Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Announces Future Aquarium & Discovery Center

October 7, 2023

Nantucket, MA –The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announced preliminary plans to move and expand their Aquarium on October 7, 2023. The new expansion will be located at 33 Washington Street and will incorporate four of the existing buildings on the site. The reimagined space will feature hands-on and experiential learning opportunities, an expanded, state-of-the-art aquarium and marine biology lab, rotating exhibits highlighting the history of Maria Mitchell and her role in history, community gathering spaces, and improved residential housing for MMA staff. The MMA will permanently close the 28 Washington Street Aquarium site and open a temporary aquarium during the construction phase of the new MMA Aquarium and Discovery Center. 

 

Due to its location on Washington Street, one of the most frequently flooded areas on the island, the MMA is uniquely positioned to adopt a leadership role in coastal resiliency. The MMA has been working with resiliency experts, engineers, designers, and other experts to calculate a plan that will manage flooding and drainage in the area based on the 100-year storm. “We are committed to our role in scientific education, lifelong learning, and the preservation of Maria Mitchell’s legacy,” says Joanna Roche, Executive Director. The MMA Discovery Center and Aquarium will be the most visible, public-facing center for discovery and science focused on STEM education on Nantucket. 

 

For more than forty years, the MMA Aquarium has inspired explorers of all ages to protect Nantucket Sound’s natural ecosystems through living exhibits, marine science programming, and environmental education. Its mission is to connect people to nature through the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island. Within the last fifteen years, the MMA made a land swap with the Nantucket Islands Land Bank – 28 Washington Street, for 33 Washington Street – with the long-term intention of developing a larger aquarium and discovery center. In November 2023, the lease for 28 Washington Street will end and the MMA will begin their planning efforts to reimagine the 33 Washington Street property. The Maria Mitchell Association plans to formally announce its capital campaign in 2024 and has been working with CCS of Boston on campaign planning and feasibility. 


Any design renderings of the Discovery Center & Aquarium are conceptual and remain subject to Town approval for any use of Town property; there is no agreement with the Town for use of the Town parking lot on Washington Street. 

 

The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first female professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages. 

### 


For Immediate Release

October 7, 2023

Contact: Joanna Roche, Executive Director

jroche@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Mallow!

By Jascin Leonardo Finger • August 31, 2026
I’m sure you’ve seen it as you trek about the island – near the beaches and ponds. This image is of the swamp or marsh mallow that we have on Vestal Street in our garden out front of the Observatory. It can grow in drier places – though it’s not as lush as at Capaum Pond or out in Quaise. It’s in the Hibiscus family – and is fairly tropical looking and always a delight to see.  “When in bloom, one of the most showy plants of the Island, for a mass of the magnificent, large flowers on the edge of a blue pond causes one’s heart to thrill at the wealth of deep pink colour . . .” from Nantucket Wild Flowers, Alice O. Albertson (cousin of Maria Mitchell), 1921. JNLF

A Piece of a Clay Pipe

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 24, 2026
I have always wanted to find a piece of a clay pipe. I know – weird – but if you have ever read any of my blogs here for the MMA then you know I have a thing for pottery shards. I sort of figured I would not find a piece of a clay pipe – not even a piece of a stem. But the other day, walking in a place where I have found quite a few shards, I found a piece of clay pipe! Now, I’m not talking about water pipes – I am talking about tobacco pipes. And I know very little about clay pipes. Yes, I am a curator of a historic house museum, but this family did not smoke. They were Quaker and among the many things they abstained from, tobacco was one of them. Therefore, I am not up on clay pipes so I am doing a bit more research.  For one, age can be determined by the width of the hole inside the pipe. So based on this one, I would say it’s fairly late. Since they were so fragile, and those holes pretty small, if it got filled with tobacco, the person just broke off the stem creating a shorter pipe and one that was not clogged with tobacco. Apparently, stems could be recycled – in fact, 15,000 broken stem pieces were uncovered at a historic walkway at Colonial Williamsburg – they were used as fill! And pipes were made into the early twentieth century – falling out of favor around World War One. It makes sense – they were cheap, easy to make, and affordable. Typically, one could last a few years – unless you dropped it of course. An,d pipes were used by men, women, and (eh, em) yes, children. I can see that Nantucket may not have had a lot of tobacco smoking residents – not just that some were Quaker – but because of the Quaker influence. I t does not mean people here do not smoke – I just think there may have been fewer smokers on the island in the nineteenth century and earlier. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 17, 2026
August 19 {1857}. There are four great men whose haunts I mean to seek, and on whose footsteps I mean to stand: Newton, Shakespeare, Milton, and Johnson. To-day I told the driver to take me to St. Martin’s, where the guide-book says that Newton lived. He put me down at the Newton Hotel, but I looked in vain to its top to see anything like an observatory. I went into a wine-shop near, and asked a girl, who was pouring out a dram, in which house Newton lived. She pointed, not to the hotel, but to the house next to a church, and said, “that’s it – don’t you see a place on the top? That’s where he used to study nights.” It is a little, oblong-shaped observatory, built apparently of wood, and blackened by age . . . .” Blackened no doubt by the wood ash and soot found in the air throughout over-crowded nineteenth century London. We always think about London being very foggy in the nineteenth century but frankly a lot of it was wood and coal ash as the nineteenth century grew older, particularly as factories developed and belched all of that into the air – think Sherlock Holmes in the 1880s. But Maria Mitchell, while starting in Europe as a young woman’s chaperone, also knew that this tour of Europe was a great learning experience – the equivalent of a college education she could not have. Doors were thrown open to her around Europe – in particular at all of the observatories that dotted the continent. She was not just well-known – she was famous. JNLF
Show More