Nantucket also has 90 kilometers of pristine beaches and a picturesque harbor with some of the fanciest yachts you’ll see. The island is often so fog-bound that it got the nickname, “The Gray Lady.”

And 45 percent of the island is preserved for all time as free and open space and nature preserves.

This unusual preservationist victory traces to the work of one man - Walter Beinecke, Jr., the heir to a trading-stamp fortune.

In the 1950s, Nantucket Harbor was decayed and declining. Beinecke bought 55 percent of the commercial space and began building reproductions of 18th-century architecture.

And he purchased whole swaths of open land and set them aside as protected space.

Beinecke’s efforts completely changed the character of Nantucket, from a dingy outpost that many people avoided to a highly desirable summer destination - for those who can afford it.