We wanted to use up our Nantucket Historical Association passes today, and Roy wanted to buy a head gasket for the generator engine, so we paddled to Brant Point and walked to town. Phoned around until we found a place that had head gaskets and then walked over there. It was quite a ways, but at least they had the gasket Roy needed.
From there, we walked to the Old Gaol, that was built in 1805. To our amazement, it was still being used as a jail in 1934! It had no electricity, no plumbing, and just wood stoves and fireplaces for heating. The walls were heavily reinforced with metal rods, and the few windows had heavy iron bars. There were two wooden bunks in each of the four cells. It looked like a very uncomfortable place. The last prisoner somehow managed to escape in 1934, so they closed the place down. Now it's an interesting tourist attraction.
We visited the Greater Light Garden, where artists gathered in the 1920's, and the old firehouse that had ancient hand-pumpers. Then we went to the Coffin School, which was built about 150 years ago and is still used for cultural events. There were a lot of paintings of Nantucket on exhibit, and we also watched an interesting video on Admiral Coffin, who donated the school to Nantucket. The woman in charge thought Roy was 45! She didn't look much over 50 herself, but she said she was 70. She really envied us, being able to sail around.
By then it was two o'clock, so we ate some lunch. Went to a different lunch counter this time, but it wasn't as good as Congdon's.
After eating, we went to the Macy-Christian house, which was built in 1746. Then we went to the Quaker Meeting House and hall. They had an exhibit of the most wonderful lightship baskets, both old and new.
Talked with an old man who had lived in Nantucket for many years. He didn't remember Aunty Margarethe's houses, but he suggested we talk with Phil Murray, who has lived in Monomoy since 1951, so we went to Murray's Toggery Shop.
Phil Murray turned out to be a rotund, bald, genial gentleman. He greeted us cordially and told us what he knew. He remembered Aunty Margarethe's green houses and had even bought a rowboat from her for $5. He told us the houses had been torn down, but he didn't remember the year. He tried to phone a number of other people, but no one was home until he phoned his uncle, Franklin Chadwick, who also lives in Monomoy. Chadwick's mother had read a paper on the history of Monomoy a few years ago. I talked with her and learned a lot of interesting things. She told me the roof had blown off one of Aunty Margarethe's houses during the hurricane of 1954, and her linens had blown all over the countryside. Aunty Margarethe had had the roof rebuilt. I hadn't known anything about that. What a terrifying experience that must have been for Aunty Margarethe and John, in that house during a hurricane! But it shows how well built the houses were. They could withstand the force of a hurricane, with only the loss of a roof. It's such a shame that sturdy buildings that could stand through hurricanes were destroyed by man.
Mrs. Chadwick and her son remembered the houses being torn down in the late 50's or early 60's, which agrees with the previous information I had gathered. She didn't have a copy of the paper there in Monomoy, but she said it didn't contain anything about Aunty Margarethe or her houses.
Several people we talked with remembered Aunty Margarethe walking to town with John a few feet behind her. That was quite a walk for people in their eighties--two miles each way. Obviously, Aunty Margarethe was doing fine until John died. He had cooked for her for half a century or more. Aunty Margarethe had always had servants, so she didn't know how to cook for herself. After John died, she starved. One of her friends found her lying unconscious on the floor of her bedroom in 1957. She was rushed to a hospital and restored to health. But then she was declared insane, committed to Butler Hospital, placed under a guardian, and her property was placed under the trusteeship of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company, which promptly sold her Nantucket property to Mrs. Elphinstone for $50,000. (A waterfront house not far from where Aunty Margarethe's stood now rents for $35,000 a month!)
I refuse to believe that Aunty Margarethe was actually insane. She was eccentric, but not crazy, although I suppose most people would say a wealthy person who went without eating when she could easily have hired another cook or gone to restaurants has a few missing marbles. I just wish I'd been in Providence then to help her. And I hope she never knew that her beloved Nantucket cottages had been sold to Mrs. Elphinstone and demolished.
Roy and I thanked Mr. Murray, bought some groceries, and returned to the boat. After putting the groceries away, we paddled to the creeks, where Roy salvaged a stainless-steel port light from an old wrecked boat. Then we returned to what had been Aunty Margarethe's property for one last look, probably the last time I'll ever see it. A cottontail rabbit bounded into the bushes, just as his great-great-great granddaddy did when I was a child. The houses now exist only in my memory, but what golden memories! The happiest days of my childhood were spent there. Even if the houses were still standing, it wouldn't be the same. Aunty Margarethe wouldn't be there; John wouldn't be there; Daddy wouldn't be there; I wouldn't be a child. Everything changes. But cottontail bunnies still hop across the yard.
(Yes you have read from Phil Murray turned out to be rotund to the cottontail bunnies before, it did not make sense on the July 16 post, all of a sudden Phil Murray was there after they went to bed, I wondered, but what do I know, I just copy and paste, but this obviously does belong on today's log, it fits much better.)
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