In February 1879, the year before we seceded, 136 years and one month ago this coming Sunday, Oak Bluffs was a town of 150 families that included 132 voters. According to A. Bowdoin Van Riper...

The new year is a time for reflection. 2015 was a great year for Oak Bluffs, among the best since secession in 1880. According to the census, as of January 2015 we’re a town of 4,810 people...

One of the most disastrous expeditions in whaling history, the destruction of the Whaleship Essex, is now on the big screen in Ron Howard’s film In the Heart of the Sea.Nathaniel Philbrick...

Tis the season for partying, and since time immemorial Oak Bluffs has earned our prized honky-tonk reputation. Well, time immemorial may be a slight exaggeration. It was in the 1700s that our first...

Back in the sixties Woody Guthrie played at the Mooncusser, the iconic coffee house that was next door to Phillips Hardware store on Circuit avenue. His son Arlo, who played at the high school for...

A bike ride a few years back helped me spot the small graveyard alongside the Vineyard Haven-Edgartown Road near the County Road Oak Bluffs Next Right sign across from Dodger’s Hole. I’ve...

Emanuel Joseph was known as the first Portuguese settler on Martha’s Vineyard. Born in the Azores in 1774 he married Mehitable Luce here in 1796. Most of the early folks from the Azores were...

October’s seasonal weather has been spring cool, summer hot and for a couple of evenings almost fireside winter cold. The colors have come out, making a trip down east unnecessary. The skinny...

Each fall, when all that green begins to turn brown, the burning bushes (Euonymus alatus) and Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) distinguish themselves with a last gasp of bright red to herald the end...

Writing about the history of Oak Bluffs often brings pangs of nostalgia, and every once in a while I ease that by grazing through Harlem Renaissance author Dorothy West’s original writing.On...