Railroads
Railroads
March 18, 2024
Trains, Resorts and Big Ideas; the Rise of the Tourist Industry
Vineyarders were taken back in time on Thursday, to the late 1800s and the end of Edgartown’s whaling industry, when town leaders were trying to come up with ideas to revive the moribund Edgartown waterfront.
April 11, 2013
Oak Bluffs Town Column: April 12
A remarkable picture of Beach Road (circa 1900) placed on Facebook by Martha’s Vineyard Antique Photos sparked a discussion among Shelley Christiansen, Tom Dunlop, Sam Low and others about erosion at End of the Wall beach in Oak Bluffs. The loss is even more deceptive given the absence of surf on Nantucket Sound and startling because even average northeasters close the road at the culvert we used to call first bridge, once a crabbing spot.
September 3, 2009
Martha’s Vineyard Railroad Had a Very Short Ride
For 21 years — from the late summers of 1874 through 1895 — a passenger train chuffed along a route that looks inconceivably imposing to us today: from what’s now the Oak Bluffs Steamship Authority wharf, over the very sands of State Beach, through the fairways and greens of the Edgartown Golf Club, perpendicularly across Upper Main street, along the border of not one but two cemeteries and into what are now the subdivisions and farmlands of Katama before terminating at two dead ends: the dunes of South Beach and a hotel at Mattakessett whose ugliness was rivaled only by its windswept isolation and self-evident vulnerability to fire.
January 27, 1921
When the Island Echoed to the Locomotive’s Whistle
These were the last survivors of the Vineyard’s most ambitious project. Of course the right of way is an intangible thing at best to any but the owners. And it was sold. As for the streak of rust. Well, a spirit of economy which never characterized the scheme in its heyday finally removed the rails of the first and last railroad on the island.
July 16, 1896
The Vineyard Railroad
In its issue of Saturday evening last the New Bedford Standard published the following as a special dispatch from Boston:
Boston, July 11. - As a preliminary measure in the proceedings against the Martha’s Vineyard Railroad company for opening its road without the Boards approval, the Railroad Commissioners have under consideration the issuing of a public notice to the effect that the condition of the road has not been approved by the Board, and that it is unsafe for public travel.
April 18, 1895
Change of Hands in the Cottage City Railroad
A railroad deal which bids to play an important part in the high life of Cottage City has just been consummated. The Cottage City street railway has been sold to gentlemen interested in the Boston & Quincy Railroad company, and Josiah Quincy is president of the syndicate. Land near Norton’s store at Eastville has been purchased for the location of a power house, 40 by 70 feet, and work will be immediately begun for a first class electrical equipment. E. G.
June 27, 1890
Old Colony Assumes Control: The Martha’s Vineyard Railroad Taken Possession Of
Mr. J. R. Kendrick, General Manager of the Old Colony Railroad, and other officials of that road, visited the Island last Monday, and he is now general manager of the Vineyard road, having taken possession of the property in behalf of the trustees, Messrs. Chas. F. Choate and Frederick L. Ames.
August 28, 1874
The Rail Road
All difficulties have at last been overcome, and the iron horse now speeds from Oak Bluffs to Katama and returns with the swiftness of the wind. The snort of the engine strikes upon the ear and reverberates over hill and dale, waking up the dormant energies of man, and causing the cattle on a hundred hills to skip and jump like rams.
May 29, 1874
The Vineyard Railroad
Dacey Brothers, of Neponset, have taken the contract to build the railroad. They are under bonds to have the road completed and ready for the rolling stock by July 20th.
