As readers may have noticed, I am often attracted to unusual houses. The house at 32 Planting Field Way in Edgartown is certainly unusual for the Vineyard.
On Wednesday the Court of County Commissioners for Dukes, met at the Selectmen’s Room in the Town Hall. Hon. Thomas H. Lambert, having taken the customary oath, took his seat with the board. Hon. Benjamin Davis was re-elected Chairman.
The following order was passed and the read by the Clerk: -
Dukes County, ss. In Court of County Commissioners, November Term, by adjournment, to February 3d, 1858.
A traffic-stopper in Edgartown this week has been the corner of Davis Lane and School street where the stately house which was once Davis Academy and is now the summer home of the G. Holmes Perkins family, of Cambridge and Philadelphia, has been emerging in a pale blue manifestation, with white trim.
An agreement for the sale of the Knowlton house on Davis Lane at School street, Edgartown, to Mr. and Mrs. G. Holmes Perkins of Cambridge by William Roberts of Edgartown, has been made. Mr. Roberts acquired the house, built by David Davis in 1838, in the summer of 1943, from the estate of the late Miss Cora B. Knowlton. Avery & Company are in charge of the transaction.
It’s been called the flagship of Ocean avenue. When it was originally built in 1891, it belonged to Philip Corbin, a manufacturer of household hardware and locks from New Britain. Conn., who got his start as a locksmith apprentice and grew his business until it employed 15,000 people.
His house was a Queen Anne mansion, three stories tall and with eight bedrooms. It was a sign of the changes taking place, the transformation of a religious retreat called Cottage City into a full-fledged resort called Oak Bluffs.
Edgartown voters may be asked to decide this spring to spend $3 million to buy the so-called Yellow House, a run-down property on Main street owned by the Hall family.
I have returned, myself and one or two more of us, as well as a number of others who are not “of us.” The first thing of course, on arriving, was to secure a good room, and I rather plume myself on having gotten one of the best in the hotel, of which, by the way, I will attempt a brief description. The building is situated on the bluff at the head of the landing, and is about 125 feet front in the whole.
The Vineyard Gazette this week completed its first major building expansion and renovation at South Summer street and Davis Lane in Edgartown, the newspaper’s home since early 1939. This Sunday, as the newspaper enters its 139th year of publishing without missing a single issue, the Gazette will open its doors to all the Vineyard community from noon to 5 p.m. for a house warming and public inspection.
Picking up on efforts that began more than 40 years ago, Edgartown voters will decide next week whether to more than double the size of their historic district, which includes about 250 homes in the heart of the village.
