The art of preservation
Preservation History Month proffers walks, lectures and exhibits to point out that historic preservation means more than gray shingled houses
By Marli Guzzetta
Unlike Elizabeth Bishop's art of losing, the art of preservation is actually quite hard to master, especially on Nantucket.

A student-curated photography exhibition of cherished Nantucket landmarks, "Landmarks of Nantucket!" goes up May 6 at the Nantucket Historical Association. Left: "Trees" by Julia.

In fact, to some there is a war on Nantucket between the present and the past. Its battlefields are homesteads and its weapons are easements and bulldozers.

The entire month of May has been declared preservation month on Nantucket, and those who fight on the side of historic preservation (also known as the members of the Nantucket Preservation Alliance) will offer movies, walking tours, exhibits, receptions - everything they can think of to augment their struggle to preserve the interiors and exteriors of the 800 or so houses on Nantucket built before the Civil War.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation started National Preservation Month, and encourages all local preservation organizations to celebrate it.

Nantucket Preservation Trust Director Michael May is the general in this effort. He volunteered to act as a liaison and conductor between the members of the NPA, "an informal group formed to hold Preservation Week and Month activities." The NPA has 16 members, including the Nantucket Historical Association, the Nantucket Atheneum and the Egan Foundation.

Below: "Shed and Buoys" by Jackie

"We look for ways to collaborate with like-minded partners," said NHA Executive Director Bill Tramposch, who called "ignorance" the main foe of these like-minded organizations. "Ignorance to the uniqueness that is this island and ignorance regarding development without forethought," he added.

"We think we have to hammer home the whole idea of historic preservation. People take it for granted, because the Historic District Commission oversees it, but there are constant changes," May said. "The gut rehab issue, for example, is one that can't be regulated right now. So we're out there advocating for these historic interiors, trying to educate people and be a resource, and show people the right way to improve an older home with modern equipment, for example."

"St. Mary's" by Larrissa.

To involve the students of Nantucket, Tramposch thought it would be fun to send over 30 middle school kids out into the community, armed with digital cameras, to document parts of the island that are landmarks in their own lives. The results are going up in an exhibit entitled "Landmarks of Nantucket!"

Cyrus Peirce sixth grader Jackie Trudel participated in the project. Included in his photos are the newest room of his house, the Atheneum, a conservation trail near his house and himself.

"The project was really well laid out, because it gave people a chance to express their feelings about places on the island," Trudel said. "I liked to see everyone else's perspectives on what made a landmark. Thinking of the different places on the island - ones with different historic value - helped to remind us of Nantucket's history."

As a boy in Monroe, Conn., Tramposch watched his town gutted of its historical buildings. So he was thinking of what he'd seen and lost in his own youth when using today's landmarks to give students a sense of their own history on island.

"Escape" by Flinx

"Preservation Month is focused on preserving the irreplaceable. Developing a heightened awareness of those things we would really miss if they disappeared overnight is central to the concept of preservation," he said. "We want to engender a sense of what is important with these kids who, I am convinced, will be sitting on our HDC or Board of Selectmen some day."

While organizations like the NPT and the HDC fight specific legal battles, Tramposch said the NHA is served with the task of doing what it can in an educational role. "Our goals are to engender a greater awareness of the uniqueness of Nantucket in the world and to heighten people's sensitivities to this National Historic Landmark called Nantucket," he said.

To this effect, the NHA is hosting about half of the events to be held during preservation month, including a Brown Bag Lunch with Bob Mooney and Nancy Chase on "Reflections on a Changing Nantucket."

In May's opinion, some of the biggest dangers to this National Historic Landmark are gut rehabs, the loss of open space downtown and the idiosyncratic size and scale of larger homes in neighborhoods build to accommodate smaller units with more space between structures. "We're not saying you can't make changes, you just have to make them sensitively," May said. "If you own a 200-year--old property, you're a steward of the property. There's so much history in that house."

As an example, May mentions seemingly "little things" like a bottle of sherry, dated 1830, found in the cupola of a house on Main Street during a sensitive renovation. In his National Book Award winner, "The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex," Nathaniel Philbrick repeatedly used this kind of information while building a historic backdrop for his story.

Because of this issue of gut rehabs, May noted, the National Trust for Historic Preservation listed Nantucket as an "endangered" area in 2001 and 2004.

"I think we're in danger of becoming a Disney set, where it's just facades with nothing behind them," May said. "Instead of going in with craftsmen, they're going in with crowbars. We need to

change that." I

FILM: "DESIGNING GREAT NEIGHBORHOODS" Wed., May 2; 7 p.m., Nantucket Atheneum

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: BOB MOONEY AND NANCY CHASE: "A CHANGING NANTUCKET" Thu. May 3, noon, Whaling Museum

PRESERVATION MONTH, OPENING RECEPTION The Selectmen and leaders of island preservation and conservation organizations and com mittees will be in attendance. Sat., May 5, 5:30 p.m., PI:N, Upstairs at 11 Centre St.

PHOTO EXHIBIT OPENING: "LANDMARKS OF NANTUCKET!" Sun., May 6, 2 p.m.; (with refreshments chosen by the students)

NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING: "THE FUTURE

OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION ON NANTUCKET"

Wed.,. May 9, 7 p.m. , Nantucket Atheneum

For the full schedule of Nantucket's Preservation History Month events, go to Nantucketpreservation.org, and click on "Calendar of Events."

Terms of Nantucket

Preservation

National Historic Landmark. The National Register of Historic Places, operated by the National Park Service, has granted Nantucket the distinction of being a National Historic Landmark. (Registered as No. 66000772.) That's the highest and most urgent of three possible rankings: National, Regional and Local. This protects the island against national and state development that could undermine the island's historic integrity.

Nantucket Historic District. Initially, Nantucket town and 'Sconset were the only two historic districts, as certified in 1956. This changed in 1971, when the Massachusetts legislature certified the entire island as an historic district, with two "old historic districts": a "core area" of town and 'Sconset. Because of this, development is limited island-wide by regulations enforced by the Historic District Commission, with stricter regulations applying to the old historic districts.

Nantucket Historic District Commission, a.k.a. the HDC, is a local governmental organization established by the town in 1955 after the town appealed to the Massachusetts state legislature for and won local historic district status. Local historic district status is something of a "national status symbol" for the whole island, stating that this island is worthy of preservation, according to Michael May, Executive Director of the Nantucket Preservation Trust. The HDC's main job is protecting the exteriors of historic island structures.

Nantucket Preservation Trust is a nonprofit, membership organization that advocates for preservation through educational programs and advistory services to owners of old structures. The NPT focuses much of its efforts on preserving historic interiors (where the HDC has no dominion as of now) especially from the "gut rehab." "We're out there trying to show people the right way to preserve a home and add things like air conditioning and modern equipment," May said.

The NPT has no governmental status. As such, it seeks to educate and encourage owners of historic homes to place easements on their properties. This year, NPT will update the National Trust for Historic Preservation's survey of Nantucket's historically relevant buildings - specifically those built between 1900 and 1950, many of which are being researched for the first time.

"Gut rehab" is a term that the describes extreme and indelicate renovation of the interior or exterior of an historic home.

Easements are nationally recognized documents, voluntarily applied for by the owner of a home, that prohibit any significant structural renovation. An easement stays with a home forever, regardless of the home's owner. Easements incur substantial tax deductions for the homeowner. "An easement doesn't mean you can't make changes," May said. "You just can't rip something out and start from

scratch." I