For this week’s “Friday Find” we found a reason why you may want to watch or re-watch a few of the 2016 Academy Award nominated films. The 88th award show airs this weekend, on Sunday, February 28 at 7pm. Did you know today’s films often feature historic locations? The following films, nominated for a 2016 Academy Award, feature a historic location and/or building: Steve Jobs, Trumbo, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, and The Revenant.

The film Steve Jobs, which has been nominated for the best actor in a leading role and best actress in a supporting role, shows the childhood home of Steve Jobs –today a designated historic site. The property, located at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, is not only where Jobs lived from 7th grade through high school, but also the house’s garage is where the very first Apple computer was designed. The computer was one of 50, which were designed and created by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in the late 70’s. At the time they each sold for $500. Little did they know that their design and those 50 computers would lead them to a company that today could soon be worth over a trillion dollars!

The house is still in the family, owned by Job’s adopted sister, Patricia Jobs. Since the house has a historic designation any renovations or changes made to the building must first be approved by the town of Los Altos. If you haven’t seen the film but plan to, make sure to look for the shot of this 20th century landmark!

-Marisa Holden, Events and Marketing Director
m.holden@nantucketpreservation.org

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The Nantucket Preservation Trust has many reasons to express love on Saturday, Valentine’s Day! We wouldn’t be here if weren’t for the support of our members, board, event attendees, business sponsors, underwriters, homeowners, and most importantly the historic island Nantucket! We love the historic island and all that encompasses it.

Do you share our love for Nantucket’s architectural preservation?  Become a 2016 member to help us protect what we love, historic architecture and most importantly its interiors! Show us your care and join today by clicking HERE!

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The  2016 Preservation Awards: call for nominations will run now through Friday March 25 at 5:00 PM. The Preservation Awards honor projects, individuals and organizations that have made a positive impact in preserving Nantucket’s historic character. NPT hopes that the awards will continue to encourage proper preservation work, broaden outreach to the building community, and ensure the protection of the island’s historic resources. For nomination forms and further information visit the Preservation Awards webpage, click here.

The 2016 Preservation Awards program, now in its tenth year, recognizes individuals and organizations for historic preservation related projects, stewardship of island landmarks, sensitive landscape design associated with historic buildings, historical renovations, new construction, and the promotion of traditional building methods. Nominees are reviewed by The Preservation Award committee and then given to the NPT board for final decisions. Award recipients will be notified in late April and announced during Preservation Month in June via the Nantucket Preservation Trust website and advertised in The Inquirer & Mirror. Award recipients are annually honored at the private Preservation Awards Ceremony, which will be held on Thursday, June 23. By recognizing preservation projects and the work of individuals, property owners, design and construction professionals and organizations, the NPT hopes to encourage proper preservation work and broaden outreach to the community.

We are asking for nominations of an individual or organization that qualifies for one of the following award categories: Architectural Preservation, Landscape, Stewardship, Traditional Building Methods, Historical Renovation and New Construction. All nominations must include nominee’s name, location of project and how it supports preservation on the island.  To download a nomination form click here or for more information call the NPT office at 508-228-1387.

 

We are thrilled that Esta-Lee Stone, NPT board member and Preservation Month committee chair found the 2016 Preservation Month opening film, Raise the Roof! We would like to thank The Nantucket Atheneum and Congregation Shirat Ha Yam for co-sponsoring this event. The film has been provided by The National Center for Jewish Film, www.jewishfilm.org

The two screenings will take place on the following days and both will conclude with a Q&A session featuring special guests: Rick and Laura Brown and Filmmakers Cary and Yari Wolinsky.

Saturday, June 11 at 6:30 pm
Seating is limited. Reservations required.
Please call NPT at 508-228-1387 to reserve your seats.

Sunday, June 12 at 6:00 pm
Seating is limited. Reservations are not required.

“Artists Rick and Laura Brown are not Jewish and not Polish, and yet they set out to rebuild Gwoździec, one of the magnificent 18th-century wooden synagogues of Poland, the last of which were destroyed by Nazis during World War II. Their vision inspires hundreds of people to join them. Using their hands, old tools and techniques they rediscover Gwoździec’s history, culture, and art.

Raise the Roof follows the Browns and the Handshouse Studio team to Sanok, Poland, as they begin building the new Gwoździec roof. The crew has six weeks to hew, saw, and carve 200 freshly logged trees and assemble the structure. Working against this deadline and despite torrential downpours and exhaustion, the team must create the structure, and disassemble it again for shipping and eventual installation.

To paint the intricate ceiling murals, the Browns face another challenge: the 1914 photographs of Gwoździec are black and white and there is only one, partial color study.  Using that as their Rosetta Stone, the Browns slowly build a library of Gwoździec’s colors.

Armed with pigments and stacks of wooden boards, the team sets up to paint the ceiling mural in what seems to be an art gallery in Rzeszów, Poland.  In fact, this building and those in seven other Polish cities where they will work during the summers of 2011 and 2012, are all former or active masonry synagogues. Each Handshouse-trained painting leader is tasked with creating the mural’s most iconic images and training students to paint thousands of flowers and vines.

Although Rick and Laura Brown chose to rebuild the Gwoździec because it was one of the best documented, the historic material they found was spotty. Many questions about the synagogue were left unanswered:

What sparked this period of profuse and energetic construction and painting?

Why were the Jews of this time willing to break the Second Commandment prohibition against graven images in decorating this building?

And…

What cultural and artistic movements inspired artists to create these resplendent spaces?

Raise the Roof  takes us on this journey of discovery.”

-Synopsis via www.polishsynagogue.com

 

For the first “Friday Find” post of 2016 we wanted to share with you information that will help encourage more easement contributions.

This “FIND” may give you a new reason to consider placing a preservation easement on your historic property on island. On December 18, 2015 President Obama signed a new tax bill that includes 22 tax breaks. One of the 22 makes permanent the Federal Conservation Tax Deduction, which allows property owners to deduct all or part of the donated value of a historic preservation easement from their taxable Federal income. This enhanced incentive fixes the number of year’s donors can take a deduction from 6 to 16 years. Also, the maximum deduction one can take has increased from 30% of their Annual Gross Income (AGI) in any year to 50%. This enhancement is a great achievement for land conservationists and those in the historic preservation field, and most importantly those looking to place easements on their property. If you are interested in learning more about preservation easements and the NPT easement program please contact our Executive Director, Michael May for more information.

-Marisa Holden, Events and Marketing Director
m.holden@nantucketpreservation.org

As we step into the new year it’s a time to look at the past. Below are three properties, which we found but unfortunately no longer exist. It is our hope you will join us in 2016 by working to
preserve our past for the future!

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The Geodesic Dome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Situated off Cliff Road adjoining the Tupancy Links, this unusual structure was built by Dr. Richard Morgan of South Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 1960. (Curiously, nearby in Lincoln, was the home of Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus School.) A newspaper account at the time described Nantucket’s Geodesic Dome as “a most unusual and modernistic type house now being assembled by local builder James Lamb of Wauwinet.” That year, professional photographer Michael Vaccaro photographed its construction and the completed house for Look magazine. Geodesic-dome houses were still rare at the time – Buckminster Fuller had patented the house type in 1954 (although the concept originated in 1922 in Germany). It was not until after the 1964 World’s Fair that the geodesic-dome house became popular nationwide, reaching its peak production in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The house on Cliff Road was demolished in 2002.

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The “Pink House”

Today the island has strict exterior restrictions regulated by the Historic District Commission (HDC). Included in these restrictions are eleven approved exterior paint colors, none of which are pink. The house was owned by Elizabeth “Siki” Wagley Lucas Evans and located at 260 Polpis Road. Today it’s exterior paint would not pass HDC regulations. The owner must have been a fan of pink, as you can see in the photo below even the interior was pink! The historic property is one that was lost after being sold in the late 90’s.

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Monument Square Grocery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monument Square Grocery, built by Robert McCleave between 1869 (the year he bought the property) and 1887 (the year of the first Sandborn Insurance Co. map of Nantucket). James B. Coffin ran a grocery business at this location, advertised in the 1897 Nantucket Directory; it was Whittemore Gardner who named his business Monument Square Grocery in 1907.  The grocery store, which in the past was located at 106 Main Street sadly no longer exists. In 2001 the building was demolished but not without a fight! The photo below highlights passionate preservationists who attempted to block the demolish of the property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Start the new year on the right foot by showing your support of Nantucket’s architectural heritage. Without the support of our members we would not be able to continue our mission to:

“Preserve Nantucket’s architectural heritage for
present and future generations”

Join Today Click Here

We’re thrilled to announce for this week’s “Friday Find” we found our new Administrative Assistant, Melany (Mel) T. Cheeseman. Mel came to Nantucket in April 2015 after living in Montana and New Hampshire. She has worked in administrative positions and customer service for several years and is excited to be the new Administrative Assistant at NPT. When she’s not at the NPT you’ll find her at the beach with her dog, running, crafting, or eating her weight in potato chips while no one is looking ;).

We are thrilled to welcome her to the office and already have realized she’s not only a professional new staff member, but a fun one as well (see photos above)!

Mel can be contacted by emailing her at: melany@nantucketpreservation.org