Category Archive: Events

Starts on Wednesday, October 27, 2021, at 5 p.m.

The Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust (DHPT), stewards of the 1762 Elihu Akin House, announces its annual meeting to be held this Wednesday, October 27, 2021, at 5 p. m.

Featured Presentation

by Diane Gilbert

The Life and Times of Akin Ancestor Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914)

A Retrospective of a Man’s Life Captured through the Headlines

This event will be presented on Zoom and all are cordially invited to attend.

You can register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcvcO-orj4vHNOVSyT5ZgJ1WiCuKpNzUKVO

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Or, as an alternative, 

On October 27 at 5 p.m., just sign on to your Zoom account and enter the following: 

About this Event:

Starting at 5 p.m. with a short business meeting, the event will be followed by an illustrated presentation about the life and times of Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914). 

What does Canfield have to do with the 1762 Elihu Akin House? He just happens to be the great grandson of the Akin House namesake, Elihu Akin (1720-1794). As a boy, he would travel from New Bedford to 762 Dartmouth Street to visit his grandmother, Hannah Howland Akin (1797-1889), at the old homestead.

A son of New Bedford and Dartmouth, Canfield made his mark and reputation during the Gilded Age of New York City. An inveterate gambler and shrewd businessman, he managed to avoid the law which was determined to shut down his gambling houses. Canfield’s social milieu included saints and sinners, lawbreakers, and lawmen, and of course the rich and famous. A devoted family man who kept his family in Providence, he commanded respect while despised and feared by many. His life is a testimony to an unparalleled self-confidence and other attributes that made him rich. The best we can figure, he didn’t give a damn about his detractors nor his enemies. 

Canfield was also a man of erudition and impeccable taste. He found legitimacy as an art collector of some repute, having amassed the largest collection of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) paintings by an American, second only to Charles Freer who told Canfield about Whistler in 1899. By 1901, Canfield cultivated his own relationship with Lowell-born Whistler which perhaps earned him the respectability he craved. Up until Whistler’s death in 1903, Canfield traveled in Whistler’s circles, in London and Paris. 

The Akin House is now officially open but to a limited number of visitors as Covid19 continues among us. Therefore, the DHPT board has decided to again offer our annual meeting on Zoom. 

Thank you for your understanding and patience. 

Please contact Diane Gilbert at 508-965-7265 or via email at [email protected] with any questions or help with getting on Zoom. 

So sit back and relax, enjoy a cocktail and some snacks, and travel with me to Canfield’s world. 

We hope you can make it! 

It has been quite some time since you’ve heard from DHPT. With the reopening of Massachusetts, you are probably wondering when we will be welcoming visitors to the Akin House.

The Akin House remains closed to visitors.

It had been our expectation that we would be open to visitors by the summer of 2021. As of July, sadly this is not the case.

As many of you know, the Akin House is a town-owned property which has been leased by DHPT for a number of years; first to save, preserve, and restore it; then, to use it as a cultural heritage center and education facility: for house tours, living history programming, to feature as a witness site to the Revolution, and to celebrate of the Akin family and their contributions to Dartmouth––all done by volunteers for the public benefit.

Since 2008, DHPT has operated as stewards for the property and assumed all responsibilities on behalf of the town to maintain this important cultural resource under the auspices of five-year leases in effect May 2008 and May 2013. Our lease expired in May 2018. At that time, the Select Board instituted new standards and provisions for leases of town-owned properties.

We have been maintaining the property as “tenants-at-will” up until recently when the DHPT board determined that without a renewed lease, we couldn’t continue to operate functionally on the property and ensure the safety of the public.

After being informed by Town counsel that certain provisions in the lease were non-negotiable, DHPT sent a letter to the Dartmouth Select Board on July 15, 2021 with an appeal to continue lease negotiations stating the argument that “one-size-doesn’t-fit all” for leases for town-owned properties. So far, the Town Administrator stated that, in effect, happy to talk to you but we’re not budging.

Excerpt of DHPT’s Letter to the Select Board

“Absent an active lease with the Town, the Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust board had no choice but to close the building and property to visitors. The property is being managed and maintained by DHPT through our donated operations funds for lawn and landscape care, to pay for electricity, and for the wireless alarm system. The building’s interior is also being cleaned and maintained and must be kept at a certain temperature to minimize dampness which adversely affects an old house. Why do this volunteer work without a lease? We believe it’s our moral obligation to care for this property––to address and solve any problems that can occur. This historically significant pre-Revolutionary War building must be sustained and our Town’s significant investment must be protected. …

“Our principal concern is the insistence by Town counsel that the Town require unnecessary and expensive insurance for reasons of uniformity and require that we keep the property plowed in wintertime, even though the property is not open to the public in the winter. We have been informed that these items are non-negotiable, and that we may not meet with the relevant town boards to discuss these issues. We believe that, as a long-standing partner with the Select Board working on this project, we are entitled to an audience with the board to be heard on these matters.

“In every single way, DHPT has operated as the stewards of the Akin House since our first lease was executed with the Town in May 2008 and renewed in May 2013. Our lease expired in May 2018 and since then we have made good faith efforts to work with the Town to renew the lease.  

“What are the ramifications for DHPT and the Akin property? DHPT cannot apply for grants for programming or more restoration work. Fundraising is difficult when our main reason for being– the Akin House–is closed to the public and we are unable to offer living history programming.  We’ve had to inform our members and supporters that without a renewed lease with the Town, we cannot take the risk of hosting visitors on site. 

“What are the ramifications for the Town? The Akin House has a Preservation Restriction in perpetuity. As already stated, this property has limited use except as a house museum and as a cultural heritage center and education facility. If not DHPT’s stewardship of this property, then which organization would be willing to take over?

“With so much invested in this property–in public funds through CPA, private donations, and memberships, and with countless volunteer hours expended since 2008–is this really where we want to end up?”

Where Will We End Up?

This property has benefited from public funds and therefore the public has a right to know what’s going on with the Akin House and our lease. Both sides may have legitimate points of view, but not all town-owned properties are alike. To reach an impasse regarding insurance policies, what the town pays and what DHPT buys, and snow plowing our parking area when closed to visitors, only hurts this community. Yes, we and you are entitled to an audience with the Select Board, our duly elected representatives, to be heard on these matters. So we’ll keep trying!