There is a “For Sale” sign on the boat shop of Manuel S. Roberts at the head of the town wharf in Edgartown, a sign indicating that the historic building and the land upon which it is situated are for sale. Indicating also - and this brings a touch of near-tragedy to the picture - that this building long associated with ships, boats and salt water and men who have gone down to the sea, may enter upon a new and cheaply-gilded existence as a Gifte Shoppe - and its proprietor, as much a landmark as the building, removed from the setting which he has dominated for so long.

 

A new fireproof building to house the priceless records and collections of the Dukes County Historical Society is to be built on the land on School street, Edgartown, adjoining the grounds of the society’s Squire Cooke house. The new structure, although placed near School street on this lot, will face toward Cooke street, making an angle with the Gay Head lens tower and the Cooke house.

 

When the good ship Uncle Toby brought the new Fresnel lens to New York and the lens was subsequently deposited at the Edgartown wharf, almost a hundred years ago, little did the drivers, or anyone else for that matter, dream that the forty yoke oxen employed to transport the lens across the Island to Gay Head would not be the last agents to ever move the sixty frames of glass prisms and the multitudinous collection of machinery necessary to operate the light. This week all of these things were back in Edgartown.

 

 

Indian summer weather greeted the opening of the 1952 seventh annual Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass Derby, says Ben Morton, chief publicity man for the Island committee, and at the end of the first complete day of weighing-in Malcolm Keniston, manager of the Edgartown Water Company, was bathed in the light of glory. He was Wednesday night, when his picture appeared on television, sharing the spot with a striper which went to 41 pounds 7 ounces.

 

The Island’s new Coast Guard station, en route from Cuttyhunk, came through Quick’s Hole, from Buzzards Bay at 1 o’clock yesterday, and proceeded across the Sound without mishap.

 

One of the most alluring names of Martha’s Vineyard is that of Lake Tashmoo. Islanders and visitors alike enjoy the feeling of Tashmoo on their tongues - it has euphony and dignity and is like no other usual word. The lake itself, which might be called a great pond like other bodies of fresh water on the Vineyard but for its beauty and the beauty of its setting, is situated in the township of Tisbury near Vineyard Sound.

 

For more than a century, only one dwelling house stood in what is now the settlement of Eastville, on the eastern shore of Vineyard Haven harbor. The laying out of streets there did not begin until after 1834 - and the growth from then on was partly due to the influence of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting at what is now Oak Bluffs, in 1835. The camp meeting landing was at Eastville.

 

Twelve years ago a group of men and women, domestic employees, who came to Edgartown, formed a club to provide a means of social contact which was otherwise lacking,. and to make possible pleasant use of leisure time. Fer the past five years the membership has been sixty-five. The idea of the club came from Louise Hayer of EngLwood, N. J. and has been improved upon by Edna and James Smith.

 

The United States Marine Hospital at Vineyard Haven ceased functioning on Tuesday, April 1, and on Wednesday afternoon the last patient was discharged.