In 1881, it came as a shock to the residents of the brand new Cottage City that they apparently did not own the beautiful parks built by the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company. Its execution of the construction of the world’s first wholly-built seaside resort was only exceeded by its ability to sell the lots of land profitably ­— and the company was in deep financial trouble. Hoping to stem the losses from their aggressive growth, they offered the parks (and nine streets) to the town at no charge.

Oak Bluffs was tongue-in-cheekily referred to as the Barbary Coast in the 1700s when it was only Edgartown’s Eastville/Farm Neck neighborhood. One of the main Martha’s Vineyard docks was located at that road to nowhere at the north end of Eastville avenue — nearby the site of the famous Eastville Inn, our first tavern.

The 1900s saw the Oak Bluffs economy faltering. As the religious and resort business in Oak Bluffs contracted, land earmarked for development was instead sold as farmland — a proposition welcomed by the newly-arrived Portuguese who also brought farming skills with them.

From 1835 to 1879, Edgartown’s Farm Neck/Eastville community grew dramatically, due to the Camp Meeting Association replacing family tents with permanent wooden homes. Almost simultaneously, the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company built the new seaside resort now frequently called Cottage City, which is believed to be one of the first communities built all at one time.