A Personal Legacy & A Personal History Bundle
This set of 2 books (A Personal History and A Personal Legacy) tells a complete story of the early history of the Keeper’s House and Lighthouse, and provides an intimate look at the critical site relocation years in the 1990s which culminated in the restoration of the three-component Nauset Light Station to its historic configuration. Mary’s gutsy decision to serve as a Custodian of History (at significant personal cost) has left a lasting legacy for the people of Cape Cod in the form of a complete and historically accurate Nauset Light Station museum–with Lighthouse, Keeper’s House and Oil House now situated together for all time.
The Personal Legacy book also covers the years of Keeper’s House private tenancy after Mary’s death in 2001 from cancer, the years during which the Daubenspeck family lived out the 25-yr term of the Limited Use Permit obtained by Mary in exchange for her donation in 1999.
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Description
Mary Daubenspeck’s private purchase of the Nauset Light Keeper’s House in 1982 set in motion an unanticipated redirection of her life and sparked what became a personal mission of preservation for the Keeper’s House and the Oil House—2 of the 3 primary structures comprising the Nauset Light Station. The early years of relative peace at her beautiful historic oceanside retreat turned rather quickly into a serious challenge, as the previously low rate of coastal erosion took an angry turn for the worse in the late 80s, and the Atlantic began to consume large pieces of her land. The formation of the Nauset Light Preservation Society helped to ensure that the Lighthouse would be saved by a federally supported relocation plan (although even that project was executed barely in the nick of time), but because of their private ownership status, the Keeper’s House and Oil House were initially left in the lurch—their fate to be shaped and ultimately determined by Mary.
Grappling with the operative powers and determined to save her buildings, Mary’s struggle evolved into a conflict between her ideal vision of their preservation, and the very limited set of available options for the structures to be relocated together. In her head, Mary knew that these options made no financial sense for her, personally, given her ability to move the structures onto a private piece of land somewhere distant from the lighthouse—and maintain them for her family and heirs in perpetuity. In her heart, though, she felt so strongly that the three structures belonged together that she fought very hard to try to change things to make this possible. In the end, her hand forced by the pounding of the sea upon her shore, Mary’s heart won out and she opted to make the personal sacrifices necessary in order to honor her convictions—which included donating both the Oil House and the Keeper’s House to the Cape Cod National Seashore so that they would be eligible for placement on the same public site as the Lighthouse.
Additional information
| Weight | 24 oz |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 9.25 × .25 × 11 in |
