NEWBURYPORT – The Custom House Maritime Museum (CHMM) drew a crowd last week to celebrate the raising of more than $25,000 to secure the acquisition of the 9-foot masthead of one of the city’s most famous philanthropist join the museum’s collection of clipper ship art and artifacts.
Praising CHMM director James Russell as “the man who saved the Tenney,” chairman Robert Cronin and Russell toasted the more than 100 donors to the compacted fundraising campaign.
Not counted yet is the auction proceeds from the sale of 13 floral designs by local garden societies and florist shops in the annual Boats in Floom event. Last year, the auction raised about $6,000, said Janet Collett, who conceived and organized the floral event.
“We were a little concerned about raising $25,000 in such a short time,” Russell said. “That’s a lot of money. Nantucket didn’t really need the money, but wanted to be paid.”
Tenney, who was a successful New York City jeweler, generously supported Newburyport. Born in 1800, Tenney, who lived to age 81, contributed in 1863 to buying the Tracy House, today the reading room of the Newburyport Public Library.
Fourteen years later, he paid for the installation of bronze lamp posts along Pleasant Street in front of City Hall. And in 1878, he donated the life-size, bronze statue of Gen. George Washington by renowned artist John Quincy Adams Ward. The statue of the nation’s first President today greets pedestrians on Bartlett Mall and motorists along High Street.
When legendary clipper ship builder John Currier, Jr., was constructing a new two-mast, square-sail brig, he chose to name it for Tenney and have a famed wood carver cast his likeness as the ship’s 9-foot masthead.
Since 2023, that masthead, which hung on the bow of the ship, has been on loan from the Nantucket Historical Assn. Now the only masthead like it that once hung on a clipper ship will remain permanently in the Newburyport museum, Cronin said.
All 13 of the designs were inspired by the art and artifacts in the museum. Members were encouraged to bid on the arrangements. Russell said he may keep the Beach Plum arrangement next to Tenney “for a while,” as Jay Lesynski of Merri-Mar Yacht Basin finishes building the new base. His base will allow the statute to be positioned at a 45-degree angle, as it was on the ship.
The event included hors d’oeuvres by Kefi Caterers and live music with guitarist Mark Young.
The floral displays were provided by Beach Plum Flower Shop and Lisa Green; Dew Collective and Jennifer MacLaren; Flower Fauxnatic and Alex Gray; Greenery Designs and Terrance Gleason; The Hive and Cate Adamopoulos; Pullman Designs and Margo Pullman; Sweetbriar Studios and Anna Smith; Martha Bower; Patricia Chandler; Donna George; Carole Gura; Edyth Heyck; Sally Milliken; Maria Sterk; the Newburyport Garden Club and the Newburyport Horticultural Society.
Donor gifts of $250 or more will be listed on a plaque.
