Gut Reaction

By OHJ Staff

Long-time nantucket resident Clarissa Porter first realized her home's 18th-century interiors might one day be prone to serious remuddling when a summer renter wanted to know when she was going to add a sauna and Jacuzzi upstairs. Later Porter witnessed the merciless gut rehab of an 18th-century house once owned by Nantucket's only known black whaling-ship captain, Absalom Boston. After I saw what happened to the Absalom Boston house, I resolved that my home would not meet the same fate.

To halt these irreversible practices, the four-year-old Nantucket Preservation Trust (NPT) is doing what has been done in only a few other historic districts: protecting the interiors of privately owned historic homes.

Porter's concerns are not unfounded. The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently listed Nantucket as one of the most endangered historic places in the United States. Although Nantucket is the country's largest national historic landmark (2,400 homes participate in its historic district), its weathered character erodes noticeably with each influx of new money and new construction. The recent wave of gut rehabs and tear-downs of antique structures threatens Nantucket's architectural landscape. It is the interiors of historic homes that are most in danger of being washed away by these rehabilitation projects. Hand-hewn wood floors, bull's-eye transom lights, well-worn stair treads, and simple Quaker mouldings--irreplaceable reminder's of Nantucket's past--are being lost to modern fittings.

Using historic preservation easements--voluntary legal agreements between Nantucket homeowners and NPT--part or all of a home's interior, exterior, and garden spaces can be preserved. A flexible agreement between a property owner and a qualified preservation organization, the easement provision can be tailored to fit each property's interior characteristics. Once recorded, the easement becomes part of the deed; it binds not only the current property owners to the easement, but also future owners. The incentive for homeowners is the possible tax benefits: charitable gift deduction, property tax reduction, or estate tax reduction. Districts already using historic preservation easements to preserve interiors include Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Charleston, South Carolina.

After Porter read about NPT's historic interiors program in Nantucket's Inquirer and Mirror newspaper, she contacted Patricia Butler, NPT executive director, and they began to document the house, inside and out. Porter's easement includes all 18th-century gunstock corner posts (vertical structural supports), wood floors, beam ceilings, and transoms; the 19th-century fireplaces in the southeast and west living rooms; and the early 20th-century parlor closets. The house has been in my father's family since 1913 when my father's cousin, Mary Wilson Strong, and her husband, Austin, knocked on the door and asked the owner if he would entertain an offer, says Porter. In 1985 Porter inherited the Austin Strong house from her mother, and she has maintained the ca. 1731 house since then. I have such a long history with this magical place that I want to preserve what came before and do what is best for the home's future, says Porter.

The trust is currently working with the owners of a dozen other historic structures to identify, document, and preserve historic interior and exterior features. Interior spaces including floor plans, wall paneling, doors, stairwells, early hardware, fireplaces, and windows are documented and preserved through preservation easements, says Butler. We hope to show the importance of preserving historic houses.

Not every antique home qualifies for historic preservation restrictions. The home must be situated in a historic district or must be designated as historically significant through the National Register listing. For more information on the program as well as Preservation Week on Nantucket May 13-19 contact the Nantucket Preservation Trust at (508) 228-1387.

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