Today we put on our Sherlock Holmes hats and went in pursuit of the mystery of the disappearance of Aunty Margarethe's houses. First we went to the Nantucket Historical Association. I had hoped there would be an old-timer there who might remember the houses, but the receptionist was much too young, and she seemed to be the only one there. She recommended going to the HDC, the Historic District Commission, so we walked over there. The manager explained that houses aren't necessarily preserved just because they're the first; they have to have some historic significance. She said she couldn't look up anything about the houses until she had the names of previous owners. A man in the office suggested we go across the street to the Registrar of Deeds and look on the map for the lot and parcel number. We did so and found the lot to be 153 and the parcel 2. The records showed that the current owner is Shawkemo Corporation, which belongs to Carolyn Lovelace Brown, 1625 Gaspar Drive, Boca Grande, FL 33921. She bought her brothers' interest in the property 10/22/80. The three children inherited it from their mother, Olivia S. Elphinstone, who died 5/2/66 in Baltimore, MD. We went upstairs to Probate and read the old will, which was Probate #3789. I remember Mrs. Elphinstone. She had the house directly in back of Aunty Margarethe's, and she was always complaining because Aunty Margarethe's houses blocked her view of the harbor. The thing is, Aunty Margarethe's houses were there long before Mrs. Elphinstone's house was built. If she wanted a view, why didn't she build a house on the waterfront? Ever since I first found out that Aunty Margarethe's houses were gone, I figured the old woman in back had bought them and torn them down. Sure enough, that's what happened. As soon as Aunty Margarethe died, Mrs. Elphinstone bought them from her heir and destroyed them. I hope she enjoyed the view. If Aunty Margarethe had left the houses to me, they'd still be standing. And she probably would have left them to me if I hadn't been such a nitwit and goof-up as a teenager, but teenagers are nitwits and goof-ups by definition. I wish she'd taken that into consideration. Anyway, it's too late now. The houses that I loved so dearly are gone forever, and no amount of tears will bring them back.
I found R. L. Matthews in the phone book and phoned. Mrs. Matthews answered the phone and knew right off who Jane Burt was. She had bought the house from Jane after Jane's mother died in 1988. She gave me Jane's phone number and current last name, Kolb. I phoned Jane, and she recognized my name right off. She was delighted to hear from me and wants to see me, so I told her I'd phone her again when we bring the boat up. However, Jane didn't remember when the houses were torn down. She only knew it was a long time ago.
The HDC administrator had given me the name and phone number of a Debbie Nicholson who had lived in Monomoy a long time and might remember the houses, so I phoned her, but it turned out she was only forty years old. The houses were already gone when she was a child. She remembered playing on the cement slab that had been the Palace floor. (Aunty Margarethe called the garage the "Palace", because it had so many windows. We kept the car on one side and used the other side as sort of a den, where we read or played games.)
Went back to the HDC with all the names we'd obtained, but they couldn't find any records. It was too far back.
Roy and I wandered around downtown looking for a place to eat that wouldn't wipe out our budget for the month. The downtown area looked pretty much the way it did fifty years ago. Main Street is still cobbled, with brick sidewalks. The horses and buggies are gone, and so are most of the sidewalk produce stands. Two small grocery stores are now some other type of store, but Congdon's Pharmacy is right where it was and still has the old-time soda fountain. We went in and were amazed by the prices. We could get a sandwich for as little as $2.19! All the stools were taken, but after a wait of five or ten minutes, we got stools. The sandwiches were made fresh and were very good. Roy also had coffee and a huge blueberry muffin, stuffed with blueberries. I had a big dish of cherry vanilla ice cream. The whole thing came to seven or eight dollars. The waitress was very pleasant and proficient, too.
After lunch, we rode our bikes ten miles to Madaket. Like Tom Nevers Head and Surfside, many new houses have been built there and the old rutted roads have been paved, but the beach still looks the same. I remembered being knocked down by a big wave there when I was ten or twelve and how scared I was. We didn't go to Madaket often, because it took so long to get there on the old dirt roads. Now there's not only a paved highway but also a paved bicycle path all the way there. The countryside looks the same though, thanks to the Nantucket Conservation Association, which prevented developers from tearing up the entire island.
On our way back, we stopped at the old mill, which was built in 1746 and still grinds corn. We took the tour, which was quite interesting. Of course, I'd been there many times as a child, but I didn't fully appreciate it then. A little boy fell down the steep stairs, but kids are made of rubber, so he wasn't hurt.
When we got back to the hostel, the manager was giving an introductory talk to a group of kids. When he saw us, he told the kids that we had sailed there from San Francisco. They were quite impressed.
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