Ramblings 2010

RAMBLINGS An Annual Publication of Nantucket Preservation Trust Vol. IV • 2010

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Susan Boardman Embroidered Narratives

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Welcome Ramblings, NPT’s annual publication, is meant for all who love the island’s historic architecture and are dedicated to its protection. Now in its fourth year, Ramblings is provided at no cost and serves as our official guide. It offers information on NPT services for owners of historic properties and on general events for members, visitors, and island residents.

This year’s guide includes detailed information on houses along Union Street— the site of NPT’s 2010 Summer Kitchens House Tour—as well as a glimpse into Off Centre: The Wesco Acre Lots–The Houses and Their Histories, our new neighborhood book; our August Fête in the Vestal Street neighborhood; and tips for owners of historic properties.

We hope you enjoy this year’s edition. Please feel free to call on us for preservation assistance, and to let us show you what’s possible.

Michael May Executive Director

Nantucket Preservation Trust

Two Union Street, 2nd Floor Nantucket, MA 02554 508-228-1387 www.nantucketpreservation.org

Sketch of 2 Union Street by Mark Hubbard

NPT Board of Directors Executive Committee Christopher Mortenson President Ken Beaugrand Vice President Thomas Richards Treasurer Pam Waller Secretary David Brown Nancy Forster

Directors Kathy Arvay Christopher Dallmus Susan Zises Green Bridget O. Hubbard Carol Kinsley Lyman Perry Jeffrey Rayport Esta-Lee Stone Lydia Sussek John Sussek

Staff Michael May Executive Director Ema Hudson Special Events and Membership Coordinator Henry Ian Pass, Esq. Counsel

Summer Interns Jennifer McPeak Bailey Juliana Gutowski Kate Dellas

Photography Jeffrey Allen Michael May

Guest Contributors Brian Pfeiffer Betsy Tyler

Graphic Design

Kathleen Hay Designs

Copy Editing

Elizabeth Oldham

Historic images courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association

Ramblings •

Vol 1V • 2010

Table of Contents

Let Us Show You What’s Possible

NPT Preservation Fund

9 11

The Typical Nantucket House

14

Annual Summer Kitchens House Tour Historic Union Street Neighborhood

18

Preservation Awards Honoring NPT’s 2010 Recipients

28

NPT Annual Meeting Myrick Howard, Guest Speaker

33

Nantucket’s Historic Landscape

Neighborhood Book Off-Centre:TheWesco Acre Lots

34

Preservation Case Study: South Church

42

August Fête and House Tour Shoot for the Stars!

48

Walking Tours

51

39

Useful Preservation Tools 52 Preservation, Restoration, or Rehabilitation?

NPT’s Preservation Easements Links Just for Fun

65

Architectural Terms

67

NPT Membership Information

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Ramblings echoes the spirit of a guide first published in 1947 titled, Rambling Through the Streets and Lanes of Nantucket,

by Edouard A. Stackpole.

Cover image: Stone Alley, by Wuanita Smith, circa 1920s, courtesy of Max Berry Copyright © 2010 Nantucket Preservation Trust

Build on the Past Train for the Future Are you inspired by old buildings?

Want to expand your career in the construction field?

Consider learning a traditional building technique.

These much sought-after crafts can provide you with skills to restore Nantucket’s historic architecture.

Through its Apprentice Program, NPT is dedicated to providing training opportunities for island residents.

Timber framing, joinery, plastering, masonry, and more...

For further information, contact: Nantucket Preservation Trust Two Union Street - 2nd Floor Nantucket, MA 02554 T: 508-228-1387

www.nantucketpreservation.org

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The Nantucket Preservation Trust NPT is a membership nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of Nantucket’s sense of place.

our belief Nantucket’s historic architecture is a unique and valuable asset that makes the island special. our goal To preserve our architectural heritage for present and future generations to enjoy. our programs To educate, inspire, and encourage historic preservation across the island. our hope That you will join us in working to preserve our past.

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Photo by Jeffrey Allen

our programs

Annual Speakers Program • Apprenticeships and Scholarships • Architectural Studies and Surveys • Architectural Investigations • Architectural Lectures • Architectural Renderings • August Fête • Comprehensive/Concise House Histories • Historic District Commission Testimonies • Historic Research • House Markers • House Resource Assistance • Interior Surveys • Interviewing Your Nantucket Home • Landmark History Books • Main Street Walking Tours • Marketplace • National Historic Landmark Update • Neighborhood Book Series • Ramblings • Preservation Awards • Preservation Easements • Preservation Month • Private Walking Tours • ’Sconset Architecture and History Tour • Summer Kitchens House Tour • Traditional Building Method Demonstrations • Wesco Acre Lots Tour

Photo by Jeffrey Allen

nPT Preservation Fund Introduction

The island of Nantucket is one of the few communities in the country that has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark for its remarkable concentration of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings. In 2000, Nantucket was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Endangered List due to inappropriate alterations to historic interiors and the subsequent loss of integrity to many historic buildings. Since that time, the Nantucket Preservation Trust (NPT) has redoubled its efforts to bring public attention to the benefits of maintaining Nantucket’s historic buildings and preserving their interiors. An important role for NPT is to lead the way and show the community what is possible through historic preservation programs. NPT’s Preservation Fund is designed as a proactive step to assist in this effort. The fund helps property owners as well as those in the building trades by providing much needed financial and technical support.

Description

The goal of the NPT Preservation Fund is to encourage community-wide efforts to protect Nantucket’s historic architecture. The fund brings recognition to key projects, emphasizes the importance of proper preservation work, and encourages further community support for individual projects and preservation activities. The NPT Preservation Fund is used on an as-needed basis, is flexible to suit various situations, and is a revolving fund where applicable. The fund is used for the following preservation activities:

Preservation Easement Assistance

The NPT Preservation Fund provides seed funds to offset costs for securing preservation easements by homeowners and institutions. Placing a preservation easement on a property is the best way to ensure its protection in perpetuity. The associated costs, however, sometimes discourage property owners from seeking an easement. In addition, many property owners postpone implementing preservation easements, leading to properties being sold without protection, sometimes resulting in the subsequent loss of important landmarks. The Preservation Fund also is used to help pay for required documentation for the certification of historic structures and for the preparation of the easement documents. In most cases, preservation easement assistance requires distributed funds to revolve back to the Preservation Fund upon the sale of real estate.

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Apprenticeship and Scholarship Funds

NPT’s Preservation Fund also supports apprenticeships and scholarships for the training of Nantucket’s preservation-related workforce. Traditional building skills are necessary to preserve historic structures, and knowledge of these increasingly rare techniques can keep tradesmen busy even in hard economic times. Scholarships are available to those in the building trades who are interested in perfecting old skills or in learning new ones; those interested in an internship with a master craftsman; or students looking to enter the skilled-building-craft market.

Speaker Program

NPT hosts a guest-speaker program to inform island residents and visitors about the role preservation plays on Nantucket and around the world. The Preservation Fund makes it possible to bring national leaders in the preservation movement to the island and to provide this free public programming.

Historic-Property Assistance

Still in the development stage, the Historic-Property Assistance element of the Preservation Fund will assist homeowners and institutions in the proper repair of their historic buildings. Historic-property assistance will focus largely on routine maintenance initiatives, such as exterior paint projects, chimney stabilization, window repair, and similar programs. When work is more comprehensive or tailored to the preservation of an individual property, permanent protection through preservation easements may be required. In addition, NPT Preservation Funds will be available in the future to secure Nantucket historic landmarks in danger of demolition or for emergency situations if and when historic buildings are damaged in disasters. npt 12

Secure Nantucket’s Architectural Heritage for Future Generations: Join the Nantucket Preservation Trust’s

• Cornerstone Society • Nantucket’s historic architecture is a unique and valuable asset that is an important part of what makes the island special. By joining the NPT’s ­Cornerstone Society, you can help us ensure Nantucket’s architectural heritage for present and future generations.

There are two ways—beyond your annual support—that you can help.

1. THE NPT PRESERVATION FUND Make a contribution to NPT’s endowed Preservation Fund. The ­Preservation Fund includes the funding of special projects essential to the ­preservation of island structures and educational programs such as ­workshops for ­builders, guest speakers and seminars, and preservation scholarships to learn ­traditional building techniques.

2. PLANNED GIVING Remember NPT in your estate planning. There are many ways to support us through planned giving. Your financial advisor can determine what means is best for you. (We ask that you let us know that you have remembered us in your planning.) Planned giving may include:

• Bequests

• Charitable Lead Trusts and Charitable Remainder Trusts

• Insurance Policies

• Retirement Plans and IRAs. Donors to these two programs will become members of our newly ­established Cornerstone Society and receive special recognition and i­nvitations. Please help us plan for tomorrow by joining the Cornerstone Society today.

For more information, contact Michael May, Executive Director, at the NPT office: 508-228-1387.

the typical nantucket house Predominant House Style of the 18th and 19th Centuries

10 Milk Street with later Greek Revival doorway and Victorian bay window, circa 1944 14

T

he most common house type in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Nantucket was the two-and-a-half-story, four-bay-wide, centerchimney house. The form, known locally as the “Typical Nantucket House,” first appeared about 1760 and became the predominant house type on island by the late eighteenth century. Clay Lancaster, in The Architecture of Historic Nantucket, notes that of the eight hundred pre-Civil War houses in town there are 175 Typical Nantucket Houses—by far the largest number of any one house form. Although the Typical Nantucket House has long been associated with the island’s Quaker community, traditionally it was not exclusively a Quaker form and was found elsewhere in coastal New England during the period. It was perhaps adopted by the community due to its simple, functional form, and there were probably other factors that influenced its use. Its predominance on island also coincides with the greatest period of development of the town, as well as the rise and decline of the Quaker religion. Unlike earlier saltbox houses that faced south with their lean-to roofs bracing against the north wind, the Typical Nantucket House form could be adopted to fit anywhere into the newly defined village streets. Absence of the lean-to found in the earlier house form also provided for additional space, light, and ventilation.

Today, variations of the Typical Nantucket House are found throughout town and, like any structure type, they show evidence of evolution, often with the addition of wings and elements such as decorative doorways. Still, the form is easy to spot since all Typical Nantucket Houses have a central chimney as well as a four-bay-wide façade. (A four-bay façade has three windows and one door across the first-floor front). The windows are usually asymmetrically arranged and typically incorporate varying sizes. The façade of the earlier examples tended to employ two twelve-over-twelve-paned windows on one side per floor and a simple paneled doorway with transom, plus narrow nine-over-nine-paned windows in the end bay. Houses constructed in the first quarter of the nineteenth century often incorporate larger paned six-over-six windows—or “lights”—on their façades.

The earliest examples of the Typical Nantucket House are low to the ground, while later houses—those built in the nineteenth century—have raised basements, often with finished rooms such as a summer kitchen. Federal doorways with pilasters and fanlights, or Greek Revival entries with 15

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sidelights and simple classical surrounds, were incorporated in many later houses or added to earlier forms to “modernize” them.

By the early 1800s, many Typical Nantucket Houses employed side lean-to wings along the gable ends, or rear kitchen ells. Clapboard fronts were evident in 11 Mill Street, circa 1890s the Federal period, too, although most houses were still clad entirely in cedar shingles.

The interior of the Typical Nantucket House evolved over its sixty-plus years of popularity on the island. In general, the first floor held an entry, with a straight-run staircase with winders at the top and a small pantry and closet along the side wall, often with a window; in later examples of the style the closet and/or pantry are removed. The first floor also includes a front parlor, a long kitchen behind the entry, and a small chamber behind the parlor.

Three fireplaces are generally found—one in each of the main rooms. The second floor held a similar plan, with three chambers. A garret or attic often had a small chamber along a gable-end wall as well as a ladder stairway to a roof hatch that sometimes led to a roofwalk. Interior features included exposed gunstock posts, paneled fireplace walls, cradle boards along the interior walls, mirror boards between the windows, and paneled doors with transoms. The walls were plastered and often lined with wallpaper.

A fine example of an early Typical Nantucket House with its interior preserved is the Maria Mitchell Birthplace at 4 Vestal Street. The house also shows evidence of additions, including the side kitchen wing, added in the nineteenth century, with its fine painted boards to simulate wood. The house is open for tours in season and will also be featured at this year’s August Fête. npt 17

summer kitchens house tour: Historic Union Street Neighborhood

Union Street looking north, circa 1890s 18

NPT’S ANNUAL SUMMER KITCHENS HOUSE TOUR Featuring Historic Homes and Local Guest Chefs Union Street Neighborhood Thursday, July 15, 2010 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Union Street is the site of NPT’s Sixth Annual Summer ­Kitchens House Tour (located just steps from Main Street). Tour ­participants will view a variety of kitchens and in several cases gardens and other historic sections of the houses. Along the way, we will once again offer special treats provided by island chefs, and the NPT Kitchen Marketplace will display gifts and other items for sale.

Tickets are $45 and include a raffle ticket to win a state-of-the-art outdoor grill. Tour tickets may be purchased in advance or on the day of the tour. For further information, ­contact the NPT office at 508-229-1387, or visit www.nantucketpreservation.org.

NPT wishes to thank the home owners who graciously opened their houses, island chefs for volunteering their time, and KAM Appliances for donation of the outdoor grill for the raffle.

THE HOUSES

Research for the houses participating in this year’s kitchen tour was compiled by ­historian and author Betsy Tyler.

19 Union Street House carpenter Nathan Nye bought land here in 1803 and built the twoand-a-half-story, four-bay, “typical” Nantucket house, which he sold to Sylvanus Ewer in 1805. Ewer, originally a ship-carpenter, became a successful businessman with interests in a number of whaling vessels. Although married four times, he had only one child, Peter F. Ewer, who is known in the annals of Nantucket history as the person who placed the milestones on the road to ’Sconset in the early 1820s and invented the camels, the oddly named floating dry dock that lifted heavily laden ships over the shallow entrance to the harbor. Peter inherited his father’s house, and lived there with his first wife, Eunice, who died in 1822, and then with his second wife, 19

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Eunice’s sister, Mary, who acquired the house when Peter died in 1855.

Nineteen Union remained in the Ewer family for several generations before it was finally sold in 1926.

20 union Street Long ago, four houses in a row on the east side of Union Street belonged to the daughters of William Coffin Jr., who lived at 18 Union. He built or purchased the dwellings for his daughters, one of whom, Martha, wife of Samuel Jenks, lived at 20 Union. She inherited the house in 1837, but had probably been living there since it was built around 1830. Unlike the typical houses across the street, this is a Federal-style house, with a five-bay façade, central doorway, and four end chimneys. Martha’s husband, Samuel, was the first editor of The Inquirer, in 1821, and he became the publisher as well, until he sold the paper to his son, William, twenty years later. The ­newspaper was printed in a small building then standing on Coffin Street during the elder Jenks’s reign as editor and publisher. In 1865, The Inquirer merged with another island paper, The Weekly Mirror, to become The Inquirer and Mirror.

20 Union Street, at the corner of Coffin Street, circa 1890s

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22 union Street The house at 22 Union Street originated as a “lean-to” somewhere else on the island in the mid 1700s. The lean-to was the predominant style of early dwelling on Nantucket, characterized by a large central chimney and a sloping roof over a shed-like extension at the rear of the house. The style is often referred to as a “saltbox.” The rafters in the attic on the south side of the house at 22 Union Street have been cut, suggesting that the roofline changed from that of a lean-to to a house that is two stories high, front and back. This alteration may have occurred when the house was moved from its original location; it first appeared in its current setting between 1796 and 1809. The deed trail clearly traces it back from current owner Terry Bradley to soapmaker and tallow candlemaker Thaddeus Hussey, whose family lived in the house in 1809. Where the house originated, who built it, and how it got to its present location are matters of conjecture that were explored in depth in the NPT’s first comprehensive house history. Known as the Chopping Bowl restaurant in the early twentieth century, and well known for its abundant flower gardens, the dwelling has been through several incarnations; it was repositioned, renovated, and enlarged in 1998.

22 Union Street, circa 1900

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25 union Street Ebenezer Rand (1746–1825), and his sons, Ebenezer Jr. and Nathaniel, identified as masons and bricklayers in their deed of purchase, bought the property at 25 Union Street in 1806 and sold the land with a dwelling house and outbuildings in 1813 to master mariner Christopher Wyer.

The house changed hands a number of times in the nineteenth century, and was the home of a baker, several merchants, and a cooper, before another ­master mariner, Charles Grant, purchased it in 1863. Like the houses at 19 and 21 Union, it has a four-bay façade and sits on a high brick basement, ­necessitating a stoop and stairs leading to the sidewalk.

35 union Street This typical house, situated on a low stone basement, was not on the land that blacksmith William Gurrill purchased here in 1830. He bought two adjacent parcels that year and moved an older house to the site. According to a note written by Maria Louisa Owen in 1894, the house (once owned by her grandfather, William Coffin) first stood on Chicken Hill, off Prospect Street, and was moved to Union Street in 1797. Gurrill must have moved it from another location on Union Street to his newly acquired property in 1830. He and his wife, Nancy, had six children and made 35 Union their home until 1870. Census records show that Arthur L. Johnson, a painter and paperhanger, and his wife, Florence, lived at 35 Union from the 1920s until the mid-sixties, when the house was sold at auction.

36 1/2 union Street A larger house stood at this site as late as 1892, when it appears on one of the Sanborn Insurance Company maps of the town, next to a newly laid “foundation” at 36 Union. The Sanborn maps, which show detailed footprints of houses, garages, shops, schools, churches, and other structures, are invaluable resources for the study of local architecture; they can be viewed online at www.nha.org. Expansion of the new Victorian house next door may have prompted removal of the old house, which does not appear at the site, on the next published Sanborn map in 1898. The lot remained empty on the 1909 map, but on the next map, published in 1923, the footprint of a small, one-and-a-half-story dwelling appears. Elliot Barnard, who owned 38 Union in the early twentieth century, may have built the small house next to his, or moved a house to the location. His daughter sold 36 ½ Union as a separate residence in 1954.

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45 union Street Ezra W. Lewis was the first in a long family line of undertakers on Nantucket who still run the Lewis Funeral Parlor at 42 Union Street today. Lewis built his first one-story undertaker’s shop at this site between 1887 and 1892, but replaced it with a one-and-one-half story building in 1898. The Lewis family owned the property until 1980. Since that time the “coffin shop,” as it was familiarly known, has been a private dwelling.

47 union Street Mariner Thomas V. McCleave, who built the house at 1 Weymouth Lane in the late 1790s, also built this house, known as his “tenant house,” around 1820. Although Thomas and his wife did not live in the tenant house, it was inherited by their grandchildren, the children of their daughter, Polly Coffin, who died in 1836. Those four children all eventually moved away from the island, but owned the house jointly until 1871. The oldest part of the house faces south onto Weymouth Lane, with a large addition built on the northwest side sometime later. The entire structure sits on a very high granite basement.

47 Union Street, circa 1820 25

THE NPT KITCHEN MARKETPLACE Thursday, July 15 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

25 Union Street As part of the ­ itchen tour, NPT’s k kitchen marketplace will offer a variety of local crafts and specialty gifts Raffle tickets available for a GE© Monogram 42” outdoor cooking center

June 1– August 6, 2010 Sherburne Hall 11 Centre Street 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

A sampling of vendors English Trunk Show Brooke Boothe Design & Monogramming Edward Benedict Taylor Cullen Trillium

nantucket preservaton trust

2 flora Street William Taber, a house carpenter, sold the house at 2 Flora Street to mariner Thomas Fuller for $600 in 1831. It is likely that Taber built the small, three-bay, one-and-three-quarter-story house. His deed to Fuller gives as the west boundary the land “which I bought of David Chadwick this day.” Taber used the profit from the sale of his small house to move up the hill, where he probably built 4 Flora as well. Thomas Fuller died in 1841, but his wife, Sofia, and children Reuben and Caroline, lived at 2 Flora for twenty-three more years, until Reuben, who had moved to Illinois, sold the house to mariner Thomas M. Bearse in 1864. During Nantucket’s worst economic depression in the 1860s and 70s, the house was sold at auction for $225. npt

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Nantucket Preservation Trust 2010 Preservation Award Recipients

preservation award 2010

Margaret Yates Berkheimer, posthumously Stewardship Award

Lucy Dillon and Steve Lindsay Preservation Award

Marilyn Whitney Landscape Award

Pen Austin Traditional Building Methods Award

2010 Preservation awards Each year, NPT recognizes individuals and organizations who have had a ­positive impact on historic preservation on the island. An awards luncheon will be held on Friday, July 30, at the Great Harbor Yacht Club. Contact the NPT office for details.

The John A. and Katherine S. Lodge Stewardship Award

The John A. and Katherine S. Lodge Stewardship Award is presented, ­posthumously, to Margaret Yates Berkheimer. Mrs. Berkheimer spent more than sixty summers on Nantucket and loved its historic character. In 2005, she donated a preservation easement on her longtime family house at 8 Pine Street to ensure that this architecturally and historically significant structure would be protected for future generations.

Known as the George Gardner House, her home is one of the few ­eighteenth-century gambrel-roof houses on the island. It was constructed circa 1750, with a one-story rear ell built during the second half of the ­eighteenth century and two small additions, known as “warts,” added in 1943 by her parents and designed by noted architect Frederick P. Hill.

Mrs. Berkheimer, writer and journalist, wrote two mysteries, one of which was Widow’s Walk, published in 1945, with Nantucket as its setting. She died August 13, 2009, in New York City, at age ninety-three.

NPT’s Preservation Award

The Nantucket Preservation Trust is proud to announce that this year’s Preservation Award will be presented to those involved with the renovation of 37 Liberty Street. The home, built circa 1822 for Benjamin L’Hommedieu, cooper, is owned by Lucy Dillon. The general contractor on the project was Steve Lindsay.

The homeowner and team of contractors worked diligently to research the house’s history to ensure all of the work that was done reflected the period and that its original features were protected. The preservation community, island craftsmen, and officials with the Historic District Commission were also consulted ­throughout the project.

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Sankaty Head Lighthouse earned the Landscape Award in 2009.

ReMain Nantucket was the recipient of the 2009 Preservation Award for the restoration of Mitchell’s Book Corner, at 54 Main Street. Artwork by Mark Hubbard 30

Officials with the Preservation Trust are recognizing Lucy Dillon, ­­the contractors, and others who participated in the restoration with the Preservation Award in recognition of their efforts and successful renovation.

The project can serve as an example for other homeowners as we seek to ­preserve Nantucket’s unique and important architectural history for future generations to enjoy.

Traditional building method Award

Pen Austin is the recipient of this new award for ­traditional ­craftsmanship.

Ms. Austin has brought expertise in ­several ­traditional building methods to the island. She is a master at ­plastering and chimney repair, including limemortar restoration, as well as ­decorative painting. Her work focuses on the importance of ­sensitive restoration of historic materials. She has worked on many restoration projects on island, including 9 New Mill Street, 18 India Street, and the Unitarian Meeting House.

The Caroline a. Ellis Landscape Award

This year’s landscape award is presented to Marilyn Whitney, the ­careful, ­generous steward of the brick-walled garden at Moors End, at 19 Pleasant Street. The garden, which Mrs. Whitney opens for use by ­Nantucket nonprofits and for community causes, was ­created in 1899 and later ­redesigned by noted architect Fiske Kimball.

Past Recipients

Stewardship Award Sanford Kendall (2009) Clarissa Porter, 5 Quince Street (2008) Katherine Lodge, 94 Main Street (2008) Preservation Award ReMain Nantucket, Mitchell’s Book Corner (2009) Valerie and Richard Norton, various islandwide projects (2008) Bernie and Carol Coffin, ’Sconset Post Office (2007) Ginger Ivey, 8 Cottage Avenue, ’Sconset (2007) Landscape Award Caroline Ellis, Sankaty Head Lighthouse, ’Sconset Trust (2009) 31

npt

Nantucket Preservation Trust Annual Meeting 2010

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NPT Annual Meeting Please join us for our Annual Meeting Friday, July 30, 2010 Unitarian Church, 11 Orange Street, 11:00 a.m.

Guest Speaker: Myrick Howard, Preservation North Carolina The public is invited

S

ince 1978, Myrick Howard has been the executive director of Preservation North Carolina, one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious statewide preservation organizations. The National Park Services has referred to PNC as “the premier statewide preservation organization in the South—if not the nation.”

PNC’s endangered-properties ­program, the first of its kind in the nation, is ­regarded as one of the best. Since 1977, more than five hundred historic properties in more than sixty-five counties have been protected by the program, resulting in the investment of over $200 million in private funds.

Mr. Howard, a Durham, North Carolina, native, attended Brown University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his master’s degree in city planning and a law degree. In addition, he participated in the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He has been extensively published and has made presentations about PNC’s work in more than thirty states and three foreign countries. His most recent work is Buying Time for Heritage, a book about saving endangered properties, published in 2007 with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches a graduate seminar on Historic Preservation Planning each year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 2003 to 2005, he served on the board of trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. npt 33

nantucket’s historic landscape

Watercolor by Phebe Folger, circa 1797, courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University

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T

he gardens, yards, and open spaces in town are vital parts of the ­historic district and help to make Nantucket a special space. ­However, they do not necessarily reflect the early landscape; in fact, the landscape has undergone significant evolution over the years.

Accounts suggest that the town’s landscape was rather barren for much of its early history—at least into the mid-nineteenth century. There were ­gardens, but most were dooryard gardens that were quite small. These ­gardens were found in the rear yards where a number of household chores were also ­performed. The yard often held secondary buildings such as “necessary houses” (outhouses), chicken coops, carriage houses, stables, and other sheds. Gardens typically developed between the house and these ­associated structures, and plank fences were added to keep animals out and to shield activity from the public way.

Early gardens probably held a variety of plants, including fruit trees, ­vegetables, and herbs, all of which supplied important foodstuffs and nutrients. Like ­early buildings that were oriented to the south for solar purposes and built with lean-to roofs that help direct the north wind over the house, early ­Nantucket gardens were laid out to take full advantage of the natural elements. ­Protection from the wind was critical, as was the garden’s placement for sunlight.

On Nantucket, poor soil conditions made gardening difficult, and crops were generally grown in shared town fields, where soil conditions could ­easily be improved with manure. These common fields, or community ­gardens, ­supplied the majority of fresh food for the island into the ­nineteenth ­century, while small, individual gardens at the dooryard supplemented each household’s food supply.

Perhaps one of the earliest and most useful record of the town landscape is a watercolor by Phebe Folger, drawn and painted in 1797 from the north window of her brother’s house on Pleasant Street. The watercolor shows red-painted and shingled houses in the Main Street area, punctuated with garden plots in geometric patterns, fencing, and a few trees.

Letters from an American Farmer, by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, written in 1772, provides a written description of the Nantucket landscape.

The author writes that “there are a good many cherry- and peach-trees 35

planted in their streets and in many other places,” but adds that “there are but few gardens and arable fields in the neighborhood of the town, for ­nothing can be more sterile and sandy than this part of the island; they have, ­however, with unwearied perseverance, by bringing a variety of manure and by cow-penning, enriched several spots where they raise Indian corn, ­potatoes, pumpkins, and turnips. …”

In the early nineteenth century, Nantucket’s whaling-era prosperity along with growing technological improvements spurred a dramatic change in the landscape. In addition, Nantucket voyagers brought back mementos, ­including seeds and plant slips from around the world.

The changes in the landscape and built environment in the first quarter of the nineteenth century touched all aspects of Nantucket life. Not only were there new house forms and grand mansions along Main Street and ­elsewhere in the town, but sandy lanes were improved with cobbles and sidewalks ­began to be laid in front of many houses.

Front gardens were evident in the 1830s along Main Street. A raised ­terrace was found at Charles Coffin’s house at 78 Main, and Joseph Starbuck ­provided garden plots with cast-iron fences in front of the Three Bricks he built for his sons.

One of the earliest recorded formal gardens was found at 91 Main, the home of Mary Coffin Swift. It is believed that the garden was laid out soon after the purchase of the property in 1823. Henry Coffin, Mary’s brother, is known to have brought boxwood and ivy for the garden from Madeira.

Other accounts confirm that by mid-century there was a passion for ­gardening in Nantucket, at least in the yards of the wealthy. Thomas Macy, who lived at 99 Main until his death in 1864, is one of several Main Street residents who apparently constructed greenhouses on their properties. ­Eleanor Morgan, in an article entitled Old Nantucket Gardens, published by the NHA in 1920, writes: “The (Macy) garden was at the back and well hidden by tall fences hung with ivy, by flowering shrubs and bushes of raspberries and currants. Three terraces, one below the other, led down to the hot houses at the lower end of 36

Sketch of the garden at 91 Main Street (Historical American Buildings Survey, 1935­–36)

the garden. The terraces were laid out in box-edged beds where beautiful flowers succeeded one another from fragrant hyacinths to stately dahlias.

There were fruit trees on the second terrace and beehives on the third.”

Across Main Street, at 96, Eunice Hadwen had a “hot house” and an elaborate garden as well. Her passion is evident in her I&M obituary, which states that on her deathbed she gave instructions on how to care for her “hothouse flowers.”

Gardening was a pastime not only for the wealthy. For example, Charles Dyer, who visited his uncle’s house at Gull Island, wrote in his diary in 1846 that his uncle’s property included a well-kept garden with fences, and noted the fine strawberries the garden provided for their meal.

We can therefore conclude that the gardens associated with the Old Historic District today are more reminiscent of the landscape of the second half of the nineteenth century than of any other era. npt 37

Neighborhood book:

Off-Centre:The Wesco Acre Lots The Houses and Their Histories

This history of eighty-ďŹ ve houses from Liberty to Quince Streets gives the reader a unique glimpse of life on Nantucket from the years before the whaling boom into the early twentieth century.

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O

ff Centre: The Wesco Acre Lots—The Houses and Their Histories, is the ­second in the NPT’s Neighborhood Book Series— books detailing the history and evolution of Nantucket buildings. The new book, by historian Betsy Tyler, features over eighty houses in the original Wesco Acre Lots, laid out by the proprietors of the island in 1678 and Nantucket’s earliest residential ­subdivision.

Bounded by Liberty Street, Federal Street, what is now Quince Street, and Gardner Street, the Wesco Acre Lots were divided into twenty shares, each two rods wide and eighty rods long, or a hundred and sixty square rods, the equivalent of one acre. Extending from the wetlands at Federal Street to the west end of the parcel, these long, narrow, one-acre lots were perfectly designed for rows of houses. Zaccheus Macy, who in 1792 wrote an account of Nantucket for the newly formed Massachusetts Historical Society in 1792, claims that “Wesco,” one of the many Indian place names on the island, means “white rock,” in reference to a large, white stone that is now obscured by one of the wharves.

The Neighborhood Book Series is an outgrowth of NPT’s successful house histories of individual structures. House histories continue to be an ­important part of our historic research work and education outreach to property owners. However, the new series is designed to share this ­information with a larger audience and to provide a more comprehensive approach—­neighborhood by neighborhood as well as house by house.

Both the house history and neighborhood book series were created to serve as a reminder that the stories of a house and the people who lived in it must be told and cherished if we are to understand and preserve Nantucket’s ­historic resources. The project has had other unforeseen benefits as well, such as providing an opportunity to learn more about specific houses and historic figures, to correct erroneous information found in past histories, and to educate and entertain new audiences of all ages.

As advocates for Nantucket’s historic architecture, NPT believes the book series is an excellent way to promote Nantucket’s historic architecture and to assist our efforts to minimize the loss of historic fabric.

Following is an excerpt from the new book, which we hope will entice you to learn more.

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38 India, 1970 William H. Waitt (1819–77)

Mary Chase (1798–1884) and Paul Chase (1797–1857), attributed to William Swain, circa 1835 40

38 India Street: John B. Nicholson, house carpenter, 1831

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ost Nantucket house carpenters, or “housewrights,” are unidentified because they did not own the properties where they built houses and are not usually mentioned in deeds or other documents. John B. Nicholson was one of Nantucket’s most prolific known house carpenters, primarily because he was a builder of “spec” houses, leaving a documentary record of vacant land he purchased and land with new dwelling houses that he sold, usually within a year or two of the land purchase. Such was the case with 38 India: Nicholson acquired the land from Reuben Swain on May 14, 1831, for $250, and sold the land with a dwelling house on October 10, 1832, to ship master Paul Chase, for $1,800. Built just a few years before the Greek Revival influence captured Nantucket’s imagination, the typical threebay house features a handsome late-Federal doorway with transom and sidelights.

Paul Chase (1797–1857) was master of the whaleship Pacific out of New Bedford on two successful voyages in the 1830s. He and his wife, Mary Chase (1798–1884), a distant cousin, had no children who survived, and Paul was able to retire comfortably from the sea while the local whaling industry was still thriving.

The family most closely associated with the house is that of William H. Waitt, who owned it from 1855 to 1933. Waitt had been a mariner as a young man, but by the 1850s he ran a “clothier’s store” on Main Street that sold “gentlemen’s and boy’s ready made clothing” and ladies’ dress goods, including “Lyonese cloths, silk warp alpacas, mohair lustres, deBeiges, silk corinders, black silks, etc., together with a large assortment of fancy goods and perfumery.” Twins Mary and Sarah were born to William and his second wife, Elizabeth Ann Bunker, at the home on June 25, 1869. npt

Excerpted from Off Centre: The Wesco Acre Lots–The Houses and Their Histories, the second in NPT’s series of neighborhood books written by historian Betsy Tyler. The limited edition hardcover book is available for purchase at the NPT office.

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Preservation case study: The South Church

by Brian Pfeiffer 42

HISTORIC SHINGLES

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very generation of New Englanders receives the opportunity to ­reinterpret our historic buildings – not because we are fickle, but ­because our weather demands it. Nor’easters drive rain to soak buildings which then freeze quickly as arctic winds blow in, followed, in turn, by baking heat in the summer. Under those conditions building ­materials expand, contract, pop off their paint, and deteriorate more rapidly than in most other places on earth.

For those who have passed by the Unitarian Meeting House on Orange Street over the past year, the changing patchwork of shingles removed, ­shingles replaced, paint samples taken and paint samples being applied, it may have seemed that vandals were helping to speed nature’s effects, but it is all in preparation for major repairs. Upon cursory examination, the repairs may seem simple. Remove buckled shingles, install new ones and scrape peeling paint; however, modern building materials are not identical to those with which historic buildings were constructed. Without taking time to understand these differences, well-intentioned repair efforts may lead to a loss of unique historic details and damage to the building.

Examining both the physical structure and documentary record is the first step in understanding the building and its condition. The meeting house preserves important elements of its complicated history in its building ­fabric. As initially constructed in 1809, the building possessed its present form but with a slightly lower tower and two tiers of windows in its auditorium. A surviving receipt from 1809 records the purchase of clapboards in sufficient quantity to have covered the Orange Street façade of the building while the other elevations were shingled – a common practice of the period throughout New England.

By 1830, the tower became insufficiently strong to support increased height and the weight of a bell, as noted in the May 19, 1830, report of the ­committee appointed to inspect the building. Intent on having an ­operable bell, the congregation wasted no time in rebuilding the structure as a tower.

Carpenters were engaged and work began in June of 1830. Pay receipts record the work of as many as nine carpenters over the course of six months until the project was completed in December. Difficult as it may be to believe, the twenty-one-year-old tower seems to have been completely ­dismantled, reframed, and extended vertically to its present height.

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House Histories NANTUCKET

A Special Program Offered by

Nantucket Preservation Trust Every historic Nantucket house has a story. Do you know yours?

Unlock the history of your home with a Nantucket Preservation Trust House History.

We offer three levels of house histories—our new mini-history, which provides basic deed research and a short summary—or our concise and comprehensive hardcover books that are thoroughly researched, clearly written, and beautifully illustrated to provide a detailed picture of your house through time.

For more information, visit our Web site: www.nantucketpreservation.org or contact us at 2 Union Street, Nantucket, MA 02554 508-228-1387

By the early 1840s, the congregation debated whether to build a new ­meeting house or merely renovate the existing one. Frugality won, and the building was updated by the removal of its interior gallery and two tiers of windows. At the Orange Street elevation, windows were removed from the walls flanking the tower, their former openings were boarded over and ­covered with shingles, and the building achieved its present appearance.

Written records of the 1830s and 1840s remain silent regarding the exterior finishes of the building. Was it recovered with clapboards? Shingles? What color was it painted? Why are the present shingles buckled? To answer these questions, one must turn to the building itself and architectural archaeology.

As part of advance planning for the current project, representative areas from each period of alteration were examined. Shingles were selectively removed from two sections of the façade, namely: the east elevation of the tower (a wall built in 1830) and the east elevation of the auditorium in an area running across a former window location (a wall built in 1809 and ­partially filled when the window was removed in the 1840s).

As shingles were removed, the distinctive shapes of their nail holes were tagged with different markers. Holes that showed the use of ­rectangular-shank cut nails were tagged in a manner different from those with differently shaped shanks. Once two areas of approximately 3’ x 6’ had been opened, some surprising patterns emerged. The walls of the tower that had been rebuilt in 1830 were clad in riven shingles made of white pine – the same shingles that were installed in 1830. There was no evidence of any nail holes in the ­tower’s original sheathing except those from the 1830 shingles and subsequent facenailings that have been carried out to reduce the shingles’ ­buckling.

On the east elevation of the auditorium, nail holes indicated that the wall had once been covered with four-foot lengths of clapboard (as was common in 1809), with riven white-pine shingles in 1830, and with sawn pine shingles where window openings were blocked in the 1840s. In all locations, the 1830s shingles were installed in an unusual manner. Their edges were planed and tightly fitted together rather than leaving the customary gap that allows wooden shingles to expand during wet weather without buckling. Although this careful fitting may have been intended to create an appearance that mimicked the original clapboards, it had the unintended consequence of causing the shingles to buckle as early as the mid-nineteenth century, when this condition was first recorded in photographs.

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Small areas will have to be replaced, but most of the 180-year-old shingles will be retained.

The survival of original shingles from 1830 poses difficult ­philosophical and practical questions. Should they be replaced with modern ­shingles, set on builders’ paper or a vapor barrier, which is current building practice? Does it make sense to set up scaffolding and ­undertake a large project to repair an ancient material that may be ­approaching the end of its useful life? Again, history and the structure offer some clues. Despite good intentions, replacing old building materials ­merely makes a building newer – not more historic. In addition, the impulse to “improve” old buildings with modern techniques often backfires when the movement of moisture vapor through the building is ­impeded by the impermeability of modern materials.

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In the case of the meeting house, the tower bears evidence on its sheathing boards that wind-driven rain sometimes causes small leaks, but there are no signs of rot or mold to indicate prolonged dampness. The draftiness of the tower, which stands in direct opposition to modern building practices, has helped it survive in good condition, i.e., water that gets in evaporates out quickly causing no significant damage. With regard to the shingles themselves, current building wisdom suggests they should be replaced; however, there is no sign of deterioration in the existing shingles with the exception of the splits caused by buckling. Some of the nails that hold them in place have corroded, but for the most part, the wood remains sound, an old-growth white pine that cannot be easily replaced today. What modern shingles are able to offer 180 years of performance and still have some life left in them? Finally, the history of the building shows that it will be necessary to undertake major repairs roughly every twenty-five to thirty years. If the shingles are likely to have another twenty-five years of durability, what gain would be achieved by replacing them now?

Against this background, the current congregation has elected to pursue repair rather than replacement – an ecologically sustainable choice that uses human labor and skill rather than large quantities of new materials. Painters will remove the accumulated layers of incompatible paints to provide a clear view of the shingles’ wood. Corroded face nails will be removed and replaced with galvanized cut nails, and buckled shingles will be trimmed and flattened. In small areas, shingles will be removed and new hand-riven white pine replacements will be spliced into place. At the same time, the tower’s other woodwork will receive similarly conservative repairs. Although lead paint would provide the best protection for the tower, use of this material is no longer permitted. Current alkyd paints harden into coatings that crack and peel as the underlying wood expands with moisture and temperature; while modern water-based paints are too vapor-impermeable, blocking evaporation and causing peeling. Instead, linseed-oil paint will be used to match the off-white found through paint analysis and to provide a more flexible, durable finish.

When scaffolding comes down, Nantucketers will have the chance to see the meeting house looking like itself—a bit of irregularity in its shingles and a few new patches – but freshly dressed and looking its Sunday-go-to-meeting best. npt 47

Shoot for the Stars!

NPT's Annual August Fête F

Vestal Street • August 12, 2010

AUGUST Fête AND HOUSE TOUR August 12, 2010 Six o’clock in the evening A tour of historic houses on Vestal Street General Admission: $150 • Next Generation (under 40): $100

T

he August Fête is NPT’s premier fund-raising program and is among the summer’s most anticipated events. The Fête features a tour of six private houses in the Vestal Street neighborhood and provides participants with a rare glimpse of historic house interiors, of which many have never before been open to the public. Among the evening’s highlights will be ­special tours of the Maria Mitchell Birthplace and the old Observatory.

This year’s celebration includes a gala reception presented by Nantucket Catering Company, Spanky’s raw bar, and music by the Shingles—all on the campus of the Maria Mitchell Association, which has graciously opened its doors for the event.

For tickets and information, please call the NPT office at 508-228-1387, or visit our Web site at www.nantucketpreservation.org. npt The Nantucket Preservation Trust thanks Brown Brothers ­Harriman, the corporate underwriter for the August Fête.

Maria Mitchell birthplace, 1 Vestal Street 49

MAKE YOUR MARK

Support NPT’s Local Preservation Efforts The Nantucket Preservation Trust house-marker program began in 2002 to recognize Nantucket’s large concentration of historic buildings. Today more than a hundred and fifty buildings are designated by the NPT house marker.

An NPT house marker serves as an important educational tool, informing the passerby about the age of the house, its association with past islanders, and other information such as the original owner’s occupation.

Each program participant receives a hand-painted house marker along with a chain of title that is shared with the NHA’s Research Library to assist future historians and to enhance understanding of the island’s historic architecture.

It is our hope that the NPT House Marker Program will serve not only to identify buildings of historical and architectural significance, but also that the markers will, through heightened community awareness, encourage the continuing care and preservation of Nantucket’s historic architecture.

Let us show you what’s possible…

2 Union Street • 508-228-1387 • www.nantucketpreservation.org

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walking TOURs Learn more about the early history and architecture of historic Nantucket by taking a walking tour of one of three Nantucket neighborhoods.

A STROLL ALONG MAIN STREET

The NPT conducts a tour of Main Street focusing on about thirty houses between the Pacific National Bank and the Civil War Monument. Learn how the street developed, its early residents, the architectural styles, as well as how the houses have come to symbolize the island’s whaling era.

Held every Wednesday and Thursday (weather permitting) at 9:30 a.m. from mid-June through September. The tour includes a paperback copy of the NPT’s highly acclaimed history of Main Street houses. Meet at the NPT office, 2 Union Street.

’SCONSET TOUR

Join NPT executive director Michael May, who shares his knowledge of this unique fishing settlement at the eastern edge of the island. The seventyfive-minute tour focuses on the early “whalehouses” as well as the village’s boom as a seaside resort and actors colony at the end of the 1800s. Tours are held most Friday afternoons at 4:00 p.m. July–September. Please call the NPT office for details and reservations. Meet at ’Sconset’s Pump Square.

OFF CENTRE: THE WESCO ACRE LOTS

New this year, NPT’s Wesco Acre Lots tour highlights the maritime history and its impact on development of the town in the neighborhood. The tour highlights houses in the Liberty, India, Hussey, and Quince Streets area.

The tour is a companion to the NPT’s new book on the history of eighty-five houses in this neighborhood, available for sale at the NPT office. Tours will be held Friday mornings at 9:30 in July and August (weather permitting).

Meet at NPT office, 2 Union Street.

All tours are $10 per person.

Group tours available by reservation throughout the year. For more information, contact the NPT office, 2 Union Street, 508-228-1387.

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let us show you what’s possible

Photo by Jeffrey Allen

Useful Preservation Tools

Preservation, Restoration, or Rehabilitation?

W

hat exactly is the difference between a restoration, a ­preservation project, or a rehabilitation? Restoration, ­preservation, and ­rehabilitation are all acceptable approaches to treating ­historic properties, and are terms used to describe the various techniques. Although they have become part of our everyday language, there are distinct differences between each approach, and too often the terms are used interchangeably, causing confusion. Fortunately, the National Park Service (NPS) has developed definitions as well as standards and guidelines that help us better understand these concepts. These approaches were ­developed to treat historic properties with the goal of protecting our nation’s irreplaceable cultural resources.

In general, the approach chosen to treat a historic building depends on the building’s use, its architectural significance, and its integrity.

The four approaches are defined by the National Park Service as follows: Preservation is the act or process of applying measures necessary to ­sustain the existing form, integrity, and materials of a historic property.

Work, ­including preliminary measures to protect and stabilize the property, generally focuses on the ongoing maintenance and repair of historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction.

New exterior additions are not within the scope of this treatment; however, the limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a preservation project.

Preservation is probably the best approach if a building’s distinctive ­materials, features, and spaces are essentially intact and still convey the building’s ­historical significance. The standards enacted by the NPS for ­Preservation, ­require ­retention of the greatest amount of historic fabric, along with the building’s historic form, features, and detailing as they have evolved over time.

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The Insider’s Guide to Nantucket only on Plum TV and streaming live on plumtv.com.

ACK.4.3.indd 1

5/3/10 5:47:56 PM

Pick up your free sticker Looking for a way to show your pride in Nantucket’s architectural heritage? We have a newly designed sticker to share with you!

“Preserve” is a visual pun that is meant to remind us of the importance of Nantucket’s historic character. We hope you will show your support by picking up your sticker today!

Sticker is approximately 1” round.

For further information, contact: Nantucket Preservation Trust Two Union Street - 2nd Floor Nantucket, MA 02554 T: 508-228-1387

www.nantucketpreservation.org

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Rehabilitation is the act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair, alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features that convey its historical, cultural, or architectural values.

Rehabilitation is the best approach when a building requires extensive ­repair and replacement, or if alterations or additions are necessary for a new use. ­Rehabilitation standards allow for alteration and additions to a historic ­building to meet continuing or new uses while retaining the building’s historic ­character.

Restoration is the act or process of accurately depicting the form, ­features, and character of a property as it appeared at a particular period of time by means of the removal of features from other periods in its history and ­reconstruction of missing features from the restoration period. The limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a restoration project.

Since restoration can call for the removal of elements from various ­historic periods, meticulous examination of the structure is essential. Substantial ­documentary evidence of the selected period should be justified prior to ­undertaking any work.

Reconstruction is the act or process of depicting, by means of new ­construction, the form, features, and detailing of a non-surviving site, ­landscape, building, structure, or object for the purpose of replicating its ­appearance at a specific period of time and in its historic location.

Reconstruction establishes a limited framework for re-creating a vanished or ­non-surviving building with new materials and is used primarily for ­interpretive purposes, such as in museum settings.

The following is an example of the NPS Standards for Preservation: 1. A property will be used as it was historically, or be given a new use that maximizes the retention of distinctive materials, features, spaces, and spatial relationships. Where a treatment and use have not been identified, a property will be protected and, if necessary, stabilized until additional work may be undertaken.

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 

  

WE SUPPORT NANTUCKET PRESERVATION TTRUST

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2. The historic character of a property will be retained and preserved. The ­replacement of intact or repairable historic materials or alteration of features, spaces, and spatial relationships that characterize a property will be avoided.

3. Each property will be recognized as a physical record of its time, place, and use. Work needed to stabilize, consolidate, and conserve existing historic ­materials and features will be physically and visually compatible, identifiable upon close ­inspection, and properly documented for future research.

4. Changes to a property that have acquired historic significance in their own right will be retained and preserved.

5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes, and construction techniques or ­examples of craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.

6. The existing condition of historic features will be evaluated to determine the appropriate level of intervention needed. Where the severity of deterioration ­requires repair or limited replacement of a distinctive feature, the new material will match the old in composition, design, color, and texture.

7. Chemical or physical treatments, if appropriate, will be undertaken using the gentlest means possible. Treatments that cause damage to historic materials will not be used.

8. Archeological resources will be protected and preserved in place. If such ­resources must be disturbed, mitigation measures will be undertaken.

In addition to these standards, guidelines have been established to assist those ­undertaking work on a historic property. The guidelines include a list of “­recommended” and “not recommended” actions. To make it easy for review, the actions have been separated into categories such as a building’s exterior ­material, roof, windows, porches, interior structural systems, interior plans, features and finishes, and mechanical systems as well as the site and other considerations. ­Standards and guidelines for each approach are found on the National Park Service Web site http://www.nps.gov/hps/tps/Standards/index.htm. npt

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NPT Preservation Easements

The First Congregational Church, also known as the North Church, is protected by an NPT easement.

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P

reservation easements are the single best tool available for those who want to protect their buildings because easements ensure that a building will be protected long after the grantor owns the property.

In fact, easements exist in perpetuity. Preservation easements are designed to protect the exterior appearance of a property and can also be placed on important interior spaces and features. They are tailored to specific buildings, and are flexible to allow for alterations and updates as well as changes in lifestyle over generations.

NPT holds fourteen preservation easements within the Old Historic District. Our most recent easement was placed on the First Congregational Church on Centre Street in March of this year.

The First Congregational Church was constructed in 1834 from a design by Samuel Waldron, a Boston housewright, and sits on Centre Street atop what was once known as Beacon Hill. The present church has been a local landmark since its construction due to its dramatic hilltop location, which makes it visible from a great distance, and for its use of both Carpenter Gothic and Greek Revival architectural elements. In the 1840s, at the height of the island’s whaling prosperity, the church was enlarged, making it the largest meeting house on island.

Historically, the church also reflects Nantucket’s long tradition of greater equality for women. This tradition grew out of both the island’s large Quaker population and the necessity of an economy in which many Nantucket men spent months and even years at sea. Louise S. Baker, a Nantucket native who served as minister from 1880 to 1888, was a prolific writer who drew the largest congregation in the island’s history, thereby securing the church’s position at the time as the island’s pre-eminent religious organization.

Both the exterior and portions of the interior are protected by the NPT easement. Among its fine interior features are the large auditorium with trompe l’oeil “frescoes” originally painted between 1850 and 1852 and restored circa 1970. Also dating from the mid-1850s is the pulpit and the configuration of the pews, which are original but which were cut down to their present height and capped with mahogany volutes. npt

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Nantucket Frameworks

KELLY ANN WEST Bookkeeper

• Custom Picture Framing •

PO Box 2081 Nantucket, MA 02584 508-648-4763

37 Old South Road, #14 Anchor Village 508-228-2904

Kelly_ann_west@yahoo.com

www.nantucketframeworks.com blake@nantucketframeworks.com

Your link to Historic or Contemporary Nantucket Properties Barbara Ann Joyce Broker Sales & Rentals 508-228-2266 x22 508-221-8788 cell baj@greatpointproperties.com

One North Beach Street • Nantucket, MA 02554 www.greatpointproperties.com

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NPT Preservation Easements First Congregational Church 62 Centre Street Quaker Meeting House 7 Fair Street The Nantucket Atheneum 1 India Street Jabez Bunker/Prince Gardner House 85 Main Street Captain Thaddeus Coffin House 89 Main Street Hadwen-Wright House (pending) 94 Main Street Thomas Starbuck House 11 Milk Street Rescom Palmer House 9 New Mill Street George Gardner House 8 Pine Street Nathaniel Hussey House 5 Quince Street Captain Peleg Bunker House 4 Traders Lane Maria Mitchell Birthplace 1Vestal Street

First Congregational Church, by Mark Hubbard

Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin Lancasterian School 4 Winter Street Higginbotham House 27 York Street Greater Light (pending) Howard Street 1800 House (pending) 4 Mill Street 61

Photo by Jeffrey Allen

links

Preservation Links A Sampling of Resources for Owners of Historic Homes Please visit our Web site at www.nantucketpreservation.org for the latest links to preservation resources and issues. We encourage participation in Preservation Month activities held each May. Tours, demonstrations, seminars, and other useful programs are held in conjunction with the Preservation Alliance—a consortium of local nonprofit and government organizations interested in promoting Nantucket’s historic architecture.

Local Preservation Organizations African Meeting House www.afroammuseum.org

Useful Preservation Web sites Association for Preservation Technology International www.apti.org

Egan Maritime Institute www.eganmaritime.org Maria Mitchell Association www.mma.org

Historic New England www.historicnewengland.org

Nantucket Atheneum www.nantucketatheneum.org

International Preservation Trades Network, Inc. www.iptn.org

Nantucket Historical Association www.nha.org

Massachusetts Historical Commission www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc

Nantucket Historical Commission www.nantucket-ma.gov

National Center for Preservation Technology and Training www.ncptt.nps.gov

Nantucket Historic District Commission www.nantucket-ma.gov

National Trust for Historic Preservation www.preservationnation.org

Nantucket Preservation Trust www.nantucketpreservation.org

National Park Service www.cr.nps.gov

Preservation Institute: Nantucket www.dep.ufl.edu/hp/pinantucket

Old House Journal www.oldhousejournal.com

’Sconset Trust www.sconsettrust.org

Preservation Massachusetts www.preservationmass.org Traditional Building Resource Database www.traditional-building.com 63

nantucket pharmacy

Antiques Depot Offering Quality 17th, 18th & 19th

century formal and country furniture,

45 MAIN STREET NANTUCKET, MA 02584 508-228-0180 FAX 508-325-7106

art, porcelains, oriental and marine antiques, ancient artifacts, and an extensive collection of decoys.

Qualified Personal Property Appraisals.

ALLAN BELL, R.Ph. KENNETH KNUTTI, R.Ph.

14 Easy Street (508) 228-1287

www.nantucketantiquesdepot.com

Nantucket’s Best Deli and the Only Butcher Shop YOUR ONE STOP BARBEQUE SHOPGround beef and our famous bacon burger made fresh daily, all natural and prime steaks, Bell & Evans chicken, Pearl all-beef hot dogs, homemade deli salads Sandwiches made to order Catering Available Prepared Foods • Awesome Wines & Beer

7 BAYBERRY COURT 508-228-8766

Go to www.CowboysMeatMarket.com for our Sandwich Menu and Daily Specials.

Open Year round 64

Just for Fun

...

Just for fun, we thought we would start recommending books and films with an architectural theme that have captured our attention.

We think books and other media with architectural interest and with “mainstream” themes can help us understand the importance history and architecture play in our everyday lives. Here is a short list of some of the favorites we came across this year: Books: The Big House, by George Howe Colt A classic—and set on Cape Cod, The Big House tells the story of a house and its connection with four generations of a family. A must read for any old-house lover. National Book Award The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton Explores emotions and how buildings speak to us and unlike other art forms impact the community.

Short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes A wonderful, Academy Award–winning, animated short film that tells the story of a widower and reveals how his house can unlock important memories and our history.

E-mail us with your suggestions at npt@nantucketpreservation.org

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architectural terms Architecture has a vocabulary of its own, and we thought it would be useful to provide definitions for some of the terms and phrases used in this publication: Baluster: One of a number of closely spaced supports for a railing.

Balustrade: A railing supported by balusters for a staircase or parapet.

Bay: An architectural unit dividing a structure, often determined by openings and arrangement of windows and doors Chair rail: A molding placed horizontally along a wall at the height of a chair back. Placed to protect the wall from furniture.

Cradle board: A wooden plank found in the lower part of an interior wall. The term derives from its used to protect the wall from thrusts of a rocking cradle.

Ell: An extension or wing usually at the rear of a structure.

Façade: The front, or face, of a building.

Flue: The throat, or duct, of a chimney.

Garret: A room or space in a building just beneath the roof—often called an attic.

Gunstock post: A vertical wooden member, often exposed in the corner of a room, that has a thickened upper end to provide strength and space to accept joinery. The shape resembles the stock of a gun.

Historic property: A district, site, building, structure, or object significant in American history, architecture, engineering, archeology, or culture at the national, state, or local level.

Integrity: The authenticity of a property’s historic identity, as evidenced by the survival of physical characteristics that existed during the property’s historic period.

Lath: Narrow strips of wood nailed to joints, rafters, and stubs as a foundation to support plaster.

Lean-to: A house with a long, sloping rear roof usually facing north. Also known as a saltbox, it has a higher front elevation.

Mirror board: Wooden planks or boards set in the interior of a plaster wall between windows, originally to support a looking glass.

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terms – con’t Parapet: A wall rising above the roofline. Parapet walls of various sizes, known as stepped parapets, are often found on the side elevations of Nantucket houses.

Pilaster: An upright decorative element, often framing a doorway or applied to a wall, designed to resemble a column, with classical proportions and features including capital, shaft, and base.

Quoin: Decorative stonework, or blocks made to resemble stone, marking the corner of a building Roofwalk: A platform with railing or balustrade atop a building.

Sidelights: Small window, or windows, placed along the sides of a doorway.

Winder: A triangular-shaped step used in turning a corner in a staircase, usually at the top of a straight run of steps. Also, an enclosed spiral staircase. npt

Call for your free copy of the new NPT resource guide, Restoring Your Historic Nantucket House 508.228.1387

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WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO THOSE ­MEMBERS AND FRIENDS WHO ­SUPPORTED this year’s ­mEMBERSHIP APPEAL and programs AT ­LEADERSHIP LEVELS (as of May 31, 2010) 1955 Society Anonymous Philip and Erin Boeckman Lucy E. Broadus Nicky and Vince D’Agostino Caroline and Douglass Ellis Nancy and Alan Forster Susan Zises Green Arthur and Diane Kelly Winnie and Chris Mortenson Lyman and Kate Perry

Maureen Phillips and Dr. Douglas Horst Bob and Laura Reynolds Ellen and David Ross Harris and Esta-Lee Stone James and Debra Treyz Louise Evans Turner Pam and Will Waller Suellen Ward and John Copenhaver Mr. and Mrs. John S. Weatherley

Friends Leigh and Carrie Abramson Dr. Joseph and Mrs. Kathy Arvay Sam and Janet Bailey David Barham and Lauri Robertson Bill and Susan Boardman Brennan, Frank, and Tausig Families Nancy and Art Broll Mr. and Mrs. David Brown Laura and Bill Buck Martha Carr Mr. and Mrs. David Cheek Elin Hilderbrand and Chip Cunningham Dr. and Mrs. John W. Espy Michael and Mary Helen Fabacher Barbara J. Fife First Congregational Church The Garland Family Kim and Jeff Greenberg Dr. and Mrs. Laurance J. Guido Kathleen Hay Designs The Judy Family Foundation Michael A. Kovner and Jean M. Doyen Livingston Family Fund Katherine S. Lodge

Sue and Byron Lingeman Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Lowry Hampton S. Lynch Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Ian R. MacKenzie Vince and Deb Maffeo Mr. and Mrs. Edward J. McCarthy Mr. and Mrs. Eugene G. McGuire Richard and Ronay Menschel Jake Michel William Moore Nantucket Atheneum Dorothy Palmer Bill and Clarissa Porter Georgia and Richard Raysman Tom and Marcia Richards Mark J. and Samantha B. Sandler South Church Preservation Fund Gregory and Laura Spivy John and Marie Sussek Lydia and John Sussek Mark and Rosanne Welshimer F. Helmut and Caroline Weymar David S. and Mary C. Wolff Robert C. and Suzanne Wright

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our advertisers NPT is extremely grateful to the dedicated businesses that make the publication of RAMBLINGS possible. We hope you will express your appreciation for their support of historic preservation by using their services.

Annye’s Whole Foods Antiques Depot Beach Plumb Brown Brothers Harriman CMC Construction Cowboy’s Meat Market Dean Miller - Fusion of Flavor Design Associates Don Allen Ford Extra Clean, Inc. The Gallery Geronimo’s Barbara Ann Joyce – Great Point Properties KAM Appliances Kathleen Hay Designs Kelly Ann West Bookkeeping Sanford Kendall – Old House Restoration and Design Kris Kinsley Hancock Lyman Perry Nantucket Studio of Hutker Architects Meerbergen Design Nantucket Frameworks Nantucket House Antiques Nantucket Housefitters & Tile Gallery Nantucket Pharmacy Nantucket Real Estate Co. New England Home Norton Preservation Trust Parchment PLUM TV Preservation Advisory Services Pumpkin Pond Farm Susan Boardman Susan Zises Green 71

Become a Member of the NPT The Nantucket Preservation Trust, a nonprofit, membership-supported organization formed in 1997, has more than seven hundred members dedicated to the preservation of the island’s historic architecture.

Membership Form Name: (Dr./Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms.)______________________________________________________ Address:______________________________Summer Mailing Address:_______________________ _______________________________________

_______________________

State, Zip_____________________________ Approx. dates for summer address: _________________ Tel: (

)_________________________

Tel: (

)_____________________

E-mail:___________________________________________________________________________________ Please provide your email address to help us in our effort to be more “green.” □ I want to learn about volunteer opportunities. □ Please send me information about Next Generation (under 40) special event opportunities

1955 SOcietY leADerSHiP cAteGOrieS

1955 Society members receive two tickets to our Summer Kitchens tour and Annual Meeting luncheon, as well as invitations to special donor receptions.

Cupola _____$10,000

Roof Walk _____$5,000

Parapet _____$2,500

Cornice _____$1,955

OtHer MeMBerSHiP cAteGOrieS Balustrade _____$1,000

Column _____$500

Pediment _____$250

Shutter _____$100

Brick _____$50

_____Enclosed is a check made payable to the NANTUCKET PRESERVATION TRUST. ______ Please charge my Visa/MC #_______________________________________________Exp_______ in the amount of $_____________________Signature______________________________________ ______ I would like to give a gift of securities. Please contact me at ___________________________ ______ I plan to remember NPT in my Estate Planning. ______ My employer will match this gift. (Please enclose gift form.)

Your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Nantucket Preservation Trust Two Union Street • Nantucket, MA • 02554 508-228-1387 www.nantucketpreservation.org 72

Ciaran McCloskey, Licensed Contractor 508.332.4757 justbuiltbetter@aol.com www.justbuiltbetter.net

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Linking the preservation of homes with the preservation of capital Brown Brothers Harriman is proud to sponsor the Nantucket Preservation Trust and their continuing efforts to save the historic homes of Nantucket. For almost 200 years, BBH has been recognized for partnering with our clients to help grow and preserve their wealth.

G. Scott Clemons, CFA Managing Director 212.493.8379 scott.clemons@bbh.com

WWW.BBH.COM

SUSAN ZISES GREEN, INC. ASID Antiques Interior Design Decoration A homE foR ANy loCAtIoN

Nantucket 508 228 3160

New York 212 710 5388