Edgartown History
Edgartown History
October 15, 2020
Edgartown Harbor Named as Historical Underground Railroad Site
Edgartown Harbor was recently named a site on the Underground Railroad as part of 12 new listings made this year.
July 17, 2020
Following the Path of History at the Thomas Cooke House
For three years now, the museum has been hard at work restoring the historic Thomas Cooke house property, the site of its original campus, as a public green-space and satellite campus.
July 27, 2017
Federated Church Is 375 Years Young
A tale that reaches from settlement to commerce, from orthodoxy to schism, from one church to many, from faith to tourism, from industry to resorthood.
October 15, 2015
Archival Film Digs into History of Norton Point Breach
This historic footage of a home movie shot in 1932 shows villagers attempting to dig a canal by hand to open Norton Point Beach to the sea, part of a town effort to invigorate the shellfish beds at Katama Bay.
June 28, 2012
The Chappy Ferry: A 527-Foot Trip With Miles of History
Excerpted from The Chappy Ferry Book: Back and Forth Between Two Worlds, 527 Feet Apart, by Tom Dunlop, with photographs by Alison Shaw and a short film on DVD by John Wilson (Vineyard Stories, 2012).
This excerpt is taken from chapter five which tells the story of James H. Yates of Edgartown, who owned the ferry from 1920 to 1929. He was the last man to run the Chappy ferry as a rowboat.
Folks on both sides of the harbor love Jimmy Yates. But folks on the Chappaquiddick side loathe the ferry Jimmy Yates runs.
August 11, 2008
Sneak Peek Walking Tour of Edgartown
The second annual Cooke and South Water streets house tour will be tomorrow, Wednesday. August 13, from 2 to 4 p.m. The tour will include five historic homes in Edgartown, all within walking distance of each other, followed by tea and refreshments. At each home, guests will be greeted by a docent who will share information about the history of the home and answer questions.
December 8, 1989
Dukes County Historical Society Has Big Plans for Addition in Edgartown
The Dukes County Historical Society has solved the space problem it has been struggling with for most of its 66 years with the purchase of the John Vinson House on School street.
Saturday the society will open the property to the public as part of the Christmas in Edgartown celebration with a smattering of exhibits showing the Vineyard’s long and interesting history, as well as the history of the historical society.
June 26, 1984
The Architectural Treasures of Edgartown Are Recognized by Historic District Listing
Approximately 500 buildings in downtown Edgartown, most of them wood frame houses of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, are now part of a nationally recognized historic district.
July 11, 1980
Island History Reveals Itself At Edgartown’s Vincent House
The 300-year-old Vincent House, perhaps the oldest home on the Island, is open once again to the public in Edgartown for the summer.
The remarkable aspect of this house is it’s architecture. There are only limited furnishings inside, and the restorers - John Warren Norton, Anne Baker and C. Stuart Avery of the Martha’s Vineyard Historic Preservation Society - have fashioned the house in the most interesting way possible.
April 22, 1977
The Chappy Bridge - Secession Was a Question 51 Years Ago
When Edgartown residents voted on secession 51 years ago, they were 100 to one against it.
They even voted $1,000 to stop it.
They were on the other side of the stick then. Pending in the General Court at the time was a bill which would have allowed Chappaquiddick to secede from Edgartown and become an independent municipality.
