The Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners has sent to the legislature its report -for 1902. Regarding improvements completed or contemplated on the Vineyard the board says:
This meeting was commenced on Wednesday, the 18th instant, at Wesleyan Grove, and was more numerously attended than on any previous year. The greatest number present was on Sunday, when it was estimated there were between four and five thousand persons on the ground. In Providence and the neighborhood the Methodists were disappointed in chartering a steamer for the occasion, and many (estimated at 1,500) were therefore prevented from coming; yet, so great was the increase, upon former years, from other places, that the decrease from this quarter was much far more than made up.
The whininess, contempt and partisanship with which the Vineyard Gazette reported this story over six years is journalism in its brightest rain-slicker yellow - all the more embarrassing and entertaining today because the paper lost the fight.
For many Islanders, the chairs and benches at the Oak Bluffs Tabernacle are synonymous with the place itself. Now the iconic 19th century seating will be restored.
Saturday night marks the official public opening of the Strand, the culmination of months of hard work and hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. On Friday night, an invitation-only event was a chance to celebrate the opening of an old Vineyard institution with supporters.
Olive Tomlinson remembered the cottages and the shared car rides, the simplicity of summer life. With just a few phrases, Jessica Harris evoked memories of front porches and morning swims.
In the years when much of America was racially segregated, Oak Bluffs was a place of refuge for African Americans. The town will be included an in upcoming permanent Smithsonian exhibit in Washington, D.C. An event will be held Thursday at the Union Chapel.
Oak Bluffs is one of 10 communities included in a national exhibit planned to inaugurate the The National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust confirmed this week that it will buy Union Chapel, the storied Oak Bluffs chapel whose rich history forms a distinct chapter in the annals of the Vineyard as a summer resort.
