From the July 31, 1934 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:
The house she loves best of all was the focal point of the informal talk given by Mrs. Emily Post of New York and Edgartown at the meeting of the Dukes County Historical Society yesterday afternoon. The headquarters of the society on Cooke street was crowded to capacity by a representative throng which was eager to hear what Mrs. Post, an authority on architecture as well as on etiquette, had to say about Vineyard houses.
How she came first to Edgartown in pursuit of health for a delicate little grandson and how she fell in love with the town, so utterly beautiful, with its houses that match, and its lovely colonial architecture, was described with feeling by Mrs. Post, whose writings in ninety-two newspapers and magazines not infrequently stress the charms of Edgartown.
Mrs. Post paid a graceful tribute to the late Mrs. Littleton C. Wimpenney whose house on Fuller street is now the beloved home of the speaker.
“Mrs. Wimpenney must have been loved by a million people,” said Mrs. Post in her characteristically enthusiastic way. “Everyone who knows that I have her house tells me how wonderful she was.”
The age of her house, which she says herself is not true to its colonial type because she “punctured” it with windows and glassed in her upper porch, is suggested by a discovery made when the house was remodeled, and the front door torn out. On a shingle was written, “This house was reshingled in 1828.”
An interesting story of her struggle to convince her architect and son that the one story gabled house she yearned to buy could be effectively reconstructed into a two story house, was told by Mrs. Post, who stated emphatically that she did not approve of injuring or destroying the essential character of a true colonial house, explaining that her own house could be more easily changed than many. Finally her son was won over, and between them they evolved the house which many Vineyarders know and admire.
She touched briefly on her interest in color and its use, relating a childish experience when she was 10 and her father, also an architect, permitted her to decorate her own room, and the ensuing nightmare of cold white walls and dark green draperies with a cold northern exposure with which she lived for two years, and urging her audience to allow children to experiment and find for themselves what is good and what bad in taste, and why.
With each home owner rests the choice, she said, of deciding whether his dwelling shall be home or museum, and of treating it accordingly.
Before her talk, President Marshall Shepard read a list of historic Edgartown houses about which certain material had been collected, and urged all to contribute what they could to the lore about the old house of the Island.
Ways and means of adding to the resources of the society so that it may function even more effectively and may be able to keep open perhaps all day long, were discussed and valuable suggestions were advanced.
The gift of many articles was acknowledged by Mr. Shepard, among them a piece of electric cable to Chappaquiddick which, many years from now, may be a genuine antique.
The Hazel M. Jackson, Capt. Robert L. Jackson, sold 102 swordfish, the biggest trip of the local fleet so far this season, at Boston fish pier yesterday. The price was 19 cents for the big fish.
Schooner Malvina B., Capt. Ike Norton, was ready to leave Edgartown this morning, after coming in to have a sail repaired. The twenty-one fish in the hold were unloaded at Woods Hole, that market paying 17 cents a pound.
A big seaplane, hauled out on one of the cradles of the Martha’s Vineyard Shipbuilding company at Vineyard Haven yesterday morning, marked the change of the old, old order. The big twelve passenger Bellanca air bus, running between New York city, the Vineyard and Nantucket, developed a leak in one of her pontoons on Sunday. Arriving at Vineyard Haven on her way back to New York, she discharged her passengers, which were taken over by smaller planes, and sought means for making repairs.
Although such a thing had never occurred before in the history of Island shipwrights and builders, William A. Colby and Erford Burt, proprietors of the local yard, agreed without hesitation to repair anything that is constructed to float upon or in water, and the deal was made. True to their promise, the local boys made good, and the big airship was enabled to proceed, as good as new.
This is historic ground, where the railways stand. The ancient public landing, shipyard and chandler’s shop of early days stood on or near this spot. Fishing craft of every generation, coasting schooners and early whaleships, have hauled out here before the construction of the later shipways at the head of the harbor. But never before has a seaplane rested upon the copper-splashed timbers of the cradles, nor has a Vineyard ship carpenter caulked the garboard of a flying boat.
Compiled by Hilary Wall
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