The Vineyard Gazette office in Edgartown is undergoing external renovations to improve the structure and drainage of the building. The building is owned by the Vineyard Preservation Trust, which is undertaking the renovations with a grant funded by the Edgartown Community Preservation Committee.
“It’s the first part of a multi-stage, multi-year process,” says Nevette Previd, executive director of the Trust. “We are trying to address some potentially structural issues and fix the threshold, which is the main gateway to the Vineyard Gazette.”
The front door will be replaced with a 1938-accurate storm door sourced by matching it to archival images from the Gazette’s front door during the time of Henry Beetle Hough, the former owner and publisher of the Gazette from 1920-1968.
The South Summer street and Davis Lane sides of the building will be re-shingled with like-kind white cedar shakes. The Trust believes the shingles haven’t been removed in over 100 years. Gutters and downspouts will be replaced with historically approved systems.
The original windows will also be restored working with historic artisans. They are also looking into restoring the Vineyard Gazette historic sign.
The Vineyard Gazette purchased the building in 1938 and moved in to run operations in 1939.
The house was built in the early 1760s by Capt. Benjamin Smith, a county sheriff and commander of a militia that helped defend the coast during the American Revolution, according to Vineyard Gazette archives. The house was later sold to Dennis Ripley and Isaiah Mills and was known for many years as the Mills house. The house has been a single family home, a family tenement known as the Beehive and now the office of the Vineyard Gazette for 87 years (the Gazette dates back much further, first published in 1846).
The house retains many historic features including eight fireplaces and mantels and wainscoting.
In 1938, an addition behind the main building facing South Summer street was added to house the printing press. In 1984, the space above the press was enlarged to include the dormered second floor, where the newsroom is today. The broadsheet continues to be printed weekly in the building.
In 2010, the newspaper and building were sold by publisher and owner Richard Reston to the new owners of the Gazette, Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg. The Kohlberg’s created a limited liability corporation to own the paper and made a gift to the Vineyard Preservation Trust, which allowed the nonprofit to purchase the building. The building has been under the stewardship of the Trust ever since.
Work is expected to be completed in the next few months. The renovations will not interrupt the weekly printing of the Gazette newspaper.
The building is closed to the public during construction. Visitors must make an appointment by calling 508-627-4311. Subscribers who pick-up their paper can do so from a newspaper box on Davis Lane.
This article appears in October 9, 2026.