How some of Nantucket’s oldest family businesses navigate the new island economy.

Business & Technology

story by Robert Cocuzzo

photography by Kit Noble

LAUREN MURRAY

When Lauren Murray’s father, John, first asked her if she would ever be interested in taking over their family business, her answer was no. Lauren had grown up working in the clothing shop at the top of Main Street—known internationally for its signature Nantucket Reds Collection—and was in college studying to become a teacher. After graduating, Lauren went on to have a successful career as an educator on the island, but the pull of the family business proved to be nothing short of genetic. In 2020, Lauren and her brother, Greg, and cousins Andrew Bridier and Matt Bridier took over Murray’s Toggery Shop, representing the fourth generation of the shop’s ownership.

“I am very proud and honored to be able to run my family business now,” says Lauren, who is the only owner still living on the island today. “I know there’s not many people in my position, especially on Nantucket where there are customers that I’ve known and helped shop since I started working here in middle school.” While Lauren and her cousins oversee the business, Lauren’s husband, Connor—whom she met while working at Murray’s—serves as the general manager.

Although walking into Murray’s might evoke Nantucket nostalgia, innovation has been key to the shop’s longevity, beginning with Lauren’s grandfather, Philip C. Murray, who introduced the Nantucket Reds pants—originally called “Hulbert Avenue Reds”—after being inspired by the red sails on the sailboats in Brittany, France. When they landed in the pages of The Official Preppy Handbook, Nantucket Reds became and remain an internationally known product.

Lauren’s father was key to expanding the reach of the Nantucket Reds Collection when he established the island’s first e-commerce store, nantucketreds.com. Since then, Murray’s has been fulfilling orders for Nantucket Reds around the world, from Australia to Indonesia and all over Europe. “We just received an order from Chile,” Lauren says. “The website business helps sustain us all year round, especially in the winter when we might only have one person come in during some days.”

As for the course she and her brother and cousins are plotting for the future of Murray’s, Lauren indicates that they won’t be falling into the whims of fast fashion any time soon. Instead, she says that many of her shoppers are coming in today for one-of-a-kind pieces. “We are still determined to continue on with that tradition of being family-run while still trying to appeal to the year-round community here,” Lauren says. “We don’t want to be just here for the summer people, but for everyone.”

As family folklore goes, before Jasper Young was even old enough to talk, Nantucketers were asking when he was going to take over the family’s bike shop. For that reason, Jasper’s road to owning Young’s was circuitous. “There was never pressure from my parents or family, but there seemed to be expectation from the community and I wanted to get away from that,” says Jasper, who moved to the West Coast to teach after graduating college. “It took me some time to find my way.” Working in California, Jasper realized that he actually wanted to live in a small town by the water—and there was none better than Nantucket. Last summer, he officially bought the family business from his father—becoming the fourth generation of Young’s ownership.



Young’s Bicycle Shop has been a landmark on the Strip since 1931 when Jasper’s great-grandfather Harvey A. Young opened its doors. The business was passed down to Jasper’s grandfather and then ultimately to his father, Harvey. Jasper began working at the bicycle shop at the age of 12 and spent four years managing the operation before buying it from his father. Now running the bike shop on his own this year, Jasper has a clear-eyed view of just how hard it can be in the feast-or-famine grind of doing business on Nantucket.

“It’s an intense seasonal business,” he says. “You’re hemorrhaging money in the beginning of the year, and then hopefully by this time you can start making it back.” While there’s a chorus among downtown business owners that the economy is down this summer, Jasper believes that it’s just returning to pre-pandemic busy. “The last couple of years was pretty crazy,” he says. “It was good for business, but it wasn’t sustainable for life.”

While Jasper is committed to continuing his predecessors’ legacy of exceptional service, he hasn’t been afraid to innovate the business model. “This year we started offering e-bike rentals for the first time, which was a push for me because it’s what the consumer wants and they’re great tools for the island. I was resistant to doing it for a while, but I saw that people really wanted them. I’ve even got my parents on e-bikes.”

Of the many legacies that Jasper is committed to preserving with his family business, he is particularly passionate about the mentorship provided to his young employees. Generations of kids have punched their first timecard at Young’s, so that today, Jasper finds himself hiring children of former employees. “Teaching kids how to work, how to have their first job, how to talk to people on the street and to be confident goes a long way,” he says. “It has to do with community. I think people appreciate the legacy here of helping out your neighbor. It’s something we’ve done for almost a hundred years.”

JOHN BARTLETT

John Bartlett doesn’t need to look far to see reminders of the history he is responsible for tending on his family’s farm. Beyond some of the hundred-plus-year-old buildings on the property, John regularly crosses paths with his eighty-eight-year-old father who still drives around on his tractor. “Ultimately, we’re trying to be good stewards, good shepherds, to leave the farm in a better spot than when we found it,” says John, who represents the sixth-generation ownership of Bartlett’s Farm. “The legacy of the business— to keep the farm as a farm—has probably been the hardest part to maintain. We’ve evolved to expand our business to continue to do that.”

Growing up, there was never a serious question in John’s mind as to whether he would work on the farm. While he briefly considered becoming an engineer, he quickly concluded that he preferred to be driving tractors rather than designing them. He started taking over control of the farm in the late eighties and early nineties. Under his watch, Bartlett’s Farm has not only maintained the historic identity that was sewn into its soil in the early 1800s, but it has expanded its offerings to include everything from yoga to farm-to-table dinners to outdoor theatrical performances. “You can’t stand still,” John says. “To keep up, you need to do more with less and be more efficient with the technology and growing methods.” On the farming front this spring, Bartlett’s Farm officially became the first and only farm on Nantucket to be certified organic.

Key to maintaining the farm’s quality has been in maintaining its passionate staff. “We’ve always tried to provide a safe and productive work environment for our employees,” says John. “We support our employees and their extended family; they become part of our family. We treat people how we want to be treated. When you do that, it always pays dividends.”

As for who will be succeeding him when he’s ready to hang up his boots, John says that it is a topic he and his family have already started to think about but nothing has been set in place as of yet. John has two nephews who are passionately involved with working at the farm. Until the next generation of ownership crops up, John and his team remain steadfast in tending to the legacy planted by their predecessors and making sure it grows well into the future.