In 1976 Thomas Goethals opened an institute of higher learning on North William street in Vineyard Haven, vowing to bring to the Island the same sort of cultural self-reliance that was enjoyed in so many other areas. For more than two decades the Nathan Mayhew Seminars served that purpose, offering world-class lectures and partnerships with leading universities. But in recent years the organization has sputtered; its board has aged; its modest campus has fallen into disrepair. Now, two Islanders hope to revive the nonprofit. Using $45,000 in community preservation act money, they aim to rebuild the historic space and once again attract the sort of programming that former president Ted Box says made it the “flagship of Island nonprofits.”

“People moved to the Vineyard so they could experience the seminars,” he said on Thursday.

Founded by Mr. Geothals, Jim Norton and Woodrow Sayre in 1976, for more than two decades the campus across from the Vineyard Haven Library, consisting of the Stephen Carey Luce House and Fanny Blair Hall, was the epicenter of intellectual life on Martha’s Vineyard. Named after Vineyard Haven schoolmaster Nathaniel Mayhew, who taught from 1825 to 1850, a Gazette editorial in 1989 proclaimed that the foundation had “immeasurably enriched Island life” over the years.

Once the Island’s college campus in Vineyard Haven. — Mark Alan Lovewell

“Few ventures have embedded themselves so swiftly and deeply in the fabric of this community,” the editorial reads. “Fewer still can cite such a proud list of contributions to the quality of Island life.”

Those contributions were made in part through collaborations with Northeastern University, UMass Dartmouth, University of Maine, Cape Cod Community College, Clark University, Lesley College and Fisher Junior College. As recently as 2002 Boston University offered an environmental geology course for credit in Vineyard Haven. In the past decade, though, the condition of the buildings has rapidly deteriorated and the dwindling board has struggled to pay off what Mr. Box says is a mortgage on the Luce house of around $30,000. In the past five years programming all but came to a standstill.

“As often happens, the people that made it great basically ran out of steam,” said Mr. Box. “They got older. There was attrition. Some of the founders realized that they were getting old. When you start pushing 90 something’s going to give.”

In April Mr. Box was approached by programming director Al Daniels and longtime supporter Vera Shorter to renew his leadership of the organization.

“I said it’s like asking me to be captain of the Titanic after the iceberg hit, because of the condition of the building,” he said.

Mr. Box accepted the position under one condition, that he was able to bring aboard business associate Rubin Cronig. Mr. Cronig also accepted his role under one condition, that he be allowed to bring aboard Chuck Hughes, a retired Island resident involved with a number of nonprofits, including the YMCA, the Farm Institute and the West Tisbury Library Foundation, Inc. They quickly set about establishing an interim board of directors, with Mr. Hughes as president and Mr. Cronig as treasurer.

“It takes a strong horse to drag a broken wagon,” said Mr. Box. “What was left of the old board was dragging that broken wagon and they weren’t going to let go of it until they saw that the new people involved were really going to take it home.”

To get the building back in working order Mr. Hughes and Mr. Cronig rushed to get an eleventh hour Community Preservation Act application in earlier this month at the suggestion of town selectmen Jeffrey Kristal. As part of that application Mr. Cronig and Mr. Hughes gathered the signatures of some 80 neighbors and residents, endorsements from town boards and two selectmen, as well as the support of the historic commission.

On Monday Mr. Hughes and Mr. Cronig won the support of the community preservation committee, which voted to approve a $45,000 article at the annual town meeting in April, $35,000 of which will go toward historic preservation of the buildings, most notably the repair of a leaking Luce house roof, and another $10,000 to maintain the overgrown grounds.

If passed it would mark the first glimmer of hope after a decade of distress for the proud organization.

“The Nathan Mayhew Seminars and those buildings have done some amazing things over the course of time,” Mr. Cronig told the Gazette, during an interview with Mr. Hughes. “They’ve sponsored some amazing programs. At a certain point the financial stuff stopped being as much of a concern, which really became a big problem because you can have the best programs in the world, but if you don’t have the finances to keep your building nobody’s going to want to come there anymore,” he said. “When we came in the first thing we needed to do was to stabilize the building. It wasn’t about starting with the programs, because that’s not where we were. There are a lot of great ideas in terms of how to use the building, but for us it was about how do we save the building; how do we make sure this building doesn’t fall down.”

Mr. Cronig says that the space, which launched several nonprofits like SailMV, can serve as more than just a space for lectures.

“We want the community to be able to bring in their interests, but our goal is to provide a home for a lot of the nonprofits,” he said. “We’ve been in discussions with [Adult and Community Education of Martha’s Vineyard] about using that space to help grow their program. Red Cross spoke with us about using the space; a few youth groups would really like to use it. We’ve been asked by a dance group if they could come back. For us it’s about being able to host the lectures like they used to do, but it’s also about providing a home. Our vision is to bring it back for what it was, but also to offer it up to the community in new ways.”

In its original mailings in 1975 Mr. Goethal announced the organization’s offering of “college level courses for adults of all ages in literature, philosophy and religion.”

While Mr. Cronig and Mr. Hughes say they would welcome the return of an Athens in Vineyard Haven, their first priority is structural.

“I’m not an educator, I know nothing about education,” said Mr. Hughes. “I would love just to say, ‘Now you’ve got a building that’s stabilized, that’s rehabilitated, that’s back on financial good terms. Now you guys can think about what you want to do and I’m going to get the heck out of here.’”

This article was edited to reflect the correct spelling of the Stephen Carey Luce House.