Vincent’s Paper Store in Vineyard Haven, for generations a landmark at the corner of Main and Center streets, is about to be moved to the Call Block, so called, the location of the summer shop know
NANTUCKET - On a hot Tuesday morning, tourists clog
Nantucket's cobblestone streets, strolling from boutique to art
gallery to coffee shop.
Walking from Main to Centre streets, they sip a latte, buy a hooded
island sweatshirt and brunch at the Jared Coffin House, knowing nothing
of the obstacles this old whaling city has overcome just to serve them.
Now is always a good time to market a quality product, say a number of Island entrepreneurs opening new businesses this summer.
"Our idea ... was to kind of seize the moment," said Frank Pellegrino, opening a Mexican restaurant where Lawry's seafood restaurant used to be in Edgartown.
He said that he and partner Denise Page didn't want uncertain economic times to deter them from taking the lease to a valuable piece of property: Not many businesses come with parking lots attached, he said.
With the tragedies of Sept. 11 forcing many vacationers to postpone or altogether cancel their autumn trips to the Island, some Vineyard businesses find themselves in an unexpected financial pinch.
While the slowdown is inevitably affecting the Island economy, most business owners are taking the hit with patience and understanding.
"This is not just an inconvenience, this is an attack on mankind," said Sandy Berube of the Jonathan Munroe House in Edgartown.
There are no ripples or wake anymore, but the impact of no Schamonchi and no fast ferry from New London, Conn., has hit some businesses in Tisbury hard, especially along Beach Road where the ferries used to dock and disgorge tourists by the hundreds.
Carmel Gamble glared at the chain-link fence surrounding the beachfront lot next door to her Vineyard Haven cottage. “This is not the Vineyard Haven I knew,” said Miss Gamble, a veterinary technician and self-described “clown on sabbatical” who returned to Martha’s Vineyard two years ago after five years in Hawaii. “But this ugly steel chain-link fence, I mean, what we love about the Vineyard is that it’s beautiful. That’s why people come here,” she said.
When John E. Phillips opened his store in 1928, penny nails were four cents a handful, a pound of putty was about a dime and every face that passed through the door was a familiar one.
