Larkin Stallings, the owner of the Ritz Cafe in Oak Bluffs, realized his prospects of becoming a famous bass guitarist were grim shortly after opening his first music club.

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.

Sitting on a bench in front of Vineyard Scoops ice cream shop, Geno Courtney spends his days surveying Edgartown’s downtown.

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.

Do the citizens of Martha's Vineyard want artificial turf on the high school playing fields?

One measure of the health of a community is the vitality of its main streets.

I’ve asked myself often in 40-plus years as an annual visitor to Martha’s Vineyard, what is it that gives one the sensation that a place where you don’t actually hang your hat daily or pay property taxes, viscerally feels like home?

Writing for a newspaper — having your words and name appear in print — provides a special kind of thrill not easily matched.

Clearly, I have a propensity for islands.