Union Chapel will open its doors for its 150th summer season on Sunday, July 4 with Swarthmore College president Valerie Smith in the pulpit.
Union Chapel
July 29, 2021
On Wednesday, August 4, Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs is hosting a free dedicatory recital of its recently restored organ, which dates back to 1924.
July 31, 2021
Louisa Hufstader
Two of the country’s most prominent black intellectuals joined forces on the stage of Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs Thursday afternoon, where an eager crowd of listeners filled the pews.
August 10, 2021
Noah Asimow
On Saturday night at 10 p.m., Sen. Raphael Warnock was on Capitol Hill, fighting to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill. On Sunday morning Reverend Warnock was preaching on Martha’s Vineyard.
2013
July 8, 2013
On a hot Sunday morning in Oak Bluffs, the Hon. Margaret Marshall’s words were focused on a continent and an era away: South Africa during the apartheid era, when Nelson Mandela was a source of inspiration to Ms. Marshall and so many others.
July 4, 2013
On Sunday, July 7, Margaret H. Marshall, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, will be the featured speaker at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs. Her talk begins at 10 a.m. and is entitled Immigration and Justice.
June 27, 2013
Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs begins its 2013 season on Sunday, June 30, with a slate of visiting preachers, some returning for their second or third visit and others preaching here for their first time.
2002
July 22, 2002
The Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust confirmed this week that it will buy Union Chapel, the storied Oak Bluffs chapel whose rich history forms a distinct chapter in the annals of the Vineyard as a summer resort.
1971
June 25, 1971
The story of the building of Union Chapel just 100 years ago was told in the Invitation edition of the Gazette. Never in recorded history has there been so much change during a century as has occurred during the existence of this chapel.
During the eventful year of 1871 there had been bi-centennial celebrations for both Edgartown and Tisbury, a new post office had been established on the Methodist camp ground, and a new steamboat - the first Martha’s Vineyard - plied the sounds. Also, in that year, the Vineyard Gazette celebrated its first quarter century.
May 7, 1971
It was just 100 years ago that Union Chapel raised a spire 96 feet into the air. There was nothing else higher in the rapidly growing community of Oak Bluffs at the time, but a year later the Sea View Hotel was built opposite the new steamboat wharf, and one of its towers was 100 feet high with a flagstaff on its peak adding an additional 16 feet to the overall height. It stood on the bluffs, while the Union Chapel was built on lower ground. The Chapel Hill on which it was built was little more than a mound of slight elevation.
