It is credibly reported that the U. S. Marine Hospital property in Vineyard Haven has been sold to the Boston Seaman’s Friend Society, the sale having been consummated within the past week.
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum has taken an option on the former Marine Hospital in Vineyard Haven, giving the museum’s board until the end of January to decide whether the historic property perched on a hilltop above the harbor could serve as the new home for the Island’s historical collections.
The marine hospital went on the market in April with an asking price of $3.19 million.
An important piece of Island history is for sale.
The old Marine Hospital in Vineyard Haven has been placed on the market by the St. Pierre family, which has owned the property since the 1950s.
Built on a hill overlooking the Vineyard Haven waterfront in 1895, the hospital treated soldiers and sailors and their families, in peacetime and through two world wars. From the late 1950s until two years ago, the property has housed a summer camp for children.
Eugene Baer, teacher of art at the Tisbury School, would never have come to Martha’s Vineyard had it not been for the St. Pierre summer school. He was introduced to the school as a student in college, when he was looking for work as a counselor. “I had never heard of Martha’s Vineyard,” he says.
According to Barbara St. Pierre-Peipon, Mr. Baer’s story is not unique: many people first heard of the school before learning of the Vineyard. As the school goes through its 46th year, its reputation continues to spread.
The sale of the U.S. Marine Hospital property, so-called, in Vineyard Haven, to the St. Pierre School, by the Boston Seaman’s Friend Society, appears to be in the process of becoming effective at the present time according to Henry Corey, Oak Bluffs attorney, who is handling the legal part of the transaction for the New Bedford Institution for Savings.
The possibility of an active and duly accredited summer school on the Island, together with provisions for private tutoring by local teachers, has been proposed by Mr. and Mrs. J. Raoul St. Pierre, of the St. Pierre School Inc. of Boston and the Vineyard. Brought before the Island superintendent of schools, Charles E. Downs, and the regional school principal, Charles A. Davis, the proposal is being explored.
