The old church building that has been home to the Mattapoisett Museum has been a well-known landmark in the community since the 1950s. At that time, as the story goes, Lemuel LeBaron Dexter was one of several people who founded the Mattapoisett Historical Society in 1958. Dexter would ultimately give his collection of logbooks, wills and other legal documents to Francis Rowland, another founding member.
The society eventually found a home base in the old Baptist Church at the aptly named corner of Church and Baptist Streets. From this location, the society would open a small museum, the Mattapoisett Historical Society Museum – the very structure we now simply refer to as the Mattapoisett Museum.
Thousands of artifacts and documents of every description have found safe haven within the sanctuary and the attached carriage house walls, preserving them for all to enjoy. The society is nearly complete with the laborious task of digitizing the lot and creating an accessible database readily available especially to those interested in early New England history and research.
Yet the two structures themselves were not always able to receive the type of conservatorship needed due to cost constraints. When you consider that the church was built in 1821 (known first as the Meeting House) and look at the building today, you’ll see it retains many of its original features, most of which were constructed from wood.
Over the course of the last couple of years, maintenance of the buildings has risen to the top of the society’s to-do list. Through fundraising and grant applications, repairs and renovations have taken place with more to come in the spring and summer seasons of 2022.
Museum Director Dr. Jeffrey Miller told us, “There have been some unwanted surprises,” along the way. In 2018 through 2021, the north and east sides of the church structure were repaired to correct water damages over the decades that had caused the wooden planks to rot and rusted nails to fall out. The bulk of that work was completed with funding from the society’s membership.
However, “Where the Carriage House meets the Mendell Room we found rot,” Miller said. Cost estimates for repairs exceed budgeted amounts. And the list goes on. Miller said ventilation systems need upgrading, and a hole in the roof of the Carriage House under the cupola that was at one time used to vent hot air needs to be sealed and made watertight.
Miller said grants received from the Massachusetts Cultural Council in the amount of $20,000, along with a matching grant from the Richard and Ann Prouty Foundation, was used to renovate the north and east exterior facades. A 2021 grant approved through town meeting for Community Preservation Act funding in the amount of $35,000 is earmarked for the repair and renovation of the front entrance. Miller said these grants have gone a long way in catching up on long-needed restoration work.
Regarding justification of the entranceway renovation, it was noted that the narrow front door opens in the wrong direction, stairs do not meet modern code requirements and railings are needed. Miller said they had hoped to begin work by now, but with COVID delays reaching into winter, a spring start date is planned.
Those repairs can’t come soon enough, given the expanding use of the Mattapoisett Museum structures to include Open Mic sessions, special presentations, crafting lessons and pop-up shops to name a few.
Not to be forgotten are the historic collections.
Miller said a new exhibit titled “Mattapoisett’s Weird and Wonderful” is planned to open for the summer season. “It will feature a series of unusual, strange or interesting items from the museum’s collection, some of which haven’t been on display before.” He said that the exhibit was inspired by the curiosity cabinets first debuting in the 16th century. These cabinets were repositories for a wide variety of materials predominantly unrelated to one another. “I hope that it will be a sort of lighthearted, fun exhibit to show off things that have been tucked away.”
To learn more about the Mattapoisett Museum, visit www.mattapoisettmuseum.org.
By Marilou Newell
Sounds very interesting!
I’m looking forward to visit the museum this summer!