SKIP FINLEY
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Whaling was about oil — not fishing — and Martha’s Vineyard/Nantucket was the “Middle East” until shale oil was discovered in Pennsylvania. Money was piled up (not earning) and the business was dying, so whaling captains got together to invest. Captain Shubael Lyman Norton sold a portion of his land (our Cottage City historic district) and founded the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company. He and captains Ira Darrow and Grafton Norton Collins, William Bradley, William S. Hills and Erastus P. Carpenter were the six original partners. Hills and Carpenter were the only two non-Islanders, and it was Carpenter’s experience in business that propelled the new development.
In 1868 he had the ideas for our annual Illumination, where the few already built homes would hang Japanese lanterns on porches. Controversy reigned as the Methodists in the Camp Ground felt the displays to be ungodly — an opinion changed over the years, allowing the then-real estate promotion to be held in the Camp Grounds itself — a far more intimate venue. A remaining secret of the evening is which cottage has the honor of lighting the first lantern, a charming feature even today.
Charming would be only one of many appellations given to Featherstone Center for the Arts, the esteem and visibility of which has grown under former executive director Francine Kelly. Organized as Meetinghouse for the Arts in 1980, the nonprofit Featherstone center boasts an impressive list of full-Island donors and board of directors — and offers an incredible amount of programs for the public.
I’m sure you read Holly Nadler’s rave review (Vineyard Gazette, Oak Bluffs Column, May 18, 2012) of Featherstone’s 3rd Annual Garden Party on May 12, with shout-outs to some friends including Olive Tomlinson and Oak Bluffs’ Michael Hunter of Pik Nik, whose creations were among those in the fashion show. Holly chided us men who seemed not to have felt invited — I’ll be there next year (but hatless, Holly) because it sounds like fun!
Featherstone has one of the most robust websites on the Island and I encourage you to spend at least a few moments online as they kick off a plethora of Oak Bluffs summer diversions for you and our returning guests.
Allow me the indulgence of welcoming our No. 2 daughter, Kristin Finley-Brown, and her husband, Timothy, as new Vineyard year-rounders. Kristin is general manager of the new restaurant Hooked (formerly Lola’s). She held a similar spot down at Atria — and many know her as “Baywatch: from the days she was a lifeguard at the Inkwell, down the street from our family’s house. Full disclosure: Lola’s owners, Kathy and Paul Dometrovich, are our close friends who arranged with Christian and Greer Thornton (Atria owners) for them to operate Hooked. We are Christian and Greer’s daughter Penelope’s godparents — and Kathy and Paul are godparents of the Thorntons’ son Wyatt. A big Oak Bluffs welcome to the Thorntons as well. We love what you’ve done to the place.
One of the things they’ve done is hung a rare 10-foot black marlin (painted baby blue). It was donated by attorney Amy Robertson Goldson, a lifelong Vineyarder and playmate, and caught by her departed husband and fishing buddy of mine, Dr. Alfred L. Goldson, M.D. Among Dr. Goldson’s gifts left behind was developing intraoperative radiotherapy, still in use in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Several of us had a pleasant but poignant moment at Hooked recently when Al’s niece Jennifer Goldson was momentarily overcome when owner Christian Thornton, meeting for the first time, proudly pointed out her uncle’s fish on the wall.
This evening the Vineyard Arts Project, in Edgartown, kicks off its season with Art For Art, a fund-raising reception from 6 to 9 p.m. sponsored by VeeV Spirits, among others — including a heavily Oak Bluffs-based benefit committee. It’s nice to see our youngsters get involved on Island, where they, like we, will wind up spending most of their quality time building lifelong memories and friendships.
Tomorrow Oak Bluffs Island kid Ian Thomas Minor hosts Battle on the Bluffs, a weekend-long boys’ and girls’ basketball camp and basketball showdown and tournament over at the Oak Bluffs courts on Niantic Park.
My buddy Charlayne Hunter-Gault reads from her new book, To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement, next Thursday, July 12, at Union Chapel at 7:30 p.m. as a fundraiser for Island Elderly Housing. Tickets are at C’est La Vie or Darosa’s, and the book is available at Cousen Rose if you want a head start on the conversation.
Congratulations to Chickawaukee avenue’s new mom, Marianne Robinson-Pingree and hubby Albert on the birth of Sophia Pingree July 3 at 11:30 p.m.—and the new grandparents, Chichi Robinson-Browne and Craig Browne.
In my last missive heralding J.B. Blau, I misspelled Sharky’s Cantina—my bad. J.B.’s newest venture, Sharky’s Shark Shack, is opposite Ben & Bull’s Chocolate Emporium on Circuit avenue.
I’m wondering if adding Martha’s Vineyard to the name of all these summer events makes them more successful. I bet adding “Oak Bluffs” would be cooler — you know, since this is where they all happen. Just sayin’.
Has anyone heard of or seen Vanessa, our Farm Pond sea monster?
Keep your foot on a rock.
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