Editor’s Note: What follows is a selection of comments posted on the Gazette Web site last week in response to the story about a preliminary application by Tara and Daniel Whiting to tear down the Old Parsonage house in West Tisbury.

Let it be known publicly that our immediate family was neither informed, consulted or involved in this decision by Tara and Daniel. It’s a sad day for us as their next-door neighbors, their aunt and uncle and strong believers that our role in living on the Whiting Farm is one of stewardship. This reflects a clear disconnect with the values of the other descendants of Everett Davis Whiting, their grandfather.

The house has survived over 300 years of ownership, love and sorrow. It’s incomprehensible that this house should be looked at as a teardown rather than as an irreplaceable and priceless piece of our family’s and Island’s history.

Lynne and Allen Whiting

West Tisbury

I cannot imagine that anyone, especially a family member and neighbor, could possibly question Tara and Daniel’s love of that house and the Whiting property. They did not make this decision lightly, but as a last resort. Tara has been living in that house, struggling to maintain it as best as she could. I am sure that Everett’s wish would not be for his grandchildren to live in uninhabitable conditions. Knowing Tara and Daniel as I do, I find it hard to believe that the family members were not informed and consulted.

This has been a long, heartfelt process for Tara and Daniel and at this point to be questioned about their stewardship, especially by a family member, is despicable.

Ellie Carbon Parece

Edgartown

Lynne is correct; I never called and notified her personally.

I did speak to several family members about the house, mostly from the standpoint of “What work has been done in the past?” and “What options would you suggest in helping me to save the property?” My father, Danny Whiting, was most helpful and we had several conversations. I also want to thank Sue Whiting and Flip Harrington for their advice and support. Among the three of them, they have decades of experience in dealing with old houses and how to help keep them standing.

I received lots of help from my family and others in the Martha’s Vineyard community and beyond. They were able to put me in touch with contractors and builders, some of whom offered their advice free of charge.

Regrettably, they have been unanimous in declaring the structure as too far gone to be salvageable for anything less than almost $2 million. They were also clear in explaining to me that almost nothing is salvageable anyway; the entire building would almost certainly need to be replaced. That was the hardest news we heard. The detailed list of things that need fixing is long and comprehensive. No one “system” can be isolated. The contractors we spoke to felt it could not be fixed one room at a time.

All the electrical wiring needs replacing. Much of it is behind old horsehair plaster walls. They are so old that the plaster disintegrates when you try to cut it to get to the wires. So most of the walls will crumble if you try to fix the electrical work. All the plumbing is exposed to cold temperatures and routinely freezes each winter. Much of the ductwork for heating is uninsulated. The chimneys are all compromised and unusable. The roof is badly deteriorated.

There is black mold that has grown in the walls throughout the house, including Tara’s bedroom, and prolonged exposure is unsafe.

And then there is simply the fact that the structural beams holding the house are over 350 years old, and the termites have honeycombed all through the wood. Structurally, it may soon be near collapse.

My family also helped significantly in helping me learn some of the town politics, and the proper way to go about asking for help from the land bank and other entities.

I contacted various historical societies at the state and federal level. Without a formal application for grant money, they would only speak off the record, but I came away feeling that the money required to restore the property would not be forthcoming.

Of all the people whom I have spoken to about this, in and out of my family, I want to thank them for their help these past years I have worked on this issue. If not for their support, I might have given this up as a lost cause a long time ago.

My grandfather, Everett Whiting, is unavailable for comment. But I can make a few comments as to the quality of Tara Whiting’s stewardship. Tara has lived at the house for over a decade since my father handed it over to us.

Tara elected to leave college to come live on the Vineyard to take care of the house. She ran a bed and breakfast for some time to try to generate enough income to do some piecemeal fixes to the house. Over the years, she has been able to do some fixing on the property, usually at night, because she typically works two to three jobs.

Over the course of a winter she burns out a new hair dryer as she sits up at night trying to keep the frozen pipes from bursting. In a house that was built to hold an extended family of five, she lives in one room, so she can seal off the house in winter to save electricity and heating oil because the house is not insulated. Curtains ruffle in the draft as the cold air blows through the house.

In winter she can only sleep for four hours at a time at night because she has to get up to refill the wood stove. She sleeps, gets up at 1 a.m. to feed the wood stove, and then goes back to bed.

She’ll be up at 6 to go feed the horses and the chickens, because that is what she feels she must do as a good caretaker of the farm.

She fills buckets with hot water to bring out to the horses and chickens so it will thaw the ice that has formed overnight.

In another month, she’ll be out before dawn with her uncle Allen to help the mother sheep to safely deliver their new lambs. She’ll probably end up bottle feeding at least one.

In the spring, she helps with the bird count. She clears fallen branches. She rescues a sheep that gets its head stuck in a fence. She fixes split rail fences down near the pond.

In summer she picks up hay bales and volunteers at the fair. She drives a float for her niece and nephew in the Fourth of July parade. In the fall, she splits wood for the long winter ahead.

This is all while working those two to three jobs and caring for the animals on the farm.

Tara Whiting is perhaps more dedicated to this house and to the town of West Tisbury than anyone I have known. She works tirelessly to maintain the house and the farm to the best of her abilities. I can’t let accusations about Tara Whiting’s dedication and self-sacrifice go unchallenged.

Daniel Whiting

West Tisbury

I was upset when I read this story. First let me say I respect and cherish as friends all the Whiting family. This is a horrible plan; in fact I find it hard that a Whiting would advance such a proposal. Have they no sense of history and the valuable part of the community this is? I don’t see a hardship, as Daniel says, “since my father handed it over to us.” This is a bad plan and I trust the historic district prevents this from happening.

John Alley

West Tisbury