A small two-bedroom cottage in Nantucket town on a small lot would have sold for $120,000 in 1990, Ms. Dey said; the same house today would go for about $189,000.

Nantucket town makes a subtle, almost magical transition from village to country that is more like that of an English country village than anything else in America.

They purchased a 200-year-old 2,200-square-foot sea captain's home in Nantucket town that will take three years to renovate; one down, two to go.

They began as one-room shacks built by fishermen from Nantucket town who came to the village for cod-fishing season.

In 1846, a catastrophic fire burnt much of Nantucket town and destroyed the harbor.

Nantucket town is an antique maze of narrow streets utterly unsuited to auto traffic.

On the north shore, Nantucket town bustles with chowder houses, stately inns and art galleries.

For the return journey, follow elm-lined Main Street out of Siasconset to the straight Milestone Road back to Nantucket town past acres of cranberry bogs.

Outside on a big lawn, there was more flinging and lots of cigarette smoking, and then just before dinner was served, fireworks far across the water, in Nantucket town.

It is the only surviving mill of the four smock mills that once stood on Popsquachet (windy hill in the Native American language of the Wampanoags) overlooking Nantucket town.