stash – and the old kitchen cupboards became the new bathroom vanity. With consummate attention to detail and craftsmanship, his skills help preserve Nantucket’s historic treasures.

The house at 31 Main Street in ’Sconset has changed greatly over time, evolving from its original vernacular Greek Revival construction c. 1858, to being covered with Stick-style ornamentation in the late-19^th century, to a substantial Queen Anne style renovation in the early-20^th century. James and Hollie Holt purchased 31 Main Street in 2012, and immediately appreciated its history and evolution over time, but with just one bathroom on the second floor of the house shared between four bedrooms, they sought to create an additional bathroom with as little disturbance to the existing home as possible. They considered converting an historic garage on their property to a bedroom and bathroom, but with the help of architectural designer Angus MacLeod realized they could fulfill their program needs with minimal disturbance to their existing home. Two closets between two bedrooms were altered to create a new ensuite bath, with only slight changes to the home’s flow, with work carefully completed by builder Don Meyers. The Holt’s found a creative way to create additional space within the confines of their home, respecting the property’s history and character.

The Shubael Folger Jr. house at 6 Farmer Street is one of the more unusual homes in town– connected to its neighbor at 4 Farmer Street, it provided a peculiar preservation task to Judy and John Belash, who purchased the home in 1998. Upon taking ownership of the c. 1764 house, the Belashes sought to adapt it for their uses and restore historic elements that had been covered over time. They removed Victorian-era and later 20^th century finishes to expose the home’s 18^th-century features, including original cradleboards, floors, mantels, fireplace paneling, and banister. Working with builder Frank Psaradelis, they replicated details that had been removed, like a beaded detail on the door frame leading to a new sunroom, where there had previously been a shed built against the house. When the central chimney, which had been partially deconstructed by a prior owner, collapsed, the Belashes chose to reuse as much of the original brick as possible when reconstructing one of the fireboxes. Under the Belashes ownership, the remarkably intact 18^th-century details of 6 Farmer Street are able to shine.

8 North Liberty Street, the Henry C. Pinkham house, was constructed between 1834 and 1852. Over its long history, just four families have owned the home, each making respectful additions and preserving original Greek Revival features. Photographer Louis S. Davidson and his wife Alice Davidson purchased 8 North Liberty in 1944, and in 2007, their daughter Joan Pratel placed a conservation restriction on the land surrounding 8 North Liberty Street, ensuring that the approximately 1.5-acre parcel, with old growth elm trees, will be preserved as open space. Joan’s niece, and Louis and Alice’s granddaughter, Rebecca Davidson Packer, and her husband Henry, acquired the home in 2012, embarked on a careful rehabilitation of the home that included refinishing the historic floors and repairing and repainting the plaster walls, all work performed with the utmost care.