From the April 5, 1985 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

A real estate advertisement which appeared last week read: “Classic Vineyard shingled cottage. Totally restored. Eel Pond location, $375,000.”

Go back 15 years to another real estate ad. The offer is for another shingled cottage, excellent condition, same location. Price: $60,000.

It is an undisputed fact that real estate values on Martha’s Vineyard have spiraled upward for the last 15 years. And most real estate experts, town assessors and regional planners on the Vineyard agree that in the last five years property values — both commercial and residential — have escalated sharply, in some instances dramatically.

Here are some examples of recent sales:

• West Tisbury, 1 1/2 acres, $67,000.

• Chilmark, 7 acres, $85,000.

• Edgartown, commercial property, $510,000.

• Chappaquiddick, 3.3 acres and a house, $177,500.    

Through all of this there is a sense of urgency, as though people are scrambling to grab a piece of Martha’s Vineyard before prices finally explode through some mythical ceiling. But there is also one other clear message in the Island real estate picture these days — Martha’s Vineyard is a good investment and that may understate the case.

Really there is no ceiling to the market, according to the experts.

“It’s a sellers’ market. It’s only going to continue to go up,” says Doug Ewing, a regional planner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Others agree.

“The prime real estate will always be more in demand, and the values will continue to be driven up,” says Tom Wallace, a partner in Wallace and Company Realtors in Edgartown. “There is an old saying in the real estate business, that there are three main elements to a piece of property: location, location, and location. And that is everything when it comes to values.”

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The Great Depression was breathing its last, the war in Europe was building and the trees of the Vineyard were just beginning to bud when a full page advertisement appeared in the April 26, 1940 Gazette, touting Vineyard Haven as just that — a vacation getaway where “miles of ocean separate you from all the common hazards of continental life in America.”

The same paper contained this classified ad:

“CAMP FOR RENT: At Lambert’s Cove. 3 rooms, fireplace, electric lights, running water, screened-in porch. 10 minutes walk to beach. $125 for season.”

Forty years later, Jimmy Carter was campaigning for his political life, tensions between Iran and Iraq were building into a war and a homeowner advertised a three-bedroom saltbox in Vineyard Haven in the April 11 Gazette...for $4,000 for the summer.

That Gazette contained 66 such ads, many reflecting a continuing trend toward weekly and monthly rentals.

But back in the 1940s, classified ads for summer rentals still were few and far between. The May 10, 1940 issue did contain one in which an eight-room house commanded $375 for the season.

Five years later, an Allied victory in Europe was at hand when the town of Vineyard Haven ran this full-page notice:

“In that true spirit of patriotism which has always marked this township, Vineyard Haven bows to the request of our government and refrains from extending the customary invitation to travel.”

In another five years, the sky was the limit.

“Vacation Land for Nine Months of the Year. Oak Bluffs,” proclaimed a May 5, 1950 full-page ad that promised boating, fishing, accommodations, pure drinking water, golf and tennis, and “hills, woods and highways for riding, biking and hiking, in a setting unspoiled by the advance of modernism.”

In the March 10, 1950 paper, one of three rental classifieds advertised a three-bedroom house near the East Chop beach club and tennis club for $700 for the season, utilities included. In an April paper a decade later, the ad package was up to seven rentals and a three-bedroom place on Music street in West Tisbury went for $800 for the season. And now, real estate brokers began advertising.

Another decade brought revelations of the bombing of Cambodia, unrest on college campuses — and inflation. One of 15 classified in the April 10, 1970 Gazette offered a four-bedroom beachfront house in Gay Head for $3,500 for the season.

Five years later, an unelected president sat in the Oval Office and the classified section had a page to itself in the Gazette, with rentals accounting for 46 ads in one and a half columns. Prices ranged from $1,100 to $4,500 for the season. Just about this time, house owners were looking in earnest for renters who had only a week or a month to get away.

Come April 10 of 1981, Ronald Reagan was recovering from an assassination attempt and the Gazette’s 79 classified rentals ranged from $200 to $1,200 a week.

Now it is 1985, and classified rentals have been burgeoning since mid-winter. Today’s paper contains more than 170 of them, seven from real estate brokers with multiple listings.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox
library@vineyardgazette.com