Sarah R. Delano

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Sarah R. Delano (1904-1994)

Preservation activist

1838 Drift Road

Sarah  R.  Delano, courtesy Rotch Jones Duff House

Sarah R. Delano

Sarah was born Sarah Rodman Scudder in Chicago in 1904, the daughter of William Mansfield Scudder, III and Helen Rotch Swift.  She summered in the south coast to visit her grandmother, Mrs. Sarah Rotch Swift, the daughter of William J. Rotch, Jr. of New Bedford.  Her grandmother Sarah had been raised in the James Arnold House (now the Wamsutta Club) and owned a cottage in nearby Nonquitt in South Dartmouth. During summer visits, Sarah Delano came to know and love New Bedford.

While attending Vassar College, Sarah met Lt. Francis John Clark at West Point. After Sarah graduated in 1925, the couple married and had a daughter Pauline (“Polly”) while living in San Francisco. The marriage ended, and Sarah and Polly returned to the New Bedford area where in 1932 , Sarah married Clifford Ashley, a New Bedford artist and the author of the Book of Knots and the Yankee Whaler among other works. The couple had two daughters, Phoebe and Jane.  The entire family lived at 1838 Main Road  across the road from Westport Point in a farmhouse restored by Sarah and Clifford.   The Ashley Farm, known as “Maskasach,” now 53 acres, with mostly preserved land, became one of the iconic places near the Point with its several restored buildings, windmill, maze, gardens and the rock island.  Clifford Ashley died in 1947 but Sarah and her daughters remained at the Farm.  Members of the family have continued to live at Maskasach to this day.

In 1951, Sarah married New Bedford native Stephen C. L. Delano, one of the founders of the Historic Area Committee that would eventually become WHALE in 1962 with a mission “to foster historic preservation and continued use of the city’s architectural heritage, so to balance community and economic vitality in New Bedford.” New Bedford had lost its whaling and textile industries, and WHALE focused on rehabilitation of the waterfront at first.

When Stephen was WHALE’s vice president and next in line to be president, he recommended instead Sarah for the job. In 1966, Sarah became WHALE’s president. She served as president for 16 years through 1982 and led WHALE’s preservation efforts. During her first years as president, WHALE tried to preserve and restore the Waterfront District before other groups could demolish and rebuild there. By 1978, WHALE’s list of saved buildings included the Double Bank Building, the Rodman Candleworks, and the Sundial Building. Under Sarah’s leadership, the Waterfront Historic District, lined with cobblestone streets and period lighting, became a National Historic Landmark on its way to becoming the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

Sarah steered WHALE through the process of saving a deteriorating vaudevillian theater from demolition, restoring it to its original grandeur, and transforming it into a performing arts center, the Zeiterion. Sarah directed another important save, an endangered whaling mansion on County Street, the William Rotch Jr. House, which is now the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum. 

Sarah’s influence extended beyond the city of New Bedford. The Sarah R. Delano Preservation Awards are given annually by WHALE to individuals or groups “that have made outstanding contributions to the rehabilitation, restoration and interpretation of the historic character and environment of Greater New Bedford.”