From the August 21, 1964 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

The ninety-fourth Grand Illumination Night was held Wednesday evening in Cottage City, Oak Bluffs, and was the great spectacle it has always been. Originally this celebration came at the end of Camp Meeting, and was first started in 1869.

In August 1840 a band of Methodists first held a meeting on this site, and sixty-five souls were successfully saved. After this encouragement the meeting became an annual affair. A wooden tabernacle was placed in the middle of Squash Meadow Grove, while the tents of the visitors ringed it in.

One by one cottages appeared instead of the tents and Cottage City was born. Year after year the Methodists returned for their annual convention, or camp meeting, and it was at the end of the business that the lanterns were displayed.

Wednesday’s event began with a community sing held in the Tabernacle, followed by a concert by the Vineyard Haven Band conducted by Philip O. Buddington. The Tabernacle was packed, with crowds of people standing outside holding their children high on their shoulders so that they would not miss a thing. The band was attired in white, and the bandmaster wore a bright red coat, so the scene was a colorful one. Two fire engines lurked on the fringes of Trinity Park and their winking red lights added to the colorful scene.

Suddenly it was dark, and the bells from near by Trinity Church commenced their pleasant low tolling. An “elder citizen” was called on the stage to light the first lantern (To become the “elderly citizen” the requirement is a one page letter stating why one wishes to light the lantern).

As far as the eye cared to look, round bubbles of light danced in the evening breeze, and then the crowds took over. Hordes and hordes of people walked around this large circle hemmed in by the small gingerbread cottaged that typify this city within a city, each trimmed with glowing Japanese lanterns. Every age was there. Some pushed baby carriages, others herded dogs, and everyone toted cameras.

The residents of these trimmed and bedecked houses entertained, and as the tourists toured and glared at them, they and all their guests lined the porches under the lanterns and glared back at the passing throngs. Flash bulbs were continually popping and tripods were set up on all the lawns, with crouching photographers squinting behind them.

Grace Chapel of Trinity Church was selling just the right kind of food that makes this sort of affair complete, the proceeds going to benefit the church.

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hawkes had their house and garden hung heavy with lanterns, one of which is 99 years old. The Hawkeses have yearly erected two by two’s to enable them to hang lanterns to the very limit of their property. Anthony Steward of the National Geographic magazine was posing the Hawkeses among the lights and taking pictures for an article about Massachusetts.

A nearby house had its flagpole decorated with purplish lights. Another displayed a lantern used for 94 years that had a smaller one inside. Everywhere one looked were thousands and thousands of lights strung from tree to tree, and encircling and entwining every conceivable part of gingerbread or gable, eave or Gothic window, that could be trimmed. Most of these are still lighted by candle, but a few have been modernized with electricity.

As the passers-by ogled and peered, one small boy with the name of Allen Grant sailed wooden boats in a birdbath. The boats added brightness to the scene, since each proudly held a lighted candle.

The whole area lay under a cloudless sky with a nearly full moon. The cross on top of the Tabernacle was lighted, throwing the Gothic reliefs and carvings of the Trinity church into bold black lines and silhouettes against the white clapboards.

Everyone was dressed with an air of casualness. Most of the teenagers were in shorts, slickers and bare feet. They whistled and hummed in tune to the music that was still being played in the Tabernacle. Quite a group from the Cerebral Palsy Camp was there enjoying the lights.

For two hours, people walked and marched in time to the Donkey Serenade and Souza’s marches, took pictures, and hailed old friends. Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs had been closed off to motor traffic, for the first time in Illumination Night history, and when it was over people walked slowly up the center of the main street on their way home. Many stopped for a pizza before getting into their cars, and the red tail lights up the hill from Oak Bluffs to Vineyard Haven formed a solid chain,

Chief Richard W. Blankenship of the Oak Bluffs police had his whole force, eighteen men strong, assisted by Sheriff John E. Palmeira and his men, out to handle the traffic. He said last year they had between five and six thousand spectators, but he estimated that this year about ten thousand had come to see the sights and lights of Grand Illumination Night, the largest crowd ever.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

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