|
Invisible People, Invisible Places
Perhaps one of the more amazing
things about Nantucket is that there seems to be a lack of historical
sites dedicated to the fishing and water based trades. During a recent
conversation with my wife I was struck by this lack of acknowledgement
of the invisible people of the island's history. I believe this conversation
was caused by a visit by my family. My father, who is obviously the holder
of the "Marcavitch wandering gene," was walking around some
places on the Cape and would constantly ask us "why is this town/place/building
here?" After they had left, Andrea and I had much of the same conversation
about the island. Most who come here recognize the whaling industry and
its major impact on the island. The current industry is the tourism trade,
evidenced by the large amount of tee-shirt shops. Unfortunately, the question
we were left with was the question of what happened to the people in between.
Furthermore, where are the places that honor them and their work? First the question of what
people did between the downfall of the whaling industry and the rise of
the tourism trade is perhaps a bit flip - they lived as best they could
with little industry to sustain themselves. During the whaling industry,
the population was nearly 10,000, almost the same as today's off-season
population, peaking near 1842. After whaling, generally the later parts
of the Nineteenth century, the island was at its lowest population point.
Houses, farms, and ships were left abandoned. People in this period did
what they could to make ends meet. They fished, they farmed, they sold
their homes and moved. Houses were sold to be shipped off island - in
an odd reversal of fortune from the days when houses were shipped to the
island. The sad truth is that this economy saved many the buildings of
the island. Historic preservationists are often very concerned with economic
vitality and revitalizing a place. However, without economic stagnation
the buildings we seek to preserve would not have lasted as long as they
have. Its an odd irony that preservationists deal with daily. Then the island was discovered
as a tourist destination. (Reflecting upon the fact that tourism arrived
about 1880, one must consider that tourism has been a way of life on Nantucket
for over 100 years. In most places tourism is only 50 years old.) Railroads
were built, people arrived, and the tourism boom began. This meant that
many of the old whaling and fishing buildings were transformed. Auld Lang
Syne in 'Sconset and the surrounding buildings were once simple fishing
cottages that became fashionable summer homes. For better or worse, this
preserved the historical characteristics of the building, but may have
destroyed the evidence of their historic use. Those are the trade-off's
that must be made in historic preservation. (The parallel situation on
the mainland is often the conversion of a mill into apartments. It saves
the building, but destroys the evidence of the people who worked there.
Adaptive reuse, its technical term, can be a preservationists friend and
nightmare.) Out on the wharves in town,
fishing and scalloping were still very much in action during this time,
now feeding many of the new resorts and hotels on the island. Old North
Wharf was one of these places and today only one of those buildings remains
in use, 4 Old North Wharf, owned by Virginia Andrews. Today, it is currently
being hoisted onto new piles and will eventually be restored to a bit
of its former glory as a scalloping shanty. This is one of the very few
reminders of the historic legacy of fishing and scalloping on the island.
It is exciting to see this being retained and preserved for those interested
in the people who existed between the whaling and the tourism booms. I
hope that this building is used as a historical interpretation of the
fishing and water trades legacy on Nantucket. If it were, it would be
the only such site I know of on the island to interpret the work of these
groups. As scalloping and fishing
waned into the 1960s, it was the work of the Sherburne Associates that
rehabbed much of the wharf areas. Building With Nantucket in Mind says
that "In 1963, Sherburne Associates purchased Straight, Old South,
and Commercial Wharfs, a collection of broken down docking remains, old
and rotting pilings, and some ramshackle buldings - all the last vestiges
of a romantic era, to be sure…[T]he fact remains that two undeniable
and significant accomplishments were the fruit of Sherburne's vision.
First it achieved a classic example of adaptive use…Secondly…it
single-handedly turned the island's economy around. Sherburne built its
marinas to lure yachtsmen and boaters to Nantucket…The net result
of the waterfront's rehabilitation was to bolster the island's principal
source of revenue - tourism."(19) These changes were such that they
destroyed much of the legacy of those who worked on these wharves. The
argument will always be that this saved the island and made it what it
is today, but for me I feel something lacking in that there is no historical
interpretation of what was there before. Then largely out of the new
ability to pack and ship the products to the mainland, fishing and the
water trades increased in popularity. Many of these boats were serviced
in the three modest warehouse style buildings on Washington Street Extension.
Buildings in one form ore another have been on that site since the early
part of the Twentieth century serving the boating and fishing world of
Nantucket. Today these buildings are slated for demolition for the construction
of the Great Harbor Yacht Club - perhaps just the next step in the legacy
of this land. This change goes back to the irony preservationists must
deal with daily. The buildings of Washington Street Extension have survived
because of the "downtrodden" feel of the area. However, now
that the area has been "discovered" the preservationist must
seek ways to acknowledge the history of the area. The new owners are seeking
to recognize the history of the place and I only hope that the people
who made the boatyard part of Nantucket's history are not forgotten. I hope that more work is done
to recognize those that are invisible. Those people and places, which
have been overlooked in the island's rush from the whaling industry to
the tourism industry, are important elements of the history of the place
where we live. I feel strongly that more interpretation should be done
on the island. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania there are interpretive kiosks
around the town across from buildings showing a historic photograph and
some text about the history of the building. Something similar to this
might be an excellent tool for those exploring the island. However, I
also understand the protest by those who live here that this is a living,
breathing island. It is not a museum. By putting in these types of interpretive
signs the place becomes a museum. This question is my constant quandary.
Until then, I encourage you
to wander around a bit to find out why Nantucket is here. There may be
more to this rock than the whaling and tee shirt shops. Enjoy our wharves,
but wonder why they are there. Ask questions about the obvious. Maybe
then we can learn to acknowledge the invisible people and the invisible
places. |