In a spectacle described as incredible, amazing and historic, hundreds of Islanders turned out to hammer boards, paint window sills and raise the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society's new barn in a three-day event that was a festival of community spirit.
The West Tisbury selectmen on Wednesday agreed to review zoning rules for the Agricultural Hall after concern that the number of events held each year on the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society grounds off Panhandle Road may be over the limit.
As starter plants begin to sprout in greenhouses across the Island, the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society ushered in the spring season on Saturday evening at its annual potluck.
Excerpted from Bountiful: A History of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society and the Livestock Show and Fair, by Susan Klein, with photographs by Alan Brigish (Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, 2012).
This excerpt is taken from chapter 9 which tells the story of the midway and how it came to play an integral part of the annual Island tradition.
“My favorite was the Scrambler! It was really fun!”
The first Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society Livestock Show and Fair was held on October 26, 1858: it was announced on September 15 of that year. And thus began a pilgrimage that would be unfamiliar in nature though familiar in spirit to modern-day fairgoers: 1,800 people made their way to the Grange Hall in West Tisbury by horseback, in wagons or on foot.
