View
7
Download
0
Category
Preview:
Citation preview
Nantucket Historical Association 52
» OLD GAOL» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
52
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
Quaker Meeting House and Research Library at 7 Fair Street
EILEEN POWERS, 2007
53
» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
Properties Guide | Quaker Meeting House/Research Library 53
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
Quaker Meeting House/ Research LibraryIn 1838, John Boadle opened the door to the new Friend’s
Academy on Fair Street, a handsome purpose-built structure
that would be his schoolhouse.
The two-story hip-roof building was sim-
ple but functional, with a central door
on the east side facing Fair Street, two
windows at the second-floor level, and
a chimney front and center. Two rows
of tall windows on the north and south
sides allowed light into the long school-
rooms: on the first floor were the desks
of the older scholars, while upstairs the
primary students were instructed by
Boadle’s assistant. An Englishman by
birth, Boadle had been recommended
for the job on Nantucket by Philadelphia
Friends, and he arrived on Nantucket
ready for the challenge. John, as he had
his students call him, settled in — becom-
ing one of the most beloved teachers in
the history of island schools — and made
the Fair Street schoolhouse his scholastic
kingdom for almost twenty years.
Next to the schoolhouse stood a
large meeting house built to serve the
Orthodox Friends in 1833 after one of
Nantucket Harbor
Lily Pond Park
Brant Point
Main Street
Upper Main St.
Broad St.
SteamboatWharf
StraightWharf
Civil WarMonument
NHA Whaling Museum& Museum Shop
Greater Light
Oldest House& Kitchen
Garden
Old Gaol
HadwenHouse
Thomas Macy
House
1800House
Old Mill
NHA Research LibraryWhitney Gallery &
Quaker Meeting House
Macy-ChristianHouse
Thomas Macy Warehouse
Fire HoseCart House
Eleanor HamPony Field
Mill St.
York Street
Prospect Street
How
ard Ct.
Vestal St.
Pleasant Street
Gard
ner St.
Liberty St.
Milk
St.
Sunset Hill Lane
West Chester St.
Oran
ge St.
S. M
ill S
t.
Washington St.
Easton Street
No
rth Liberty St.
Lily
St.
Chester St.
Cli� Road
N. W
ater St.
S. Beach
St.
India St.
Hussey St.
Centre St.
Ray’s Ct.
Judith Chase Ln.
Lucretia Mott Ln.
School St.
Hillers Ln.Charter St.
Fair St.
Kite Hill
N. C
entre St.
North Ave.
MacKay Way
Harborview Way
N. Beach St.
Cornish St.
Walsh St.
Willard St.
Hulbert Ave.
East Lincoln Ave.
Swain St.
Cen
tre St.
We
stm
inst
er
St.
Gay St.
Quince St. Chestnut St.
Federal St.
S. Water St.
Cambridge St.Oak St.
Acad
emy
Ln.
Ash Ln.
Ash St.
Sea St.
Step Ln.
Easy St.
Can
dle St.
Salem St.
Commercial St.
New
Wh
ale St.
Straight Wharf
Wash
ing
ton
St.
Un
ion
St.
Summer St.
Pine Street
Winter St.
Walnut Ln.
New
Do
llar
Starbuck Ct.
Candle House Ln.
Angola St.
Darling St.
Tattle Ct.
Farmer St.
Twin St.
Lyon St.
Je�erson St.
Eagle Ln.
Silver Street
Quaker Road
Low
ell P
l.
Madaket Rd.
Copper Ln.
Milk St.
Green Ln.
New
Lan
e
Bar
nab
as L
n. W
oodb
ury
Ln.
Franklin St.
Saratoga Lane
Mt. V
erno
n St.
Joy
St.
Hummock Pond Rd.
Vesper Lane
ProspectHill
Cemetery
New
Mill
St.
Mill Hill Lane
QuakerCemetery
MADAKET RD.
BIKE PATH
CLIFF RD. BIKE PATHSU
RFS
IDE
BIK
E P
AT
H
PROSPEC
T ST. BIKE PATH
Atl
anti
c A
ve.
CLIFF RD. BIKE PATH
MADAKET RD. BIKE PATH
CLIFF RD. BIKE PATH
Deaco
n’s W
ay
CommercialWharf
Faye
tte S
t.
Meader S
t.
Fran
cis St.
West Dover StreetE. Dover St.Weymouth St.Mulberry St.
York Street
Warren Street
New Street
Back Street
Williams S
treet
Cherry Stre
et
Williams Ln.
Sparks Ave.
Bear Stre
et
Lower Pleasant Street
Coon St.
Beaver St.
Spring St.
Unio
n St.
Lower O
range St.
Salt Marsh Way
Washin
gto
n St. E
xt.
Boyer’s Alley
Gardner P
erry Ln
.
Tristram Co�n
Homesite Marker
Wyers Way
NewNorth
Cemetery
OldNorth
Cemetery
Grove Lane
Old NorthWharf
Old SouthWharf
Folger-Franklin Memorial Boulder and Bench
ADDRESS
7 Fair Street
CONSTRUCTED
Quaker Meeting House
1838
Research Library
1904/2001
DISTANCE FROM
WHALING MUSEUM
.3 miles
Nantucket Historical Association 54
» OLD GAOL» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
54
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
the early schisms in the Society
of Friends. Records show that
James Weeks built the meeting
house, and he may have built
the schoolhouse five years later.
The Fair Street meeting house
was larger than the one on
Main Street that later became
a straw-hat factory and passed
through several other adapta-
tions before settling as the core
of the Dreamland Theatre. John
Boadle married Hanna Heaton
of Plattekill, New York, in the
Quaker Meeting House in 1854.
Soon after, he left Nantucket to teach in New Bedford, and his able
assistant, Hepsibeth Hussey, continued the school, but in a new loca-
tion on the corner of Charter and Fair Streets. By the 1860s, the num-
ber of Quakers had diminished, rendering the large meeting house of
questionable usefulness; it was dismantled and shipped to Dennisport
Quaker schoolmaster John Boadle
CDV1005
Interior of the Quaker Meeting House, early 1900s
HENRY S. WYER GPN4313
55
» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
Properties Guide | Quaker Meeting House/Research Library 55
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
on Cape Cod, where it was reassembled and used as a school until it
burned down in 1930.
The schoolhouse at 7 Fair Street, a better size for a small popula-
tion of island Friends, was reconfigured as a meeting house in 1865.
Two thirds of the second floor was removed, leaving a balcony at the
east end; simple bench pews saved from the old 1833 meeting house
were added to the first floor; and a raised platform with bench seating
at the west end of the room accommodated the elders. For almost
three decades the old schoolhouse turned meeting house served as
the site of quiet Quaker contemplation, but eventually only a handful
of the faithful was left on the island.
In 1894, the meeting house was available for purchase. Many in
the community were unaware of the history of the building, prompt-
ing Henry S. Wyer to write a letter to the editor of the Inquirer and
Mirror and lay out the facts, summing up with the statement, “Thus it
is evident that the building was identified with the Friends for about 54
years, and is to all intents a landmark and a relic of them which should
The Quaker Meeting House as headquarters of the Nantucket Historical
Association, 1890s P3414
Nantucket Historical Association 56
» OLD GAOL» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
56
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
Museum collection displayed in the Quaker Meeting House, circa 1900
HENRY S. WYER P9326
57
» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
Properties Guide | Quaker Meeting House/Research Library 57
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
Nantucket Historical Association 58
» OLD GAOL» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
58
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
be preserved to futurity.” The Nantucket Historical Association had
recently been organized, in May 1894, and members were actively
searching for a “suitable place in which to store and exhibit the dona-
tions and loans of antique and historical articles, which already began
to come in.” Their June 25 meeting was held in the Friends Meeting
House on Fair Street and new president, Dr. J. Sidney Mitchell, recom-
mended buying the building in which the meeting was held, “. . . as
an old and valuable landmark which would serve temporarily as the
headquarters of the society, and the Council was authorized to pur-
chase the same at once.” And so the Quaker Meeting House, formerly
John Boadle’s schoolhouse, became the first building owned by the
Nantucket Historical Association, a place for meetings and for storing
the donated material that was rapidly accumulating
Just three years after its inception, the NHA recognized the need
for safe storage of the treasures in its care. Recording secretary Mary
E. Starbuck wrote in her 1897 report: “More than anything, we need
a fireproof building. We have land enough at the rear of the Meeting-
house for a brick extension of sufficient size for our purposes, and
when we have such an addition many valuable relics will come back
to the island. They have already been promised and for many reasons
it seems expedient to claim them as soon as possible.”
In 1897, the association made a pivotal decision. Rather than buy-
ing and “fitting up” a whaleship, an idea that was briefly considered but
deemed too expensive, it was voted that the fund accumulating for
that purpose be converted to a fund for “the most pressing need of the
Association — the erection of a fire-proof building.” Instead of brick,
concrete was chosen as the building material by architect George W.
Watson of Boston. Concrete was not a new material, in fact it was
used in ancient Rome for constructing aqueducts, the Colosseum,
and the Pantheon, but after the fall of the Roman Empire the art of
making concrete was lost until rediscovered in the eighteenth century.
It was used widely in Europe, particularly in France in the nineteenth
century. Harvard Stadium was made of concrete in 1903, and the first
concrete skyscraper was being built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1904. News
of that achievement came to Nantucket, and persuaded Henry S.
Wyer, vice-president of the NHA, to use the aggregate material for the
59
» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
Properties Guide | Quaker Meeting House/Research Library 59
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
proposed fireproof building. In 1904, one of the country’s early con-
crete buildings took shape behind the Quaker Meeting House. Frank
Lloyd Wright would follow suit in 1905, with his famous Unity Temple
in Oak Park, Illinois.
The collection of artifacts and documents that had been growing
for ten years was moved from the Quaker Meeting House to the new
fireproof building, a task that “ engrossed the whole time and efforts of
our working officials during the past year, and a most strenuous year’s
work for Curator and assistants. . . . “ wrote curator Susan E. Brock
in 1905. She was happy to report that the most satisfactory part of
the whole project was the restoration of the old meeting house to its
former condition, as it appeared when the association purchased it in
1894, adding, “We hope to be able to preserve it forever, in its Quaker
simplicity, as a type of the places of worship of our ancestors.”
The NHA has done just that, and the Quaker Meeting House looks
today very much the way it did in 1864. The attached fireproof build-
ing was for years known as the Fair Street Museum, the primary exhi-
bition space of the association, with collections arranged in a “cabi-
net of curiosities” style on both floors of the building. The Fair Street
Museum was the heart of the NHA, overflowing with everything from
Fair Street Museum, built 1904
GPN2842
Nantucket Historical Association 60
» OLD GAOL» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
60
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
arrowheads to whaling logbooks, along with larger items like furniture
and fire-hose carts. As the association expanded its properties in the
twentieth century, however, creating additional exhibition and storage
spaces, the aging fireproof building sat ripe for a new use that honored
the aspirations of the founders of the NHA: “. . . that a society should
be formed at once for the purpose of collecting books, manuscripts
and articles of any sort, to illustrate the history of our Island. . . . “
What better place for a library and research center than a fireproof
building — retrofitted, restored, and enlarged in 2001. The prima-
ry-source documents that record the history of Nantucket are housed
in the NHA Research Library at 7 Fair Street. An archival vault beneath
the Quaker Meeting House provides climate-controlled storage for
irreplaceable original documents — logbooks, account books, family
papers, journals, business records, photographs — that are made easi-
ly accessible to researchers when they visit, or through online records.
The intimate Whitney Gallery at the entrance to the library offers
changing exhibitions of Nantucket art and history and the light-filled
reading rooms are a haven for historians, students, journalists, film-
makers, homeowners searching for information about their Nantucket
houses, and genealogists filling in the branches of their family trees.
First exhibition in the Whitney Gallery
JEFFREY ALLEN, 2001 T436
61
» THOMAS MACY HOUSE
Properties Guide | Quaker Meeting House/Research Library 61
QUAKER MEETING HOUSE/RESEARCH LIBRARY
Edouard A. Stackpole Reading Room, NHA Research Library
JEFFREY ALLEN, 2001 T435
Recommended