The 1862 Vineyard Gazette’s issue of Dec. 5 included the homily; “You had better ask for manners than money, said a finely dressed gentleman to a beggar boy who had asked for alms. I...

How sickly ironic that the last movie shown at the Island Theatre (August 2012) was named Sparkle, something the building hasn’t seen for a generation. It certainly sparkled in June 1915, when...

Agassiz Hall was the name of the building that housed the Martha’s Vineyard Summer Institute, the fabled school for teachers that ironically overlooked Highland Beach, and was used by black...

The ebullience of the advertisement in the Vineyard Gazette of Sept. 5, 1873 missed no opportunity for hyperbole in describing the opportunity of ownership in the new Bellevue Heights development at...

I’m of course partial, but Oak Bluffs may be one of the best places for Thanksgiving, if that’s something on your schedule next week. Born of myth and mandated by a popular president in...

Following establishment of the Methodist Camp Ground in 1835, the speculation of Martha’s Vineyard knew no bounds. Our 7.5 square mile town is about 4,500 acres. Development began in earnest in...

To continue for a bit longer on the story described in last week’s column, we return to the home originally owned by Ebenezer G. Lamson, an abolitionist who owned a company that helped...

Some of the most interesting Oak Bluffs stories begin with the homes in town. The large stately house in Eastville where Temahigan and New York avenues meet was brought to my attention by its...

Although the first federal census was taken in 1790, over 100 years after Martha’s Vineyard was discovered, Oak Bluffs was a part of Edgartown so we don’t know how many people lived here...

Some of Oak Bluffs’ whaling captains who financed the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company moved their business to San Francisco. The price of whale oil went into a tailspin when it was found more...