Former Surfside Lifesaving Station To Become Synagogue For Nantucket's Jewish Congregation

After years of uncertainty over its fate, the former Surfside Lifesaving Station near Surfside Beach is slated to become the new home of Shirat HaYam, Nantucket's Jewish congregation.

The property on Western Avenue was sold last November by Blue Flag Partners for $4.5 million to ACK Nightingale LLC, a limited liability company whose ownership at the time was unknown. On Thursday, it was revealed that the buyers were Surfside residents and Shirat HaYam members David Gregory and Beth Wilkinson, whose intention is to develop it into a permanent place of worship and a community center for the island's Jewish community, according to an email from Shirat HaYam president Chuck Shoneman to the congregation's membership that was obtained by the Current.  

"Two years ago, the Shirat HaYam Board of Trustees embarked upon a plan to prepare our synagogue for the next decade," Shoneman wrote. "One aspect of the Board’s vision was to have a building of our own where we could worship and have events and activities. Thanks to David and Beth’s extraordinary generosity, and their determination to provide us with a beautiful home by the sea, we have an opportunity to make the building aspect of the Board’s plan a reality."

Gregory, the former NBC newsman, and Wilkinson, own a nearby property off Pochick Avenue near Surfside Beach and the former lifesaving station, which more recently functioned as the Star of the Sea hostel before it was sold in 2020.

"We live in Surfside, so this is our neighborhood, this is our community, and we've long admired the hostel, the Star of the Sea, " Gregory told the Current on Thursday. "There's a great symmetry. Shirat HaYam in Hebrew means 'Song of the Sea,' and this is Star of the Sea, so it's pretty cool how those things align."

Founded in 1983, the Shirat HaYam congregation has never had a permanent home for worship, and has gathered at various locations around Nantucket over the years, primarily at the Unitarian Meeting House on Orange Street.

"We're still in the early stages of this, but we're just so excited and very passionate about it," Gregory said. "We love this congregation, we love the island, and we think the faith community is so robust. So the idea, for both of us, that the Jewish community on Nantucket can have a permanent home is something that's very meaningful to us and to our family, to the Jewish community. But we hope and expect to the wider community as well. As neighbors and as as people who have been so dedicated to the island, for Beth and I, it's just such an honor to own this property and to be able to share the vision and work with the congregation to build something with real duration, with that sense of history, with that sense of preservation, that can be something really meaningful to the community."

The announcement comes nearly two years after Nantucket voters at the 2024 Annual Town Meeting rejected a proposed deal for the town to acquire the property for $6 million and convert it into seasonal housing for island lifeguards, with additional year-round housing units for other municipal staff. When the votes were tallied, only 100 people were in favor of the purchase, while 350 island voters opposed the acquisition.

The property includes the last remaining U.S. Life Saving Service building on the island, which dates back to 1874 and served as a lifesaving station through 1921.

"Development of the property is in its initial stages," Shoneman added. "Funds will need to be raised from members, friends and supporters for construction and an endowment to support ongoing operations and maintenance. As with any project of this magnitude, there will be a lot to do over a number of years."

The Surfside Lifesaving Station property had been operated for decades as the Star of the Sea Hostel before it was sold by Hostelling International to the limited liability company managed by the Boston-based real estate firm Blue Flag Partners in the fall of 2020 for $3.5 million.

At the time, Blue Flag Partners co-founder Terry Sanford told the Inquirer and Mirror that his development plans for the property included an updated hostel and luxury hotel units. “From a residential perspective, you could carve this up, and given what’s going on in the residential market, there’s a lot of interest there,” Sanford said at the time. “But it’s not what we’re interested in with the property. I’m not going in that direction.”

But less than three years later, Blue Flag announced that it had abandoned its plans to convert the former lifesaving station and youth hostel into a hotel, and intended to sell the property with an initial asking price of $7.9 million, more than double the price it paid for it in 2020.

“Blue Flag brought the project to a shovel-ready status for a full restoration and continued hospitality use,” Sanford said in a prepared statement in February 2023. “Ultimately, we aren't going to be able to give the Star of the Sea the level of attention that we believe it deserves at this time, so we are seeking a new steward who will carry forward our vision to back the grandeur of this one-of-a-kind property."

Before putting it on the open market, however, Blue Flag stated it would give some island-based entities the first crack at it. But when Egan Maritime bowed out of any potential acquisition, the town stepped up to explore a purchase of the property, given its historical significance. Members of the Select Board and town administration met in numerous closed-door executive sessions to discuss buying the former lifesaving station, and in December 2023 they secured a $6 million purchase and sale agreement with Blue Flag that was contingent upon the vote at 2024 Town Meeting that ultimately failed. 

Even after its days of serving as a lifesaving station came to an end, the primary structure on the property has a storied history. According to the Nantucket Preservation Trust, “the federal government retained ownership of the site until 1962, when Lilye Mason, a longtime housemother for American Youth Hostels, Inc. successfully bid to purchase the property and convert it for use into a hostel. In 1963, Ms. Mason sold the property to American Youth Hostels, Inc., now known as Hostelling International.” It was then known as the “Star of the Sea” youth hostel for decades until the property was put on the market by the Hostelling International organization in the fall of 2020.

In the aftermath of the sale to Blue Flag that year, the Select Board voted to transfer an existing preservation restriction on the property - which prevents any alterations to the exterior of the original lifesaving building - from the Nantucket Historic District Commission to the Nantucket Preservation Trust.

“A preservation easement is an excellent preservation tool, as the restriction runs with the deed, regardless of who the owner of the protected building is,” Nantucket Preservation Trust executive director Mary Bergman told the Current at the time. “The preservation easement on the Star of the Sea Lifesaving Station and historic buildings at 31 Western Ave ensures there will be no changes to the exterior appearance of these important buildings without approval of NPT and the Historic District Commission. We look forward to working with the next steward of these structures significant to Nantucket’s history."