Easy Street Park

The Land Bank acquired the properties at 27 & 21 Easy Street in 2015 and 2017 and worked with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. to design the beautiful waterfront park that exists today.

A stone’s throw from the Steamship Wharf and in the heart of downtown, Easy Street Park was created with climate change in mind. Design elements such as an elevated boardwalk, abundant bench seating with views of the harbor and Old North Wharf, and mounded garden beds with native vegetation make this an attractive and resilient waterfront park.

In this location, resilience equates to flood tolerance. To that end, the park contains a number of features that accommodate salt and freshwater. The raised boardwalk provides space beneath for water retention during large rain events, storm surge, or high tide flooding. The sloped garden beds contain enough soil to keep the plants healthy, situated above a layer of sand. This sand layer drains quickly and will expedite the flushing out of residual flood waters. The garden beds are bursting with native and flood-tolerant vegetation, all of which have a significant capacity to withstand coastal weather events. Shrubs such as sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia), chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa), and beach plum (Prunus martima) are water and salt tolerant – essential in this highly exposed location. Lastly, the bulkhead at Easy Street Park displays a list of historic flooding events as symbolic waypoints to raise awareness about the past, present, and potential future impacts of climate change on Nantucket, as we work towards a more resilient island.

This property promotes scenic and ADA compliant access to the waterfront and Nantucket Harbor. It is the perfect spot to stop and enjoy a coffee, sandwich or ice cream with unrestricted views of bustling marine activity.