The African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard is highlighting history in an unlikely spot this week: deBettencourt’s garage in Oak Bluffs.
On Sunday, the organization is honoring Ambler B. Wormley, who ran a gas station at the New York avenue garage for nearly 20 years starting in the late 1920s. A plaque noting Mr. Wormley’s entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to the town will be hung at deBettencourt’s, marking the 39th site on the heritage trail.
Mr. Wormley was a World War I veteran and served on the Oak Bluffs finance committee. All his achievements made him worthy of recognition, said Elaine Weintraub, the co-founder of the trail.
“I have the feeling, looking at the pattern of his life, that he was very ambitious,” she said. “As an African American, there was no easy access to mortgages or financing and [he had] to figure it all out himself. That’s the story that needs to be told. This was somebody who achieved so much. This was somebody who was a real entrepreneur.”
Born in 1892 in Fredericksburg, Va., Mr. Wormley moved to Oak Bluffs when he was 10 years old. In 1928, he purchased the present day deBettencourt’s and ran the gas station until 1947, when he sold it to Nelson deBettencourt.
Ms. Weintraub heard about how Mr. Wormley sold the gas station through David deBettencourt.
“[David] told me that [his uncle] Buddy was riding his bike home from school, and Ambler was out here at the front,” she said. “Ambler yelled, ‘Hey, go ask your dad if he wants to buy this gas station.’”
From there on, Ms. Weintraub and Carmen Tankard Amadeo, a board member of the trail, went on to piece together Mr. Wormley’s story. He owned two gas stations, the other by the present day Barn Bowl and Bistro.
“It was just very fortunate that there was somebody still around who was going to tell the story,” Ms. Weintraub said. “That was very important, because it would be lost [otherwise].”
A photo of the garage back under the ownership of Mr. Wormley is framed in the center of the shop. Michael deBettencourt, current owner of the station, is honored the station’s history is being recognized.
“My father used to speak of Mr. Wormley and it was always a positive thing,” he said. “He just seemed to be a nice guy from what I always saw.”
Steve Amaral stopped by the garage for a coffee on Tuesday before lingering in front of the plaque, still in the box on a stray table.
“I remember when [Ambler] first had the station,” Mr. Amaral recalled. “All I remember is coming here with my father as a younger person.”
Stories like this are all around the Island, and according to Ms. Amadeo, it’s important to highlight them.
“What’s so special about this story is that it can be inspiring in ways that we don’t recognize initially,” Ms. Amadeo said. “But these stories like this make ordinary people think, ‘well, I can do something like that.’”
The preservation of this history of the garage signifies more than just the passing of the torch of the station.
“We’re establishing the stories of all of our community,” she said. “We get a string of meaningless dates that bore generations of children to death in schools, and they don’t ever learn anything about their community. It’s not that you don’t have to substantiate what you hear in those stories [through research], but the stories flesh it out.”
The plaque dedication will be held at the garage Sept. 22 at 11 a.m.
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