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.
Construction began this week on a project to repair a longstanding drainage problem on County Road in Oak Bluffs. The road will be closed on Oct. 21, 22 and 23.
South Road, the main artery of travel between eastern and western extremities of the Vineyard is at once outstanding in its natural scenery and its historical associations. Beginning, properly, opposite Parsonage Pond in West Tisbury village, it extends through Chilmark and Gay Head to the lighthouse and the country park on the headland in that town, where thousands go each year to view the famous Gay Head cliffs.
A new allotment has just been made by the Mass. Highway Commission for State highway work in this town, and it is estimated and hoped that the section now under construction will bring the macadam down to a point near the Nicholas Norton brook, sometimes called Burnside Fall. Stone to be used in the above work will be paid for, delivered at the crusher at the rate of $1.10 per ton. If the stone comes in promptly it is hoped this section will be completed to the point above named by July 1st.
Gifford’s Store, as most persons of mature age would call it, still stands on the West Tisbury-Edgartown road, which highway developed from the ancient Mill Path, whereby Edgartown settlers walked or rode to the mill on the Mill River, to have their corn ground.
Not many Vineyarders have heard of the “King’s Highway” or know that any such road exists on the Island. King’s Highway, or “Hie” Way, as it was in the beginning, is, according to tradition, the old road between West Tisbury and Quitsa. It is approximately halfway between the South and Middle Roads and parallels the two from the vicinity of the West Thibury-Chilmark line to a point not far distant from Beetlebung Corner, following the line of Ridge Hill and crossing the Guerin and Henry Allen estates.
