County Past
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Nantucket County, Massachusetts

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
4historic places
—earliest paper
1695formed
14,255pop. 2020
14cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 4 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1966; 2 are also National Historic Landmarks. Most listings are in or near Nantucket.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Massachusetts is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Nantucket titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

1 of 4 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

4 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Brant Point Light StationNantucketStructure1987
Coffin, Jethro, House NHLNantucketBuilding1968
Nantucket Historic District NHLNantucketDistrict1966
Sankaty Head LightNantucketStructure1987

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Nantucket was formed in 1695 (1695-06-22) from unknown / original county.

NANTUCKET created from non-county area in Massachusetts Bay Colony (Nantucket Island).

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Nantucket County population from 1790 to 2020 (Census historical series).

14k8,5262,797179018001840188019101920196020002020
17901800182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
4,6205,6177,2669,0126,0943,7273,0062,7973,4013,4843,5595,0879,52014,255

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

14 cemeteries and 10 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 14 of 14 listed
NameLatLon
African Baptist Cemetery41.27568-70.09752
Colored Cemetery41.2756-70.10241
Founders Burial Ground41.2859-70.13167
Friends Burial Ground41.28094-70.10851
Miacomet Indian Burial Ground41.26191-70.09994
New North Cemetery41.28549-70.10851
New Town Cemetery41.27212-70.09526
Old North Cemetery41.28554-70.10954
Old Town Cemetery41.2854-70.10863
Polpis Burying Ground41.29654-70.01577
Prospect Hill Cemetery41.27719-70.10918
Quaise Burial Ground41.29083-70.03253
Saint Marys Cemetery41.27597-70.10822
Unitarian Cemetery41.27184-70.10924
Historical populated places — 10 of 10
NameLatLon
Further Creek41.28068-70.22724
Head of Plains41.26679-70.1828
Maddequet41.28901-70.16891
Middle Pasture41.27512-70.01613
Narrow Creek41.28068-70.21752
North Pasture41.27512-70.04529
Plainfield41.27512-69.98279
South East Quarter41.25012-69.99946
South Pasture41.25012-70.09113
The Plains41.27512-70.15779

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Nantucket County, Massachusetts

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.