Writing, Medium, Photography
About My Story on “The Sconset Haunted House”
This is about the story I wrote for SNAPSHOTS earlier in August titled “A Haunted House in Sconset.”
Earlier that month, I had spent a week on Nantucket Island and visited the famous ‘Sconset Bluff Walk. While walking the bluff, we came upon an obviously historic house in what appears to be a dilapidated condition. Because I was taking pictures that day, I stopped and took several of the house.
Upon returning home, I decided to write a piece on “the haunted house.” I called it that based on its appearance. Because the article was for a photo essay, I did not search the internet for information on the house. I later learned I was wrong.
Five minutes of research educated me on what the “haunted house” was. Including that information in my article would have made my article much better.
A couple of days ago, after checking on the statistics for the story, I decided to put “Nantucket haunted house” into a search engine. Out came a picture of “Davis House.” I was also found a short history of the house that should have been included in my piece:
11 Baxter, built circa 1885 is a stick-style historic cottage located in the village of ‘Sconset. According to the deeds the property was sold by William Flagg to Abraham W. Rice in 1884. Shortly after the cottage was built and completed in the spring of 1885 based on records from the Inquirer and Mirror. It is known by the name of Idlemoor and believed to have been one of the first houses built on the north bluff. The names derive from the moor view and the relaxing or “idle” nature of the visits by past owners, the Rice family.
Although the focus of my ‘Sconset house pieces was not its history, the information provided by the Nantucket Preservation Trust would have enhanced the story. In the future, I will be more thorough in my research.
