If you have taken a stroll or drive-by, you may have noticed that the Mitchell House has been the center of attention on Vestal Street over the past few months!

Thanks to a generous matching grant from Preservation Massachusetts and the 1772 Foundation, in addition to the match from the  M. S. Worthington Foundation, the Mitchell House has had all of its historic sashes re-glazed and painted, as well as its doors and trim!  Some minor repairs had to be made to the front porch and an attic window sash but all in all, the House is in good shape and happy to be boasting a better paint job!

The painting was completed by island painter Jim Tyler and his crew – long-time painters at the MMA.  And the window sash was addressed by our carpenter who focuses on historic properties, Matthew Anderson.

If you think it looks a little darker than before, you are correct.  The paint had seriously faded.  This is the color the House has always been – well, at least for a hundred or more years.  At one point, it was brown but probably not during the William and Lydia Coleman Mitchell (Maria’s parents) ownership – likely the Peleg Mitchell Junior time or when his wife lived in the House just in the summers.  The curators before me had not tracked the color number and I did remember it being more grey – and we do have photographs – but I finally found a good paint chip while we were making some repairs to the roofwalk hatch!

Thank you to Preservation Massachusetts, the 1772 Foundation, the M. S. Worthington Foundation and the people who completed the work!  Mitchell House is ready for its close-up, Mr. DeMille.

JNLF