Update: Conservation at the MMO

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 18, 2022

Conservation of historic buildings is a slow process. Much of it comes from trying to match the original materials so that we can make sure the conservation work is done properly, that it matches in color, and that it works with what exists. For example, painting latex paint over a lime-based paint: not a good idea. It is not historically accurate but also that latex is not going to adhere to the lime wash properly and at some point, you will have a mess that you are re-doing the right way.


In the case of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory, the grout (cement) is very coarse. It’s full of small pebbles and broken pieces of stone (see image). The main dome was built in 1908 and the addition to the right of it was completed in 1922. When I joke that it looks like they went to the beach to make the grout mixture, I am not entirely sure it is a joke!


In any case, this is not something – the lime or this particular grout – that you buy off the shelf. The mason has to make it – match the color, the texture/coarseness, the pebble-like material and colors in it, the mixture. Thus, the amazing island mason, Wayne Morris – who has been working on this project and also did our conservation work at the MMA Research Center – has spent countless hours collecting stones and digging through stones he has in his masonry yard. Once he has a good amount and ones that match what is on the MMO, he pulverizes them to match the size of the pieces found in the existing grout on the building. He actually created a special tool to do this. Because, that’s how he works.



So, now that he has a good supply, he has been focused on the back side of the building dealing with the cracks and places that the grout has spalled and fallen out. He is now attending to the front of the building, thus more staging. Once those areas are dealt with, he will replace the iron lintels above the windows. These have rusted because of water getting in. They will be replaced with steel that will not rust, expand, and then cause cracking. He will also be addressing the “parapets” – rebuilding them where needed – and attending to the copper and the flat room on top of the 1922 addition.


JNLF

 


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July 31, 1883. I had two or three rich days! On Friday last I went to Holderness, N.H.. to the Asquam House; I had been asked by Mrs. T to join her party. There was at this house Mr. Whittier, Mr., and Mrs. Cartland, Professor and Mrs. Johnson, of Yale . . . The house seemed full of fine, cultivate people. We stayed two days and a half. And first of the scenery. The road up to the house is a steep hill, and at the foot of the hill it winds and turns around two lakes. The panorama is complete one hundred and eighty degrees. Beyond the lakes lie the mountains.  The Asquam House sat atop Shepard Hill and was built in 1881. A hotel, it has space for fifty guests, it was located near Squam Lake and became part of a summer enclave that developed there in the later part of the nineteenth century. Today, the area is a National Historic Landmark, but sadly, the hotel was demolished in 1948. Maria would have been familiar with these people seen here – and others I did not include – but particularly John Greenleaf Whittier who was something of a family friend. He was close to one of her younger brothers, William Forester. JNLF

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The Birth of the Maria Mitchell Observatory: Celebrating Over 100 Years of Discovery

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF
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