From the May 13, 1938 edition of the Vineyard Gazette: Circuit avenue is putting on its summer finery, painting and decorating in anticipation of the season to come. Everywhere, these days, the workmen are brightening up the premises, and the attraction of last week has notably around three particular business establishments.

Keating’s Drug Store is sporting a new ice cream bar, bright with crimson, cream and chromium, and other decorations.

Hoyle and Company have virtually picked up their store, shaken it out, and set it down so that nothing stands where it did before. The arrangement of counters, showcases and other fixtures has completely changed the interior so that even their oldest friends failed to recognize the place at first glance.

Phillips Hardware Company has doubled its floor space, and now rates mention as the largest hardware store on the Island. Renting the store next door, Mr. Phillips has removed the partition between, throwing both stores into one. The building the store occupies was once, long ago, The Oakwood, owned by Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Russell and run as a boarding house.

Favorable action on the layout of the proposed new road in Gay Head, at a special town meeting Monday night, together with authorization for the selectmen to proceed with the necessary requirements, assure the town of obtaining the new highway and the subsequent opening to development of one of the most picturesque sections of Gay Head. The road will extend, according to the proposal, form the present state highway, down the generally used way to Lobsterville, thence easterly to the town landing in Menemsha Pond, a distance of approximately two miles.

Behind the plan for this road construction is a firmly fixed idea, implanted by state engineers, that some time in the future, the narrow point in Menemsha Creek may be bridged. If this takes place, and the project is declared to be a practical thing, the two ends of surfaced road will nearly oppose each other from opposite sides of the creek, as the Gay Head landing is but a short distance south of the end of the Menemsha Creek road. The connection of the two by means of a bridge would provide a direct way from Vineyard Haven to Menemsha Creek and Gay Head without passing through the center of West Tisbury, Chilmark Centre or Quitsa.

Legal red tape required favorable action on all the articles in the warrant, including authorization for the selectmen to borrow money and to issue bonds, but the explanation of the various intricacies surrounding this matter had been given to the town officials and a majority of the voters last Saturday night when Rep. Joseph A. Sylvia and S. C. Luce Jr., of the board of county commissioners, called the people together in an informal meeting to acquaint them with the offer of the state and county.

Through the cooperation of the state and county officials, the state is to assume Gay Head’s share of the cost, in addition to its own appropriation. This enables Gay Head to obtain the road without incurring expense. The town has long contributed its part toward county revenue without return in highway construction.

The Edgartown Cafe, which reopened last weekend, presents a decorative scheme that is unusual to the Vineyard. The idea and handicraft of Frank Gardner, interior decorator, the entire plan has been to create the impression of sitting at the bottom of the sea. Floors and the new tables, settle-styled seats and other furnishings, are painted and stained in dark tints suggestive of submerged rocks and seaweed grottoes. The walls are of cool green, the color being deepest near the floor and, banded at regular intervals with aluminum. The shades lighten with the effect of sunlight penetrating the depths, until the surface is reached. On this surface, completely encircling the two rooms of the cafe, sail every type of yacht ever seen in these waters. From the tiny open boat with its leg-of-mutton sail to the four-masted barque, they are all present, and under sail.

When an automobile dealer walks home from a ride, that’s news. But in this case there is more to the story, and it isn’t what the casual reader might think.

Ernest L. Flanders drove from Edgartown to West Tisbury on Monday to deliver a car. He started to walk back down the road across the plains, not doubting that he would be overhauled by a passing motorist withing a short time. As it turned out, however, he did not trouble to hail a car, and no car stopped for some little while. He kept walking, and the more he walked the more he felt like walking.

After he had completed more than half the distance, Mr. Flanders was accosted by a motorist who offered him a lift into Edgartown.

“No, thank you,” said Mr. Flanders, “I think now I’ll walk all the way.“

And he did. He finished feeling fresh and fit.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox library@vineyardgazette.com