During a brief swing through the Vineyard today, Gov. Deval Patrick will be the guest of honor at a groundbreaking ceremony for an affordable housing project in the heart of downtown Oak Bluffs.

Named Bradley Square, the project is planned for the site of the former Bradley Memorial Church, the first African American Church on the Island.

Currently unoccupied and run-down, the property was purchased by the Island Affordable Housing Fund two years ago, and was approved for redevelopment by the town and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission last year.

The development project includes a plan to build affordable apartments and commercial space, including office space for the NAACP. An array of historic artifacts from the old church have been removed from the building by the Martha’s Vineyard Museum for cataloguing and preservation.

The groundbreaking ceremony today begins at 4 p.m. and Governor Patrick will be among those wielding a shovel. The governor will be introduced by Harvard Law Prof. Charles Ogletree, who owns a summer home in Oak Bluffs. The event is strictly ceremonial, because $1.3 million must still be raised before the project can begin. A construction start date has been set for the spring of 2010.

“We welcome all residents to join us as we begin the road toward construction,” said housing fund executive director Patrick Manning in a prepared statement released recently. Mr. Manning also recently announced his resignation, and the fund is currently searching for a new director.

The fund paid just over $900,000 for the property two years ago; $200,000 came from fund-raising and the rest was financed through a mortgage with the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank.

The building plans for the project have not been without controversy; many residents in the blue-collar neighborhood objected to the plan, saying that it was too big and out of scale with the area. Public hearings were heated and at times acrimonious. Project backers made some modifications to the plan, although the size was not significantly reduced.

The Bradley Square project is situated near what has become known as the arts district in Oak Bluffs, a stretch along Dukes County avenue that is home to a small, eclectic collection of art galleries. Artists who work there believe that the area has experienced a small-scale form of urban renewal, and would like to see the theme continue.

But one person’s improvement is sometimes another person’s annoyance, and some of the neighbors would like to see their slightly shabby, working -class surroundings remain unchanged.

The backers of Bradley Square have pledged to be sensitive to these concerns, and hope to gradually gain acceptance into the neighborhood.

But first, they have a lot of money to raise.