Time Machine Terms
September 23, 1938
Hurricane of 1938 Was Devastating: Storm Obliterated Menemsha
Swept by a hurricane the velocity of which has been estimated at a hundred miles an hour at brief periods, and which surpassed anything of the sort that has ever struck the Island from a southerly point, Martha’s Vineyard presented a scene of disaster on Wednesday night. There was one death. Several persons were injured and the storm caused a loss of property that may easily total half a million dollars.
July 19, 1938
Purchase Completed: Vineyard Gazette Is to Occupy Office, Pre-Revolutionary House, in Fall
Purchase of the former Isaiah Mills house at the corner of Davis Lane and South Summer street, Edgartown, by the Vineyard Gazette was completed yesterday. Plans for use of the property are still in a formative stage, but it will be occupied by the Vineyard Gazette as an office some time this fall. The premises are separated by one house from the present Gazette office, owned by Philip S. Pent, which has been occupied for seventeen years.
July 1, 1938
West Tisbury’s Old Mill Reopened by Club
The structure on the Old Mill River, West Tisbury, had its second birthday on Tuesday. And this seems strange, for the building, staunch as the day it was built, and preceded on the site by other buildings devoted to the same purpose it fulfilled so long, has a long and honorable history.
June 3, 1938
Official Moving Day at Marine Hospital
Wednesday was official moving day at the U. S. Marine Hospital, Vineyard Haven, when the new addition, recently completed by the Bay State Construction Company, was formally occupied by the staff, and the equipment was moved into place.
September 3, 1937
Makonikey on Market, Old Hotel Is Doomed
Makonikey, site of the famous old hotel which was open only for a season some forty years ago, is to be put upon the market by the present owners, Thomas F. Neelon and Roger W. Higgins. Surveyors are now at work laying out lots and streets, in order to have sites ready for building operations next spring. The old hotel will be torn down.
August 20, 1937
“One of Benton Harmonica Boys” Is Here for Visit
He was walking along the state road with his wife up in West Tisbury. He carried a suitcase, and, although he did not actually wiggle his thumb, he looked hopefully back at the car.
His name is Manuel Tolegian of New York city, artist and former student of Thomas H. Benton, summer resident of Chilmark. When he was picked up by the Gazette reporter, he looked slightly warm but grateful, animated and eager. He has a thin, aesthetic face and long, slender hands.
July 16, 1937
Painter and Author, in His Spare Time Thomas Benton Transposes Difficult Music to Play on His Harmonica
Bach, Beethoven, and Schubert - nothing heavy but on the classical side - and Thomas Hart Benton, painter, and author, plays them all on his harmonica. He’s got a special scheme, which he himself devised, for transposing the music into a complicated harmonica score.
May 7, 1937
Lot Rogers Laid The Ghost
Editors, Vineyard Gazette:
It seems a pity to spoil a good ghost story, but it so happens the favorite story of my childhood was one of how my great grandfather, Lot Rogers, laid the Crying Swamp ghost. None of the neighbors would go near the place at night unless it were a matter of urgent necessity, so great grandfather decided to do something about it.
I do not know whether he took with him a Bible or a stout oak stick, but out to the Crying Swamp he went on one of the wild windy nights that the ghost seemed to favor.
April 23, 1937
Led Eventful Life: George A. Smith, Dead at 79, Visited Most of the States
Death came to George A. Smith of Oak Bluffs yesterday morning in the house in which he was born seventy-nine years ago. He was the son of Elisha and Elizabeth Wilbur Smith.
His travels took him to nearly every state in the union and thus entitled him, perhaps, to be called the greatest wanderer of the Vineyard since whaling days.
March 12, 1937
Baptist Temple Sold to Highlands Property Trust
The Baptist Temple on the Highlands has been sold by the Massachusetts Baptist Association to the Highland Property Trust, thus bringing the historic structure and its site to possession of the group of summer residents who a few years ago took over the old Vineyard Grove company holdings.
