Well-wishing neighbors, family and friends streamed in and out of the West Tisbury home of Robert and Maggie Schwartz over the weekend as the couple prepared to move to a new home after 55 years.
Mohu, beautiful Mohu, the 218-acre property at Lambert’s Cove famous during the lifetime of Sea. William M. Butler and Mrs. Butler, is exciting attention again in this era of dramatic changes on Martha’s Vineyard. The property is, perhaps, a microcosm or a recapitulation of forces which have been determining in Island history.
West Tisbury, the youngest town on the Island, was created on April 28, 1892. But it was almost 300 years earlier, when Takemmy, the Algonquian word meaning “where one goes to grind corn,” was founded. Here along the up-Island streams the early settlers built mills to harness water power.
On Sunday night the Postoffice building at West Tisbury was burned to the ground. The fire was caused by an overheated chimney in an ell of the main building, Mr. James P. West and family occupying this tenement. Mrs. P. L. Cleveland occupied another part of the building, while the postoffice was on the lower floor. All the government property of the value was saved. Mrs. Cleveland wishes to thank all the kind neighbors and friends who so bravely assisted her at the time of the fire, and she assures them their efforts are greatly appreciated.
The new poet laureate for West Tisbury, Spencer Thurlow, joined other Island poets on Sunday, including three former town laureates, at a reading held at the library.
Edgartown voters said no to fluoride in town water and a new airplane hangar and re-elected Arthur Smadbeck as selectman Thursday. Greg Coogan and Jason Balboni were elected to two seats on the Oak Bluffs board of selectmen and West Tisbury passed a $400,00 budget override.
West Tisbury voters spent the four-plus hours at their annual meeting carefully weighing articles, from funding for the town picnic to potential sites for affordable housing.
A hotly-debated proposal to build a new Tisbury school, a first step toward banning mopeds, and lots of spending is on the agenda tonight as annual town meetings convene in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury.
