More Activities on Vestal Street Than You Shake a Stick At!

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 11, 2016

When you visit Vestal Street you may begin to notice some more changes at the Maria Mitchell Association. We continue our work to the MMA’s former Science Library which hopefully – by late fall – will be up and running as our new Research Center. The building largely remains as it always has but now it will have a state-of-the-art climate system and an improved classroom space. It will also serve as the Natural Science Department offices and continue as a collections storage site this time with the biological collections, as well books from the former circulating collection of science books. We have even removed that very old unsightly oil tank and the garbage bins as well. The mason is currently working in the basement to replace the support posts with new posts with proper footings rather than just sitting on top of the concrete floor as they have been doing for many decades. We want to make sure that the main floor is properly supported! Yes, things are looking much nicer at Number 2.


And, if you look closely, Hinchman House has a brand new roof which I posted about a few weeks ago. And soon, the Astronomer’s Cottage at 3 Vestal Street will have a new roof. We have improved drainage in the backyard area at Hinchman House, we will be painting the exterior of Hinchman House – in fact it began on June 24th, and the Astronomer’s Cottage trim and sashes will be painted soon as well.

The work on these two properties is funded largely thanks to a matching grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund. It is a 1:1 matching grant for which we are still raising the remaining matching portion so please let us know if you would like to help!


I am happy to report as well that our Executive Director, Dave Gagnon, who just celebrated his one year of working for the MMA and living on Nantucket, has moved into the Astronomer’s Cottage. He and his wife, Shelley Dresser, and their youngest daughter, Hope, have all moved in – along with friendly and sweet dogs Maddie and Winnie (Winston, yes after Winston Churchill and this Winston is a male Papillion), and lion-maned rabbit, Sebastian. And with a few new coats of paint and some other spiffing and repairs they are making 3 Vestal Street their home.


So please, if you have not done so already, come take a look and while you are at it, visit our sites!


JNLF

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By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF
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