Written and Photographed by Terry Pommett
Nantucket’s historic homes and buildings have come under visible assault in recent decades. Efforts by Nantucket’s regulatory Historic District Commission and the non-profit advocacy group Nantucket Preservation Trust notwithstanding, faux renovators and ‘gut’ rehabers have ridden roughshod on Orange, Upper Main and Center streets, to name a few.
In fact, the benefits of true historic restoration, although appearing to be cost prohibitive, actually save homeowners costs in the long run. It is no accident that many of our historic homes have survived for over 200 years. The methods and materials used in constructing them were tried and true, proven to last.
Although a number of excellent woodworking preservationists practice on Nantucket, traditional plasterers have usually come from off island. But quietly for the past 3 years, Sanford ‘Sandy’ Kendall’s company, Old House Restoration, has been offering traditional lime plastering and mortaring. British native Pen Austin studied the old methods for 3 years, gaining a technical degree from a program in Portsmouth, England. Her considerable talents can be seen in a number of projects in town and in ’Sconset.
Old ways are good ways
Austin speaks so passionately about her work, that it’s easy to get caught up in her enthusiasm. And why not? For historical renovation, lime plastering and mortaring have no equal. The process has been around for 10,000 years, and only with the advent of cement, the ‘quick fix’ so to speak, has it lost favor. Cement mortars and modern plasters, because of their rigidity, can actually damage historic buildings, so a movement has been underway for the past 20 years to revive traditional mortaring practices and materials.
Austin returns to England every summer to work on English Heritage projects, everything from Buckingham Palace to a tomb in an Oxford University graveyard. “Unfortunately, a lot of their budget is being spent to replace bad repairs where work has been done without using traditional materials,” she noted. “You can’t use white Portland cement to duplicate lime masonry. The UK is about ten years ahead of America in preservation technology. They’ve learned from their mistakes.”
The benefits of lime plaster are numerous. Lime is permeable and allows a building to breathe. It accommodates movement in a building, helping to ensure it’s long-term structural integrity. Moisture does not get trapped behind a wall that’s lime plastered, and it’s an alkaline with disinfectant qualities that retard surface mold. For durability, it has stood the test of time. The 142-foot lime concrete dome of the Pantheon Temple in Rome has survived for nearly 2,000 years. And lime plaster is a beautiful surface that readily accepts lime wash and milk paints. Because it dries more slowly, gaining strength over time, it can be reworked for days after placement.
Saving old Nantucket
One of Kendell’s and Austin’s current projects involves the complete restoration of a Nantucket home dating from 1722, one of the last buildings moved from Nantucket’s original Sherburne settlement. They’re restoring every aspect of the house from the sub floor, sills, floorboards, walls and flues to the top of the chimney. They found that the original builders used local clay mined on the island to make clay mortar, and fired bricks in a homemade kiln. The 275-year-old bricks, wide and narrow in the English style, were removed from above the roofline, cleaned and replaced with a lime mortar. All of the walls were re-plastered or repaired with lime. While putting new parging on the flues—applying a thin layer of mortar on the surface—they discovered the date 1862, apparently when the last repairs had been done. The date proved the materials’ longevity.
The original clay mortar was replaced with lime mortar, and the clay dust was reconstituted and reused for facing. No sanding was done to any of the woodwork, much of it having turned black with dirt and age. Instead, it was chemically cleaned to preserve its patina.
Another project, nearly completed, is in Sans Souci cottage in ‘Sconset. It was built in the Town of Nantucket in 1713 as a twine factory and later moved to ’Sconset . Kendall, who has been restoring old homes since 1977 after a 5-year apprenticeship with Bill Rezendes, took particular delight in the history Rezendes unearthed at Sans Souci. “It had numerous additions made from flotsam and jetsam and other found materials,” recalled Kendall. “Fence posts were used in the roof rafters. Its bricks were ballast from a sunken English privateer. The main wall in the kitchen was covered up, hiding the firebox.”
Austin was horrified to discover that when a wood burning stove had been added, the flue was filled with cement, a potential disaster for the chimney mass. They took the chimney down brick by brick, removed the cement, relined the two flues, and then added parging made with lime mortar. They also reworked the lathwork and put lime plaster on the walls, then finished them with four coats of lime wash.
Effective but costly
One difficulty in pursuing the early lime mortar technique is the prohibitive cost of its typically 5-gallon tubs and their freight to the island. To remedy that, Austin and her co-worker Sean Mearns discovered a supplier who mines lime in North Adams, Massachusetts. “We bought a ton and shared half of it with Plimouth Plantation,” explained Mearns, “Then we slaked it all in a wheel barrel, one load after another,and now have it stored in a lime pit and 5-gallon buckets. The longer it sits, the better it gets. It matures.”
As green construction becomes more prevalent in the country, lime plaster, mortar and molding will become more widely accepted as more authentic, cost effective and technically right for older buildings in particular. It might eventually be viewed as suitable for new construction as well. “If you’ve got an old home, built before 1930 and in need of repair, don’t replace it, just fix it, advised Kendall. “Preservation and restoration may be ‘high’ sounding, but all it means is just fixing what you already have. And it’ll last longer.”
Lynn Kramer’s home, nestled under pines in the Shimmo area of Nantucket, has an uncluttered and airy feel yet provides visual interest wherever one looks. Surprisingly, Kramer is neither a designer nor an avid collector. Following a 20-year career in media, she attended Yale Divinity School to become an ordained Congregational Minister. But she was inspired to take on the interior renovation of her home 10 years ago with the idea of making it beautiful without a huge investment.
Her favorite treasures are a day bed bought for $70 at a yard sale with armrests and legs hand painted with individual animals by a children’s book illustrator. A hutch at Osona’s had a chip of wood nicked off and went for $300. Her most valuable find was a chest she bought off a Salvation Army delivery truck for $30.When she returned home and opened it, she found an antique dealer’s card noting that it was an1870 sea captain’s chest.
