Nancy Cooper Boyd Willey

Nancy Cooper Boyd was born in Southampton in 1902, grew up in Park Slope (Brooklyn), and graduated from Barnard College in New York City with a degree in sociology. She married Dr. Malcolm Macdonald Willey in 1924 after the couple moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they commissioned the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1932 to design and build a house for $8,000 – $10,000. Nancy divorced Dr. Willey in 1954, and returned to Sag Harbor in 1965, after supporting herself in New York City.

Nancy’s love for Sag Harbor and passion for preserving and protecting its history and beauty were equally as strong as her mother’s. She created the Old Sagg-Harbour Committee, a group of environmentalists and preservationists who were dedicated to protecting the buildings and views of Sag Harbor that her mother had painted. A spin-off of this, the Sag Harbor Conservation and Planning Alliance (CAPA), worked on environmental conservation issues. This ecological conservation group saved Little Northwest Creek and wetlands from developers, worked to preserve Barcelona Neck, and protected the Trout Pond nature habitat, and the nature trails in the Long Island Greenbelt.

In the 1940s, Nancy and her Old Sagg-Harbour Committee saved one of Sag Harbor’s most iconic historical treasurer, the Custom House. She and her friend, Josephine Bassett led a successful endeavor to prevent the landmark house from demolition, and with the financial support of ex-governor Edison, moved it to its present location on Main Street. Two of Nancy’s most important accomplishments in Sag Harbor, however, were helping to establish the Sag Harbor Historic District and the Village’s Historic Preservation and Architectural Review Board, both meant to protect its unique and important architectural history.

The Village and the Museum owe a tremendous debt to these two remarkable women, Nancy and her mother Annie. The Museum has hundreds of pieces of Nancy Willey’s correspondence, and Annie’s extensive collection of art, letters and diaries.