Stair to the Heavens

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • December 13, 2021

As a MMA staff member and also the person who works with facilities of the MMA, I have the opportunity to go places and know places in our buildings that few others do. I am intimately knowledgeable about how things work – or don’t work – why something is a certain way and how things were or are used.


This image is the rear interior stairs in the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO). The original piece was built in 1908 (dome) and then in 1922, an Astronomical Study was added. What you see here is a staircase added in 1922 and I love the curve of the railing and the sweep and change in width of these stairs. It’s sort of astronomical for lack of another word. This staircase provided access for the astronomer and even visitors when they held “Moon Nights” on the roof and in the yard – long before we had our other beloved observatory – Loines. So I guess, it really is/was a stair to the heavens.


If you have been by Vestal Street lately then you have noticed some commotion at the MMO. The inkberries have been taken down and the fence removed along the street. Staging has been erected along the side of the MMO and Mitchell House. This is because we have begun the conservation of the exterior of the MMO – funded by a Community Preservation Act grant and a grant from the M. S. Worthington Foundation. This will be a long process as we replace lintels, repair and replace spalling brick and grout, and make repairs to the copper roof and flashing, and other issues that will help us make the building weather tight and conserve the more than 100-year-old structure. Island mason, Wayne Morris, is conducting the masonry work and James Lydon will complete the copper work. Once the exterior has been conserved, the MMA will address interior needs – including more brickwork!


I will be updating you as we go through the long process. Its very detail oriented and because it is a historic building, we need to match mortar and bricks and other materials as best we can if original pieces cannot be salvaged. The mason has been working hard just to grind up the right stones – size and color – which need to be a part of the lime mortar. He’s devised a “smasher” even – that’s why he is so good at what he does. He takes his time and is very good at thinking outside the box. If you take a look closely at the grout on the MM you will note how “chunky” the grout actually is. It looks like the masons in 1908 and 1922 went to the south shore and collected pebbles!


JNLF

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As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF
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