The owners of the Tisbury Inn plan to demolish the old building
early in February, with an eye toward building a new hotel and health
center. Susan Goldstein, who with her husband Sherman owns the inn, said
yesterday they are talking with local contractors about taking down what
remains of the complex, at the head of Main street in Tisbury, which was
ruined in a fire that began in the evening of Saturday, Dec. 15.
Night Fire in Edgartown Leaves Fourteen Brazilians Homeless
By MANDY LOCKE
Charred Portuguese prayer books, scalded refrigerators and a
few box springs are all that remain of the worldly possessions of 14
Brazilians who had been living in a three-bedroom house in Edgartown.
Vineyard Haven harbor was lit up on Saturday evening by a fully
involved boat fire. Tisbury firemen and harbor masters from two towns
responded to a blaze aboard a 30-foot Catalina sailboat called Tippy
Canoe, owned by Tyler Weggel of Port Washington, N.Y.
There were no injuries. The vessel, a total loss, now lies partially
submerged, a black shell, in shallow water at the foot of Grove street.
A Fourth of July morning fire destroyed Café Moxie restaurant and severely damaged the Bunch of Grapes bookstore in Main Street Vineyard Haven.
The blaze, the biggest on the Island in years, is believed to have started in the basement of the café shortly after 9 a.m.
Owner Austin Racine was the only person in the café at the time. He said he was in the kitchen when he noticed smoke. He had earlier been in the basement, which is used for storage.
A disastrous Independence Day fire completely destroyed the Café Moxie restaurant and left the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore badly damaged, shutting down Main street Vineyard Haven for the entire day and leaving the town, its business community and much of the Island in a state of shock at the outset of peak summer season.
But the owner of the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore promised yesterday that it would reopen.
Bookstore owner Jon C. Nelson Jr. said he will rebuild.
“Absolutely. I am committed to rebuilding the Bunch of Grapes,” said Mr. Nelson on Sunday afternoon.
That commitment was one of the few certainties Mr. Nelson had two days after the Fourth of July fire that heavily damaged the landmark Vineyard Haven bookstore.
The face of Main street in Vineyard Haven has changed more by the act of fire than any street in any other Island town.
The town is like a Greek mythological phoenix, always turning the negative into the positive, and rebuilding bigger and better than before.
Main street in Vineyard Haven has a history of big fires. The greatest of them was the night of Aug. 10, 1883, when all of the street — 62 buildings — burned to the ground in a span of six hours. Coincidentally it was Illumination Night in Cottage City, now known as Oak Bluffs.
Island writers are expressing sympathy and sadness for the loss, they hope only temporarily, of the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven that was devastated by fire on July 4.
Edgartown firefighters were able to contain a quickly moving brush fire in Katama Friday morning March 21 despite strongly gusting winds that reached as high as 25 miles per hour and fanned the flames.
As discussion continues about cleanup and a still-incomplete investigation into the July 12 Menemsha fire, the Chilmark selectmen are set to meet with spokesmen for the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday evening.
