Oak Bluffs almost had another golf course near Farm Neck. In 1948 a group of enterprising friends saw an opportunity for what they hoped would become a new neighborhood around what they had named the Sengekontacket Country Club. From a story and photographs supplied by Aunt Emily Robertson, it appears the site for the venture was between Fresh Pond and Major’s Cove near Sengekontacket and Lady Slipper Way south of Pecoy Point. With entrepreneurial zeal, led by the late Sonny Pratt, Charlie Fisher, Warren Coleman and Al Lockhart, a clubhouse was constructed, a pond was stocked with fish and horses were paddocked to attract investors through the sale of plots of land.

Of course Oak Bluffs had seen its share of similar ambitious plans throughout the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with names like Bellevue Heights, Lagoon Heights, Oklahoma and Prospect Heights, to mention a few whose reach extended beyond their grasp. A difference was, of course, that the ambitious plan for the Sengekontacket Country Club had been embarked upon by a group of long time Vineyard friends who happened to be black. Another difference was that not only homes were envisioned, but tennis courts and a pool were planned to accompany golf, horseback riding and fishing.

Others involved in the planning were the late Coco Lippman and Nat Dickerson one of the Mariners quartet, who for years sang on the Arthur Godfrey Show. Mr. Dickerson was the father of the late Natalie Dickerson, a former Martha’s Vineyard NAACP president. Natalie’s former home at the end of County Road was the original club house for the country club. Unable to sell as many plots as they wished, the partners ended the project in 1949 and sold the land to other friends, the Horowitz family. Attractive promotional pictures taken of the project show a tremendous amount of cleared land with the subjects wearing trendy outfits of the era. I suppose everyone involved has their fingers crossed for the promising new neighborhood called The Preserve At The Woodlands that was once also a plan for golf when it was the Southern Woodlands.

Tivoli Day takes over Circuit avenue on Saturday with music, food and season ending sales. The event begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 6 p.m. The rain date is Sunday, but early weather reports suggest that it will probably be nice Saturday with rain Sunday.

There is an end of summer book drive on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Oak Bluffs Public Library; an excellent new home for slightly used books in great condition.

Hospice executive director Tom Hallahan and clinical director Lori Perry are hosting a discussion on Tuesday, Sept. 20, at 11 a.m. on the book Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande. The library has 12 copies of the book if you would like to pick one up beforehand.

Be reminded that Peter Bradford, chair of the Oak Bluffs Affordable Housing Committee, is leading a public meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 4 p.m. at The Loft at Dreamland.

In advance of the exciting opening in two weeks of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, CBS-TV’s morning show highlighted the exhibit last Friday. Oak Bluffs is featured in it with cameos of Jessica Harris, Carrie Tankard, Lee Van Allen and Elaine Weintraub. We understand Hiawatha avenue’s Courtney Streett Reynolds, the budding star producer at CBS News, was involved. You can see the clip at: cbsnews.com/news/marthas-vineyard-oak-bluffs-smithsonian-national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture/.

Congratulations to Lance Slaughter, my now sexagenarian former childhood playmate who last week completed his third Ironman with a new personal record of six hours and two seconds for the competition, which includes running, biking and swimming for 70 plus miles. He finished 23rd out of 50 folks who completed the race.

Dr. Stanley Earl Nelson died at the age of 100 on Tuesday, Sept. 6 In his son Stan Nelson’s 2004 documentary about the African-American community on the Vineyard, A Place of Our Own, Dr. Nelson said “we didn’t come to Martha’s Vineyard, we came to Oak Bluffs.”

Uncle Stan, rest in peace.

Keep your foot on a rock.

Send Oak Bluffs news to sfinley@mvgazette.com.