This landmark house on Nantucket is one of a group of 3 Federal-Greek Revival style brick houses located on Main Street. Built in 1838 by a prominent whaling merchant, Joseph Starbuck, for one of his 3 sons, the house is considered to be amongst the most important historic houses in America. It now belongs to a collector of Americana, his wife and 3 young daughters. When he approached us to work on the project, he said that he very much wanted to make a house to show his collections in, but also to design a comfortable place for his young family to spend their summers. Hence, the parlor floor is formal, but the decoration becomes lively and whimsical in the attic where the children have charming bedrooms in the dormers. We were very careful to preserve as much historic fabric as possible. Interestingly, the client was willing to adapt to the historic architecture instead of altering it to suit contemporary taste, thus the discreet parlor spaces and relatively small family room. In the formal parts of the house we tried to capture the flavor of Nantucket, making reference to its maritime history with Chinese export paintings, ship models and canton matting on the bedroom floors. We also used pieces from the client's collection of American paintings, placing several noteworthy examples in the major rooms.