Has the importance of history and the preservation of old architecture in the Island community fallen down a rabbit hole?
It would certainly seem so, and the scant public outrage over the proposed demolition of the Hough house on Pierce Lane in Edgartown is just the latest example.
Up in the attic of the old house at Quansoo, you can read its somewhat haphazard growth over 300 odd years. You see where the several additions were made to the original structure. You see ancient roof timbers, reinforced with temporary framing and juxtaposed with a concrete block chimney.
Downstairs, too, there is something of an historical jumble. In the cracked wall evidence of wattle and daub construction but on the floor, linoleum. And outside, a new temporary roof over the old one to protect the building from further deterioration.
Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation has been awarded a $3,000 matching grant from the National Trust to create a site plan for the Mayhew-Hancock-Mitchell House at Quansoo Farm in Chilmark.
This grant will enable Sheriff’s Meadow to create a plan for the house, its surroundings and the nearby structures that is coordinated, attractive and appropriate. The site plan will also enable Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation to create a document to be used in filings with the Chilmark Historical Commission and other town boards, as needed.
On Sunday morning, a huge nine-by-17-foot United States flag will be hung at an Eastville home as part of one family’s Fourth of July tradition. The flag, which has 46 stars and is thought to be 100 years old, is known inside the Rowan family as the 1910 Battleship Flag.
A descendant of Abigail Luce Smith, Christine Smith Rowan lives year-round at 178 New York avenue with her husband Chris Rowan. They are originally from Connecticut.
It’s been 120 years since the Noyes Building on Pennacock avenue first opened its doors to the Oak Bluffs community, serving as a post office, a market and most recently a library. And now it houses Conroy’s Apothecary and three affordable housing apartments, welcoming lower income families into a more urban neighborhood.
The historic 17th century Barn House in Chilmark, famously home to an avant-garde communal colony of Vineyard artists, writers and intellectuals, is being considered by the Massachusetts Historical Commission for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
The owners of the Old Parsonage house in West Tisbury have requested permission from the town historic district commission to demolish the 17th century home that sits on State Road overlooking Parsonage Pond.
The old house is one of those places you drive by — nearly every day if you live up-Island and frequently if you live anywhere else on the Vineyard and come through West Tisbury on State Road. Probably you take it for granted, and that’s the way it is with the old houses and barns of the Vineyard that are so much a part of its architectural and living character and history.
The West Tisbury historic district commission agreed this week that it will not allow the demolition of the Old Parsonage house in West Tisbury.
Owners Tara and Daniel Whiting have made a preliminary request to tear down the house which dates to the 1600s and overlooks Parsonage Pond on State Road.
In a meeting on Monday members of the commission urged Ms. Whiting to withdraw her application for a certificate of hardship, intended to buttress the need to raze the house.
Tara and Daniel Whiting have withdrawn their application to the West Tisbury historic district commission to demolish the Old Parsonage house.
On Wednesday historic district commission chairman Sean Conley said his board had received an e-mail from the Whitings earlier in the week effectively ending their pursuit of a demolition permit.
“It looks like Tara is pursuing something else besides demolition, which is great,” Mr. Conley said.
