The Goldstein family has owned the Mansion House at the head of Main street Vineyard Haven for the past four decades, with Sherman and Susan Goldstein buying the hotel in February 1986.

One of a handful of female owners of main street properties when she founded Claudia in Vineyard Haven in 1971, Claudia Canerdy says she never thought of herself as an anomaly.

The Hall family history of Island real estate ownership runs deep in all three down-Island main streets and beyond.

The Gazette set out to answer the question who, exactly, owns the downtowns? The analysis found that while ownership is varied and covers a wide spectrum, certain family names jumped out, among them Hall, Courtney and Hajjar.

Sidewalk improvements in downtown Vineyard Haven are about to begin again after the holiday lull. The project began last fall and left some Main street property owners disgruntled at what they said was a lack of notice.

Main street shop owners say they had no advance notice of sidewalk demolition that’s now underway in front of their stores.