Not long ago West Tisbury was described, using a line from the Oliver Goldsmith poem, as “the fairest village of the plain.” But with the addition of brick sidewalks in front of the town hall and between the First Congregational Church and Alley’s General Store, citification has come. There’s still a general store, of course, and a Farmers’ Market twice a week in summer and the Agricultural Fair in August, but now suddenly the town has surrendered its fairest village status in favor of modernity. And it’s too bad.

The seasonal visitors who flock to the Farmers’ Market flock there because it isn’t what they’re used to in the city. Admittedly, there are mini-farmers’ markets now scrunched onto city squares, but they’re not the same as the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market, which is comfortable and old-fashioned and pleasantly quaint.

Presumably these brick sidewalks have been constructed in the interests of pedestrian safety, but in fact bricks in the winter are notoriously icy; heels get caught in them and people who use wheelchairs and walkers have trouble navigating them. But the down-Island towns of Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown have brick and concrete sidewalks, and West Tisbury apparently doesn’t want to be left behind. Last year, town voters appropriated the money to build a sidewalk from the church to Alley’s. Money from the town hall restoration fund has paid for the one in front of the otherwise-tasteful reconstruction of the town hall.

Next to go undoubtedly will be the little bridge spanning West and North Tisbury, slightly akimbo these days with its white guard rails keeping cars and trucks and cyclists from tumbling into the rushing brook below. Will state highway officials convince town officials — in the interests of safety and ease for the drivers of tractor trailer trucks — to replace the white guard rails with shiny, metal moped-masher rails like the ones that have destroyed the Lake Tashmoo Overlook? Hopefully not.

In Vermont, country dwellers still cherish their village greens and covered bridges and give them historic preservation status. They seem to understand that what is old-fashioned and quaint is what tempts the city-weary to visit their towns and villages. Once, Vineyarders understood that too. The endorsement of brick sidewalks in West Tisbury, the fairest village of the plain, clearly suggests they have forgotten.