The Wampanoag Tribe will purchase Back Alley’s in West Tisbury for a price reported to be in the high six figures.
Howard and Susie Ulfelder, longtime owners of the up-Island bakery and deli, have already accepted the tribe’s offer and expect the deal to close in the next few weeks.
The purchase will consolidate tribal ownership of Back Alley’s with its management of Alley’s General Store, which the tribe leases from the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust.
The trust announced Thursday that the owners of LeRoux — a kitchen and home-goods store based in Vineyard Haven — will manage the historic general store.
This week for the second time in less than a decade, Alley’s Store, a venerable West Tisbury institution, is changing hands. Howard and Susan Ulfelder of Hingham are buying the store from Charlie and Teena Parton, who bought it from the Alley family six years ago.
This slogan was appended to the sign of a general store in a crossroads town in the mid-west. In fact, it was owned by a relative of the writer.
There isn’t much argument about the toothpicks. You can buy them in almost any store. But when it comes to a road wagon - farm wagon, that is - there is quite a bit of room for discussion. However, in a shed back of the store was a brand new Studebaker farm wagon.
The sale of the S. M. Mayhew Company general store in West Tisbury, reported as in progress by the Gazette some weeks ago, was completed last week and the business formally changed hands Saturday night. Charles A. Turner, proprietor, turned the business over to Albion A. Alley, long his chief clerk, and thus the establishment, conducted in the same building and on the same site since 1858, changed hands for the third time in its history. The several proprietors who have owned and operated the store were Nathan Mayhew, the founder, blacksmith and Forty-niner, his two sons, Sanderson M.
Official notification of their respective appointments as postmaster of Chilmark and West Tisbury have been received by Carl M. Whitkop and Charles A. Turner. Mr. Whitkop’s appointment for Chilmark was dated March 11, while Mr. Turner’s was dated March 19.
Miss Helena L. Athearn of Oak Bluffs is the guest of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Athearn.
West Tisbury people seem to be making changes this spring. Mr. Fred B. Athearn who has been employed as clerk in the store of G. G. Gifford has left for other employment. Mr. Walter I. Jenny has finished clerking the store of S. M. Mayhew & Co. Mr. Charles Turner of Bryantville and Mr. Benjamin Woodeman from Cambridge, have bought out the business of S. M. Mayhew and Co., and will carry on the same at the old site under the name of S. M. Mayhew & Co.
The Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust formally took ownership of Alley’s General Store yesterday, ushering in the beginning of a new era for the renowned Dealers in Almost Everything in the heart of West Tisbury.
