The Shingle
Equal parts function and recognizable form
The Shingle

Part 1 of 2

Grey, in several dimensions, is a virtue on Nantucket.

It is the color of the sky for most of the winter; it matches the hues of island vegetation in the off season and it is the lasting color of the wooden siding that protects most of the buildings on the Grey Lady from wind, rain and salt air.

Ponder the white cedar shingle. A pale, tannish yellow at application that becomes a classic, weathered grey, it is the required sidewall covering for nearly all the houses on Nantucket - one that has earned the island the classifier, Shingle Museum.

The sidewall shingles of Nantucket, made of Eastern white cedar trees from Atlantic Canada and Northern Maine, are analogous to the brick sidewalks and townhouses of Beacon Hill and are part of the charm of the island. They are what the Historic District Commission mandates and island builders apply to buildings new and old, and with good reason.

"The fundamental reason for the shift away from traditional finish materials at Massachusetts Bay can be found in conditions imposed by nature, which led to an adaptation of local resources," said Abbott Lowell Cummings in Exterior Finish, Chapter 8 of his book, "The Framed Houses of Massachusetts Bay, 1625-1725." "Whatever the similarities in the physical environment between the Old World and the new, the first English settlers were forced at once to adjust to significant variations in the climate."

Necessity dictated the shingle's use on Nantucket when the island was settled, and we still rely on them for staying warm and dry. Visitors to the island view them as part of our heritage. A testament to their value is borne out by Maibec, the Quebec, Canada-based miller of white cedar shingles, which sold roughly 700,000 square wall feet of its signature brand Nantucket shingles on the island last year.

"Nantucket, the shingle capital of the world," said Maibec's East Coast sales representative Keith Ball. "Nantucket Island and the Cape are definitely our largest region for selling shingles, and I guess we could throw Martha's Vineyard in there."

PERFECT FOR QUAKERS

Wood and slate tile shingles adorned roofs before settlers in New England began applying them to the sides of their houses, according to Cummings.

"As early as 1649 the selectmen of Dorchester directed that the house that belonged to Mr. Tilley have the 'Rooffe shingled,' and [John] Josselyn reports in 1663 that the colonists used white cedar to 'make shingles to cover their houses with instead of tyle, it will never warp," said Cummings in his book.

But on Nantucket, shingles as siding and roofing were more common, said Nantucket historian Pat Butler.

Butler said the shingle style of exterior wall covering came to the island with its founders, many of whom were from north of Boston in the Merrimac River Valley and had used shingles there. Tristram Coffin's son, Peter, harvested Eastern white cedar from New Hampshire for Nantucketers.

Once the white oak, white cedar and white pine trees were cut up into the desired lengths, shinglemakers split these logs into quarters, riving them, said preservation carpenter Michael Burrie of Plymouth, Mass. into shingles using a wooden club and a froe, a cutting tool with one end of its blades attached at right angles to a short wooden handle.

The shingles were 15 to 18-inches long and anywhere from three to 12 inches wide. Although their width matters to a degree, it is the shingle's length that is key to the weather-proofing qualities prized by early and present-day Nantucketers because three five-inch courses can be applied over each shingle, ensuring a watertight wall.

"I think that's traditional," said Butler. "I've never seen a deviation from it. Really, really old houses, they weren't called shingles they were called clinkers. They were hand-split, rough, handhewn; much thicker. It's the five inches and the three layers for maximum protection from the elements."

Shingled houses matched the simple and utilitarian lives of the Quakers. It was not until just prior to the Great Fire of 1846 that the shingling of houses became diluted by other forms of wall coverings.

"Even before the fire, the whole sort of Greek Revival influence and refinement came into Nantucket around the time of the American Revolution," Butler said. "Houses started to be refined around the time of the American Revolution, so many of the shingled houses were changing to clapboard. Many houses have got clapboards on the front, painted - the Quakers didn't want to be too pretentious."

Although the HDC's bible of appropriate architectural design, "Building with Nantucket in Mind," now espouses the uses of sidewall shingles around the island and requires it within the two old historic districts, it laments the covering of formerly clapboarded Federal and Greek Revival structures with shingles.

"Unfortunately, much of this authentic flavor has been lost over the years as clapboard walls have been replaced with shingles," say J. Christopher Lang and Kate Stout in "Building with Nantucket in Mind" on Page 84. "For example, of 170 frame Greek Revival houses that were originally faced with clapboards, more than 90 are surfaced with shingles.

"This non-original treatment is regrettable since the rustic, textured shingles are inappropriate to the elegance and formality of these 19th century buildings."

- Next week: Part 2