Public funding for a project to repaint and restore the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown is on hold after the discovery that a work estimate from the Vineyard Trust had been altered.
Vineyard Preservation Trust
June 9, 2021
Noah Asimow
Vineyard Trust executive director Funi Burdick has resigned effective immediately, after irregularities were discovered in public funding requests for restoration work at two of its flagship properties.
June 14, 2021
Noah Asimow
State and local police are investigating discrepancies in public funding requests submitted by the Vineyard Trust for restoration and maintenance work on two landmark properties.
June 24, 2021
Noah Asimow
With funding on hold for restoration work at two of its landmark properties and the resignation of its executive director, the Vineyard Trust is grappling with an array of issues amid recent upheaval.
2012
June 7, 2012
The new pews are still empty, and the fresh pine they are built from won’t begin to creak until parishioners arrive later this month, adding their imprint to the long history of the Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.
2011
May 5, 2011
It took a gentle push and a firm pull of many hands to get the 1,590-pound bronze bell back into position. But last Friday, after months of work and preparation, the Old Whaling Church bell was again in its place high above downtown Edgartown.
January 27, 2011
On Monday the 1,590-pound church bell that has rung the hour for Edgartonians for five generations was temporarily relieved of duty. The bronze bell, cast in 1843 and installed in the Edgartown Whaling Church in 1889, was gingerly removed from atop the clock tower by crane, for the first time, on the coldest day this winter.
2010
December 23, 2010
A historic catboat named Edwina B. is the most recent acquisition of the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust. The 22-foot wooden boat, built by Manuel Swartz Roberts in Edgartown in 1931, is possibly the last of three catboats he built still in the water.
The nearly 80-year-old boat has had a circuitous life with different names and different ports of call. She has been part of the Edgartown waterfront for at least the past 20 years. The former owners see the boat’s journey bringing her to Edgartown to stay.
2008
November 20, 2008
The Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust announced this week that it will buy and preserve the Norton property on the Edgartown harbor that includes the Osborn building, the oldest structure on the Edgartown waterfront.
The trust will buy the Dock street property owned by the Norton family which includes two buildings and a dock adjacent to Memorial Wharf. The boathouse was built after the 1944 hurricane. The Osborn building is much older and dates to the 1830s.
2006
October 6, 2006
The Daniel Fisher House, a highly regarded historic Federal house on Main street in Edgartown, will undergo significant renovations in the coming weeks.
In addition to the roof being re-shingled with thick red cedar shingles, the chimney tops will be taken down and rebuilt. New ornamental woodwork that hasn’t been seen on the building for years will be installed. The ornamental trim that ran around the eaves of the roof and dates back to the house’s origin already was removed by crane last month.
