1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (19 page)

Nantucket’s cobblestone streets were home to Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab and First Mate Starbuck.

Under the same ownership, the White Elephant is right in town on the waterfront. Most of its 53 light, airy rooms and 11 guest cottages are decorated in chic country style and face the water. Like its sister property this island-chic inn emphasizes service, from the hotel operation to its well-known restaurant, The Brant Point Grill. For a cozier, more intimate alternative, visit the 12-room Pineapple Inn, an 1838 whaling captain’s home where the guestbook is full of raves about the baked goods at breakfast.

W
HERE:
70 miles southeast of Boston. Ferries from Hyannis and Harwich Port on Cape Cod.
Visitor info:
Tel 508-228-1700;
www.nantucketchamber.org.
W
HALING
M
USEUM:
Tel 508-228-1894;
www.nha.org.
When:
mid-May–mid-Oct.
T
HE
W
AUWINET:
Tel 800-426-8718 or 508-228-0145;
www.wauwinet.com
.
Cost:
from $360 (off-peak), from $460 (peak); prix fixe dinner $78.
When:
closed Nov–Apr.
W
HITE
E
LEPHANT
H
OTEL:
Tel 800-445-6574 or 508-228-2500;
www.whiteelephanthotel.com.
Cost:
from $235 (off-peak), from $435 (peak); dinner $65.
When:
closed early Dec–Apr.
P
INEAPPLE
I
NN:
Tel 508-228-9992;
www.pineappleinn.com
.
Cost:
from $110.
When:
closed early Dec–Apr.
B
EST TIMES:
May–June and Sept for smaller crowds; Apr for Daffodil Festival; late May for the Figawi Race, the largest sailboat race on the East Coast; June for Nantucket Film Festival (
www.nantucketfilmfestival.org
); 1st weekend in Dec for Christmas Stroll.

Art Rejuvenates a Run-down Industrial Town

North Adams, Massachusetts

The western Massachusetts community of North Adams was a typical former mill town that fell on hard times in the 20th century. But no other erstwhile manufacturing community has reinvented itself quite so
creatively or stylishly. The engine of the transformation is a former industrial site converted into the largest contemporary-arts center in the country, MASS MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art). From the full-grown upside-down trees hanging outside the main entrance to the institution’s commitment to nurturing and integrating the visual and performing arts, this is no ordinary museum.

The enormous galleries—one is the size of a football field—feature changing exhibitions in every imaginable medium, individually and in combination. The performing arts, including theater, music, dance, cabaret, and film, share the exhibit space and also have their own space within the complex. Emerging artists share the spotlight with more established counterparts such as documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, painter Kamrooz Aram, singer-songwriter Keren Ann, and choreographer Anouk van Dijk; composer David Lang and artist Mark Dion collaborated on an opera while in residence.

Opened in 1999, the complex of 26 buildings, most of them built between 1872 and 1900 as textile mills, now holds a quarter-million square feet of gallery space, performance venues, studios, offices, and more. Specially commissioned pieces and touring exhibitions combine with a dynamic performance schedule to ensure that no two visits are ever the same.

In a delightful example of synergy, row houses once occupied by mill workers continue to accommodate people headed for the mill. Right across the street from MASS MoCA, the Porches Inn consists of six 1890s residences painstakingly restored and outfitted in sleek, colorful, contemporary style. The Victorian buildings blend high-tech features with offbeat flea-market touches like paint-by-numbers pictures in the rooms and suites. Wooden floors and beadboard walls painted bright, warm colors create a homey feel; touches like Frette linens and DVD players boost the pampering quotient. The property’s heated outdoor pool is open year-round, which means that autumn guests here can enjoy a dip as red and gold leaves drift down around them.

W
HERE:
133 miles northwest of Boston; 87 Marshall St. Tel 413-662-2111;
www.massmoca.org
.
When:
daily in summer; closed Tues, early Sept–June.
T
HE
P
ORCHES
I
NN:
Tel 413-664-0400;
www.porches.com.
Cost:
from $125 (off-peak), from $170 (peak).
B
EST TIMES:
July–Aug for the Berkshires’ full range of cultural offerings; mid-Sept–mid-Oct for foliage.

MASS MoCA occupies the former headquarters of the Sprague Electric Company.

A Taste of History at America’s Symbolic Doorstep

Plymouth, Massachusetts

At Plimoth Plantation, it’s always 1627 for ye who enter here. The Pilgrim residents of the village are costumed interpreters working at the living museum, which re-creates New England’s first successful European
settlement as well as a Native village. History tells us that Thanksgiving dinner has its roots in a meal 52 Pilgrims shared with 90 men from the native Wampanoag tribe in 1621, one year after the settlers had fled religious persecution in England. It included “fowl” (probably ducks and geese rather than turkey), venison supplied by the Indians, corn, and fresh and dried fruits and vegetables. Every fall Plimoth Plantation re-creates harvest meals from that time as well as a Victorian-era menu and one from the present day, thus allowing such exotic options as white potatoes.

The most popular choice, the bounteous Victorian Thanksgiving dinner, is hosted by interpreters who set the mid-19th-century mood with help from period singers. Dishes include escalloped oysters, an impressive selection of vegetables, and warm cider cake. The 1627 Harvest Dinner with the Pilgrims is as close as you can get to the real thing. Costumed interpreters portraying 17th-century colonists serve abundant helpings of “sallet” of fresh greens, lightly sauced turkey, sweet corn pudding, stewed “pompion” (pumpkin), and even a rustic dessert of cheesecake. Come the day after Thanksgiving for the “Eat like a Pilgrim” menu, which includes turkey, pumpkin, and Indian pudding.

The Plimoth Plantation experience is not complete without a detour to the downtown waterfront to visit Plymouth Rock and
Mayflower II,
a 106-foot-long replica that looks startlingly small when compared with modern-day liners that cross the Atlantic in a week’s time. The rough voyage of the 102 Pilgrims (with their livestock and worldly goods) took some 66 tempestuous days.

As important to New England history as the Pilgrims themselves is the area’s role in the whaling trade. Whaling peaked in the 19th century, when the seaport of New Bedford—a 45-minute drive southwest of Plymouth—sent more sailors a-whaling than all other American ports combined. The galleries at the New Bedford Whaling Museum preserve a wide variety of artifacts, including scrimshaw, carved figureheads, marine paintings, navigation instruments, and harpoons, as well as an 89-foot half-scale model of the fully rigged whaling bark
Lagoda,
built in 1826, and Kobo, a 66-foot skeleton of a juvenile blue whale.

W
HERE:
40 miles southeast of Boston. Tel 800-262-9356 or 508-746-1622;
www.plimoth.org
.
Cost:
plantation admission $21; dinner from $17.
When:
closed Mon after Thanksgiving to late Mar.
N
EW
B
EDFORD
W
HALING
M
USEUM:
Tel 508-997-0046;
www.whalingmuseum.org
.
B
EST TIMES:
in Plymouth, Thanksgiving Day for Victorian dinner; selected dates in Oct and Nov for 1627 dinner; day after Thanksgiving for Eat like a Pilgrim. In New Bedford, Jan 3 for marathon reading of
Moby-Dick
at Seaman’s Bethel (chapel), across the street from the whaling museum.

Casting a Spell with Art and History

Massachusetts

Salem has enough attractions and diversions for two cities—one obsessed with witches and Halloween, the other with history, art, and architecture. The city is best known for the infamous witch trials of 1692, a dark episode
that saw innocent people imprisoned and executed as an atmosphere of intolerance gripped a community (whose name, ironically, is derived from the Hebrew word for peace). A century later, the newly independent U.S. plunged into “the China trade,” as the hugely lucrative commerce with Asia was known, and Salem attained unprecedented heights of prosperity.

The Peabody Essex Museum captures both eras and much more. The oldest continuously operating museum in the country (since 1799), the Peabody Essex houses more than two million objects from around the world, including one of the best Asian art collections in North America. It also owns two dozen historic houses, the best known of which is Yin Yu Tang, the only complete Qing Dynasty house outside China. Imported from Anhui province, the house is ornately decorated inside and out, and is well worth a separate in-depth visit.

The rambling House of the Seven Gables, the inspiration and setting for Salem native Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel of the same name, is a wooden waterfront mansion built in 1668 (and extensively restored in 1910) that was home to the author’s cousin. A guided tour takes visitors up the secret staircase mentioned in the book and acquaints visitors with Hawthorne’s life and work; he was living in Salem when he reputedly found the embroidered “A” that inspired his novel
The Scarlet Letter.

The Salem Witch Museum recounts the witch hysteria that originated in nearby Danvers with a couple of young girls with active imaginations during the long New England winter, and soon escalated into trials of adults accused of witchcraft on the flimsiest of pretexts. In the summer of 1692, a Salem court convicted 27 people, and 20 were put to death (19 of them hanged); countless others were thrown in gaol (jail) indefinitely. The museum puts this cautionary tale in context. Like most other Salem attractions, it keeps extended hours in October, when Salem throws a monthlong party to celebrate Halloween.

A statue of Roger Conant, the founder of Salem, stands outside the Salem Witch Museum.

Keep in line with the town’s ubiquitous theme and dine at Strega (Italian for “witch”),
a dramatic space in a former warehouse that serves an array of “Strega plates” (like Spanish tapas) or pasta dishes and entrées. A more casual dining option is the summertime-only Rockmore, bobbing on a float in Salem Harbor off Marblehead. It’s an unbeatable location for seafood and fries while enjoying a bewitching sunset. Hang your hat at the historic Hawthorne Hotel, which joins several attractive buildings surrounding the handsome Salem Common and is the classiest choice in town.