Steady and focused on its mission, since 1975 the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust has preserved some of the Vineyard’s most iconic structures — not as showcases to be admired from the outside, but as functioning buildings that form a part of the fabric of the Island’s day-to-day community life. They include the Grange Hall and Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury, the Flying Horses Carousel and Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs, and the Whaling Church in Edgartown.
For the past 25 years, Chris Scott of Edgartown has been the steady hand on the tiller, guiding the nonprofit through a period of budget growth and property acquisitions that will benefit future generations of Vineyarders. On Friday, the Preservation Trust announced that Mr. Scott, executive director and president since 1992, would retire.
“The Trust’s executive committee and board have structured an 18-month transition plan to engage a new leader for the organization,” the trust announced in a press release. “To assist with the transition, Mr. Scott will continue his affiliation with the Trust as an advisor, through 2017. He will also implement the restoration of the former Carnegie Library in Edgartown, which will be repurposed as a visitor center with a collection of maritime literature and paintings as well as exhibits that convey the Island’s historical development through the lens of the Trust’s 25 landmark properties.”
The trust said its goal is to have a new leader in place by Jan. 1.
“Our Board views the coming months as a celebration of Chris’ time here — an exceptional period of growth for the Trust,” board chairman Robin Graham of East Chop said. “Under his leadership our properties have increased from eight to 25, and the organization has developed into a vital Island-wide institution. Almost everyone who lives on the Vineyard or visits here comes into contact with one or more of our properties. Chris is a powerful innovator and leader who works closely with our Board and the public. He has built an extraordinary structure on the foundation that greeted him when he arrived, leaving the Trust poised for the next generation of growth. We are grateful that he will be aiding in the transition and glad that he and his family will remain very much a part of our Island community.“
Milestone brought reflection
In a telephone conversation Friday afternoon following the announcement, Mr. Scott spoke about his decision to leave a job he said he still loves. “Next year, I’m 65, and it will be a quarter-century with the trust, and sometimes milestones are just dates on a calendar page, but sometimes they make you think and reflect, and I have been.”
Mr. Scott said that after observing people, he has concluded that those who get from 65 to 75 in really good health receive “a huge gift.”
“And I would love to have those years, and have a little bit more flexibility in my schedule, and pass responsibilities for this big thing that we do here at the Preservation Trust to somebody who could really take good care of it,” he said. “It’s a good thing.”
For a man contemplating retirement and an exit from his job, Mr. Scott speaks with the enthusiasm of someone who just came on board when he describes the restoration of the Carnegie building, the town’s former library:
“We’re working with a top-flight exhibit design firm; we have the resources in place, I’m getting some great items from folks for the collection to display, and you know, I think completing that marks maybe a coming of full circle for me.”
Mr. Scott said people are very familiar with the trust’s properties, but not everybody understands what it is that the Preservation Trust is and what it does. The Carnegie Library will provide “a place where we can tell their history and convey what they are, as a group of properties that we’ve preserved, and work in the history of the Island, as well.”
Over his 25-year tenure, the Preservation Trust has gone from an operating budget of about $200,000 to the $3 million range. When he arrived, the nonprofit had seven historic structures and one historic landscape. “We now have 21 historic structures and four historic landscapes. So it’s about a threefold increase,” he said.
Aside from the visible signs of success, Mr. Scott said he is proud to be leaving the Trust on firm financial ground. “There are a lot of different aspects to the job, and on a really sort of a nitty-gritty level, I’ve tried to manage the finances of the Trust so that I’ve made 1,200 payrolls, and I’ve never had to go before the board and say, We’re in trouble, and I need people to dig in.”
Asked to name some of his favorite properties, Mr. Scott, who has acquired a reputation in town affairs as a diplomatic problem solver, said, “Boy, that’s like being asked to try to pick your favorite kid. The first one I did was Alley’s, and ironically, it was the first property that I visited when I started to come to Martha’s Vineyard, so to have an opportunity to participate in basically saving it, because at that point, it was in really rough shape and kind of closed; that was great. I mean, the Grange Hall was great. Union Chapel was kind of ongoing. To restore a Victorian cathedral is a very exciting project. But you know, really, all of them.”
He points to the diversity of the properties as well as the events that take place in trust properties across the Island, from talks in the Grange Hall to concerts in the Whaling Church. And of course, the Flying Horses: “It is just a treasure — it’s not a museum, it’s an operating, living part of people’s lives, and an institution that generations appreciate. Having that continue to look good and operate well is an achievement.”
More than 25 years ago, Mr. Scott, a native of New England, was working in New York City for the Parks Council and the Central Park Conservancy on preservation planning, and fundraising for historic open space, when he heard about the Preservation Trust job opening. “I was very interested, and I thought, wow, it would combine the place that I love coming to in the summers with something that I feel professionally very interested in,” he said.
After a quarter-century, he said, the Vineyard is home for his wife Pam and their daughter Victoria, a regional high school tennis standout. An avid fisherman, Mr. Scott is a longtime member of the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby committee, which organizes the venerable five-week fall fishing classic.
“I would certainly want to emphasize that we’re not going anywhere permanently. This is our home; I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate with the friendships that we’ve made, and we absolutely love the place and intend to stay here. It’s our permanent home, year-round. And that is not going to change.”
What will also not change is his outlook: “Well, you’re talking to somebody who actually loves their job a lot. And I get up in the morning, and I truly look forward to coming to work, and sometimes I pinch myself. And this is really after 24 years, as I walk through the grounds of the Fisher House, and into this beautiful building, or if I go into the Whaling Church to do something. I mean, I never have lost sight of how fortunate I am to have been entrusted with all of this.”