In Rick Anderson’s house is a picture of a large group of Islanders standing in front of the framework of what would become the Agricultural Hall. The year is 1994.
“The Island built this thing,” he said. “They all helped so they feel ownership and it’s something that they were proud to do.”
Thirty years have passed since dozens of Islanders traveled to New Hampshire to disassemble an old dairy barn. Six months later, the community came together to build what is now the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury.
After the initial construction was finished, the crew came back to celebrate with food, music and dance. Three decades later, the tradition lives on, as the Barnraisers Ball is held on the first Saturday in November.
The 30th edition will commence Saturday evening at 7 p.m. During the day, the second annual Barnraisers Day will occur, where everyone is welcome to build tiny Ag Halls out of candy, cardboard and other craft supplies. The constructions will be voted on at the Barnraisers Ball, with the winner receiving a free membership to the Ag Society for the year.
In the 1990s, an Agricultural Hall was deemed necessary to create a home large enough to house the societies many events, the biggest of which is the Agricultural Fair that occurs every August. Previously, it had been held at the Grange Hall. But thanks to land donated by Edwin (Bob) Newhall Woods, the dream began to take shape.
Andrew Woodruff was a key figure in developing the proposal for the new barn, and part of the group of 42 Vineyarders who traveled to New Hampshire. He remembers not everyone being on board with the idea, as some trustee members wanted to install a steel barn instead.
“There was a proposal to build a steel building not really in character with West Tisbury,” Mr. Woodruff said in an interview this week. “I got wind of this and started attending the meetings, and conversations started happening about whether we could build something wooden.”
That’s when Mr. Woodruff brought in Rick Anderson who reached out to his contacts in Vermont and New Hampshire to see if there was anything available. A dairy barn in New Hampshire was chosen as a possibility. To present his case to the board and community members, Mr. Anderson created homemade models of the structure.
“When I saw this building, I knew right then that it’s coming back to Martha’s Vineyard,” Mr. Woodruff recalled. “It was a big cathedral-like barn that was perfect and what we were looking for.”
Mr. Anderson wanted to honor the old hall in the design of the new one.
“I wanted to sort of keep the flavor of the old hall,” he said. “I even copied the cornice on the trim on the porch.”
A petition of approximately 700 signatures was presented to the board, along with pledges and letters of support. Eventually, the project was approved. A group of volunteers then spent about a week in New Hampshire deconstructing the dairy barn.
“Everybody was exhausted, so we had breakfast and we had a meeting,” Mr. Anderson said, recalling the hard work that was done in New Hampshire. “We were deciding whether we needed a break or should we just stay and finish it. Then John Packer got up and he said, what’s the Spartan code? ‘Come home with shields held high or dead upon them, right?’ And we all said, ‘Okay, we’re not going back.’”
Amanda Dickinson was a part of the group that went to New Hampshire.
“I just remember the camaraderie afterwards when we would all go out to dinner and it would just be people telling stories about what happened during the day,” she said. “Nobody knew each other and we all just sort of bonded over this.”
The barn was brought back to the Island in pieces that summer. In November, the call for help went out. Carpenter Vincent Maciel was one of hundreds of Islanders who stepped up.
“You felt like you weren’t doing your part if you weren’t there,” Mr. Maciel said. “So being part of putting that thing together, to me it was like an obligation because that building will be there well beyond myself.”
Fair manager Eleanor Neubert remembered working the phones in the Ag Hall office that weekend.
“From morning to night, it was the most amazing thing to watch people bringing food all day long and asking what they could do,” she said. “I remember it was full moon on the Friday night and watching all these people standing there in the field and just looking up at this skeleton of the building.”
Former board member Abigail Higgins, who took charge of providing food for everyone, recalled a similar image as the initial frame was put up.
“One thing that sticks out in my memory is leaving the frame-raising after dark and someone had rigged up lights that illuminated the frame and looking across the field and seeing that,” she said. “The wood hues against the dusk . . . it was a very solemn and beautiful moment.”
The first Barnraisers Ball was a simple, informal celebration — part joy and part exhaustion.
“I don’t think the keg of beer lasted very long as I recall,” Mr. Woodruff said with a laugh. “There was a lot of speeches and dust flying. Johnny Hoy used to joke that he was still pulling sand out of his instruments many years later. It was a fun time. People were pretty excited and exhausted.”
Ms. Higgins has vivid memories of that first celebration.
“My son was dancing on the rafters with two guys,” she said with a laugh.
Mr. Anderson said he still enjoys the ball as it’s grown in size.
“It’s the best party on the Island,” he said. “I love the fact that there are little kids and old people [from] every walk of life over there for this. It’s really about the Island.”
According to Mr. Woodruff, no one could have imagined how a dairy farm from New Hampshire would become a pillar of the community.
“I don’t think we truly understood the impact it would have on the community,” he said. “I think when it really hit home for me is when people in the community started having services there for their loved ones, not just celebratory things like weddings. I think it’s inspired a lot of people and thought processes about the Island and what we care about.”
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