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

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • Jul 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

Recent Posts

Vestal Street Updates

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • 08 Apr, 2024
Vestal Street has seen a bevy of activity of late. In January, we began the renovation of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory’s (MMO) Seminar Room addition – as it has been referred to since it was built in 1987. When it was created, the point was for it to serve as meeting, lecture, work space on three floors for the Astronomy Department – in particular the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduate (NSF REU) interns we have each summer, visiting astronomers, and the astronomy staff. Believe it or not, it was the first time the Observatory had a bathroom! And, it connected to what we refer to as the Astronomer’s Cottage (ca. 1830 and purchased for the MMA in 1922) so that staff could move between the house and the Observatory without going outside – convenient! With a gift from board member and Mitchell family descendant, Richard Wolfe, we have been able to renovate this space, bringing it up to date and adding HVAC, an accessible bathroom and kitchenette, three office spaces, a seminar/meeting area, and space for intern workspaces. Lighting and interiors are being improved as this is written and we hope to have the space ready by June 1, 2024. A special thank you goes to John Wise, another Board member, who has been working with the MMA to make sure this renovation happens in a short timeframe. The work here dovetails nicely with the conservation of the historic observatory to which the Seminar Room is connected. The historic MMO, built in 1908 with a 1922 addition, has seen exterior conservation work over the last several years with support from the Community Preservation Act and the M. S. Worthington Foundation. This fall, we will move inside with more grant funding which will allow us to conserve the historic interiors and install a proper HVAC system to protect the historic fabric and historic astronomical equipment and papers. We will restore the floor in the Astronomical Study from 1922 – it’s hidden under wall-to-wall carpet and 1950s tile but it’s still there – and allow us to conserved the historic plaster and all of the original varnished woodwork. Stay tuned on this project. JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: April 2024

01 Apr, 2024
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews

Tumbledown Fence

01 Apr, 2024
To me, Nantucket was always tumbledown fences. Covered in lichens, worn with wind and salt spray – grooved even – and a deep grey. Pieces broken, swinging in the wind as this broken one was with the 50mph gusts. Held together by vines – ivy or rambling climber vines, or honeysuckle. You do not see as many nowadays. This one is in town along a lane – possibly older than the house it wraps around as there was once a much older house there in the 1950s/1960s. Taken down to make room for this one – in a not so kosher manner – but that’s a story for another day. The lichens and mosses that grow on them, the vines that cover them, provide food and shade and coverage for a myriad of life – from the tiniest insects to small birds hiding from red-tailed hawks or even people and cats. Architecturally they speak of our past. While this one is very simple and not as old as others, it hearkens to a time in which cars were fewer, the island was quieter, and life was simpler. A fix was one picket not a whole fence. And some of the much. much older fences make me think of Maria Mitchell and her day when there were a lot of fences too – but not to keep people out or to create a “privacy screen.” They were there to keep animals in the yard – and more often to keep wandering animals OUT of the yard. JNLF
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