The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank announced Tuesday that it will significantly expand its hilltop Middle Ridge Preserve in Chilmark with the purchase of 19.8 acres off Tea Lane.

The land bank paid $1.2 million for the property; the sellers are Fielding and Elizabeth Lewis of Belmont and Vineyard Haven. The property will be added to the seven-acre Middle Ridge Preserve, also bought by the land bank from the Lewis family in 1994 for $300,000.

“The land bank always looks at its borders and all along was wondering if some day it could expand this property — and the day came along,” land bank executive director James Lengyel said in announcing the purchase Tuesday.

He said the property includes a verdant slope running from the high hilltop at Middle Ridge which has views both toward the ocean and the interior. On clear days in the far distance the Nantucket standpipe is visible from the property’s summit. The Tisbury Great Pond and Edgartown plains are also visible.

“Now we don’t ever have to be concerned that beneath this view will arise a roof — or plural,” Mr. Lengyel said.

With the purchase, Middle Ridge Preserve will now total 26.8 acres. Management goals for the property include an examination of whether it is suitable for agricultural purposes such as grazing, the land bank said in a press release.

The Island’s only public conservation organization, the land bank collects a two per cent fee on most real estate transactions, using the money to buy open space, farmland, beaches, scenic vistas and aquifer protection, among others.

A rebounding Vineyard real estate market has boosted land bank coffers this year.