Time Machine Terms
September 23, 1949
“Far Removed from Din of City” Wrote the Poet of Harbor View Hotel When it Was Young
For the first time in more than fifty years, the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown has changed hands. The Walker family has been in control of the property since 1898, seven years after its original opening. In that year, F. A. Douglass, the first owner of the Harbor View, sold two thirds of the interest in the hotel to Dr. T. G. Walker and L. T. Townsend, Dr. Walker later acquiring the entire property, which has been owned recently by his children, Mrs. Luther M. Sibley and Raymond Walker.
September 23, 1949
Chosen Derby Queen
The annual derby dance, which is a part of the opening of the striped bass derby, was held at the Tisbury school auditorium on Friday night, bringing out a gratifyingly large crowd and a brand new class of contestants for the various prizes offered. Manny Silva’s orchestra pleased the dancers, and the committee, headed by Clifford Luce, went to considerable lengths to make the event enjoyable.
September 16, 1949
H. T. Burleigh Was One of Music’s Great Figures
Harry Thacker Burleigh, eminent composer, singer, and arranger of Negro spirituals — and who was for more than thirty years a summer resident of the Vineyard — died in Stamford on Sept. 11 at the age of 82. He was one of the great figures in music in his generation.
August 5, 1949
Garlands for the Garden Club on Its Anniversary
The sides of the weatherbeaten old mill at West Tisbury fairly bulged with the throng who gathered there to participate in the silver jubilee celebration of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club on Tuesday afternoon. Including those who stood outside and listened through the windows, attendance at the meeting was close to the three hundred mark with others dropping in later at the Open House.
August 2, 1949
Editorial: Silver Anniversary
Twenty-five years of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club leave us wondering a little what the Island would have been without this active force. It is easy to recall dozens of times when the traditional understanding as to billboards would have been broken, when trees would needlessly have been cut down, when road work would have ravaged the countryside without need, when many unforeseen contingencies of the kind have arisen, and the good sense and courteous firmness of the Garden Club have prevailed.
July 1, 1949
Creative Arts School Opening
The School of Creative Arts, with Miss Kathleen Hinni, director, a new venture here, will open July 6 in the Trench House on Massachusetts avenue, Oak Bluffs. Swimming, dancing, music appreciation, hand work and dramatics, games and sports, horseback riding and advanced work for girls are on the curriculum. There will also be classes for adults in rhythmic exercise and folk dancing.
June 24, 1949
Vineyard Got Along Minus Golf Till ‘93
They say that the beginnings of the game of golf are lost in history - but it’s not quite that bad on Martha’s Vineyard. Golf, as known to modern man, began here in the early nineties. How the Island had struggled along, no one can say, but it has not been without golf for any appreciable time since, and probably never will again.
Combining history with tradition - and there is fully as much of the former as of the latter in this review - the priority of golf on Martha’s Vineyard seems to line up as follows:
April 29, 1949
Captains, Kings Go; People Take Over
It happened yesterday. One minute before 11 a.m., the Island boat line was administered by the officers and directors of the Massachusetts Steamship Lines Inc., as constituted for some time past; one minute after 11, the management was in the hands of new officers and directors, the responsibility of the New Bedford, Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamboat Authority.
April 15, 1949
Followed The Whale Slick All Over The World
Capt. Ellsworth Luce West, last of the Vineyard whaling captains, died at his home on the Middle Road, Chilmark, on Sunday nigh, following some months of failing health. He was in his 85th year and although feeble physically for some time, his faculties had remained active until his death. As an authority on the Arctic, his last days had been spent in the dictation of a volume on Arctic phenomena and his Alaskan experiences. He was also collaborating with Vilhjalmur Stefansson the explorer, in recreating in print various phrases of the whaling era.
April 15, 1949
Recalls Pole Discovery: Matthew Henson, Former Island Visitor, Recalls Momentous Day
A few summers ago the Vineyard, and particularly Oak Bluffs, was host to one of the most notable figures in the world of exploration, Matthew A. Henson, who watched Comdr. Robert E. Peary stake out his claim to the North Pole. It was not until many years after that world-shaking event of forty years ago that Henson’s true place in the picture won general acceptance and his heroism on the icy journey became widely known.
