Its porches and windows frame Edgartown harbor and the surrounding landscape, drawing visitors from around the Island and the world. It is a favorite spot to sit back and watch the sailboats in the harbor, the changing skies throughout the different seasons and the fireworks on the Fourth of July.

Ten years ago looking for a change of pace, Scott Jones and Kell Hicklin left their suits and ties down south and bought the Lambert’s Cove Inn and Restaurant in West Tisbury.

“Who would’ve thought we’d be bottle feeding goats four times a day?” said Mr. Hicklin. “It’s a long way from the corporate world.”

John Tiernan has the talk of a salesman, the walk of a local and the passion and energy to dream big for Oak Bluffs, which is perhaps why the Dockside Inn has flourished since he bought it in 2012. “I have a vision that Oak Bluffs should be that grand seaside resort it once was, with welcoming arms,” he said.

Four words are carved in a wooden block sign hung above the door frame in Peter Martell’s Oak Bluffs office. Ever Ready. Ever Willing. Mr. Martell is one of the co-owners of the Wesley Hotel, the oldest hotel on Martha’s Vineyard. Along with George Fisher and Richard Kelley, he bought the hotel in 1985 from Paul Chase. The three men renovated it for nine months and reopened for business in the spring of 1986.

At the Lightkeepers Inn on Simpson’s Lane in Edgartown, it was a long summer for light-sleeping inn-seekers.

Construction across the lane at the site of the former Shiretown Inn has provided its share of metaphorical and actual headaches to Heidi Raihofer and her guests at the Lightkeepers Inn over the past several months, and the time has come, she says, for a rational noise ordinance in Edgartown to address the matter.

Decades ago most visitors to the Island stayed in hotels, usually for several weeks and often as long as several months. At larger places like the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown and the Pequot Hotel in Oak Bluffs, it was common for people to rent a room all summer long.

A glass of wine or beer at the end of the day is relaxing and may have health benefits, it is said.

Hugh and Jeanne Taylor hope the addition of beer and wine sales to the dinner menu at the Outermost Inn will have the same effect on their business.

The inn has been granted Aquinnah’s first limited liquor license and the Taylors hope to begin pouring after a public hearing later this month. The hearing is required by state law.

Edgartown’s venerable landmark hotel, the Harbor View Hotel, will close later this month for extensive renovations, probably not to reopen until late spring next year.

Work on the kitchen, restaurant and rooms is expected to cost around $25 million and be done by May. It is the first phase of a two-year, $77 million project to refurbish and expand the hotel, which first opened in 1891.

The Harbor View Hotel, a shingle-style turn-of-the-century hotel that graces the entrance to the Edgartown harbor at Starbuck's Neck, is set for sale to a Nantucket-based investment group, along with the Kelley House, an 18th century tavern that is now a pub and inn complex spanning Water and Dock streets.

The properties represent a significant piece of downtown real estate in Edgartown, as well as two of the best known resorts on the Vineyard.

Innkeeper Stephen Caliri chats about golden retrievers with his guests in the parking lot of the Victorian Inn after directing them to lemonade and cookies on the back patio. The cordless phone on his belt rings, and Mr. Caliri begins rattling off room rates to a prospective guest on the other end of the line. He even mentions the third-floor mahogany deck he laid over the winter.