Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts 9/26/1998

One of my days at Cape Cod was spent touring Martha's Vineyard. After a night of heavy thunderstorms I awoke to a beautiful sunny day. I climbed on the table top next to the camper and indeed could see the water. Then a brisk morning wind dried the green checked table cloth and it was off for Wood's Hole to catch the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. I planned to go park at the free park across from the three mile bike trail where I would ride right onto the ferry.

I eventually located the parking area and had a lovely ride down a nearly flat path with trees on either side. I thought if it got as hot as yesterday I would need the shade returning. I met people walking their dogs, strolling their children, roller blading, and just enjoying the day. I did arrive at the ferry where I waited in line with four other retirees and their bicycles.

On the forty five minute drive over on the Islander I visited with a woman who had her black lab along and lives on MV. I left at 10:45 and arrived at 11:30. Another woman sat down that was the tour guide for a group and was quite enthralled with the fact that I was "foot loose and fancy free."

I got off with my bike and found myself at Vineyard Haven which is the main port of entry to MV. It was a bustling seaport in the age of whaling. It is surrounded by East Chop and West Chop on which each protuding point is a lighthouse. It is mentioned in a deed from 1646 but was then called Holmes Hole after a Plymouth blacksmith named John Holmes who owned land in the area. Hole was sailing slang for a nick in the coastline. In 1871 it was renamed Vineyard Haven.

The larger town around Vineyard Haven is Tisbury, named after Thomas Mayhew Sr.'s hometown in England. He bought the Vineyard and Nantucket in 1641 for $200. The Tisbury Inn estabilished in 1794 looked like the place for me to have lunch. I went to the corner to park my bike in one of the ever present bike racks and then stopped in a little shop where I couldn't resist a few items. After my little shopping frenzy a table on the sidewalk was perfect for me and I decided it was time for Maryland crabcakes with remoulade sauce. That gave me the energy to bike off down the highway for Oak Bluffs.

It was a pleasant ride with a few small hills along the coast and at times I just enjoyed the homes along the way. Oh what a charming place I discovered at Oak Bluffs. I first stopped at the visitor's center and then wandered in a couple of shops up the street. The prices seemed reasonable and everyone was having t shirt and sweats sales. The oldest operating platform carousel is near the visitor's center and adults and children alike were enjoying the horses. They were playing "horseback games" as the carousel swirled. There are 22 horses with real horse hair on the carousel.

Then I located the old Methodist campgrounds and all the little gingerbread houses around the entire circle and down the side streets. In August 1835 a handful of tents were pitched amid a grove of oak trees for a week of spiritual rejuventation. By 1880, the Methodist revival meeting in the Camp Ground had grown into a summer city of a thousand wood frame tents and cottages. Houses replaced the tents that surrounded the tabernacle. Streets, homes, and hotels then sprang up around what was part of Edgartown and known as Cottage City. In 1880 Cottage City broke away from Edgartown and claimed that as it's name and then in 1907 the town was renamed Oak Bluffs. Their summer resort economy spread throughout the island when the whaling economy disappeared. Circuit Avenue is the business center of the town and was named for the "circuit" that many of the preachers rode. The tabernacle was built in 1879 and is 100 feet high and 130 feet across seating over 3,000 people. The most expensive cottage was the Ark which cost $3,500 to build. The owner was on the porch scraping and painting as I saw several doing. With all the brilliant and sometimes gawdy colors they use, a little touch up painting must always be in order.

I stopped at the Cottage Museum where for $1 I could look at antiques from the campground days and tour the house. I guess the pictures of Hillary and Bill got us started. I got so wrapped up in visiting with Stephanie, the co-manager, that I almost forgot to look at the rest of the house. She was quite enthused that I am from Arkansas and indeed she is a Democrat and Clinton fan. She loved hearing little tidbits of stories I could tell her and obviously likes a little gossip. She told me about the place across the street where one could rent an efficiency for $350 a week in off season at the Tabernacle House.

Also nearby was the Pink House which I had seen on postcards and indeed it is pink. I guess with that fame they can't very well change color schemes. They evidently sell a lot of pink house paint in the area.

One of the highlights for the day was visiting with a couple from Niantic, Ct. who had come to stay a few weeks at their son's home at the end of the summer season.


On up the hill I passed the Civil War Memorial Statue built in 1892. Also in the park was the Ocean Park Gazebo and the waiting place for the buses. They use yellow school busses as shuttles between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown so I decided I would park the bike and

So I was off to Edgartown. We drove along the beach where sunbathers and swimmers were still enjoying the water's edge. A narrow strip connected the two towns, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown, with a small beach on one side of the road and a marsh on the other. The water was a dark aqua blue and the beach indeed looked inviting. We got out at the Visitor's Center in Edgartown and after a short tour along Water Steet I realized that if the other islanders like natural cottages or painted gingerbread this town likes white and big.
Edgartown is filled with Federal and Greek Revival homes. The first settlement on the island was begun in 1642 and it grew steadily until by 1825 it was a major whaling port. Near the tourist center was the Dr. Daniel Fisher House, Edgartown's premiere Federal style house built in 1840. Dr. Fisher supplied oil to all the nation's lighthouses. He also owned the town wharf, a whale oil refinery, and a spermaceti candle factory and in the 1840s had an income of $250,000.

The Old Whaling Church has a 92 foot clock tower and was built in 1843. Many of the homes in the area were built in the 1840's and 1850's according to the insignia marking them. I paused under the Pagoda Tree planted in the mid 1800's. Captain Thomas Milton brought the tree from China in a flower pot when it was a seedling. I wandered among the stately homes and inns down to the town wharf. There I saw the lighthouse amidst fisherman lining the edge of the wharf. I watched one man clean a flounder looking fish. The ferry for Chappaquidick, seen in the background, leaves from alongside this wharf.

I returned to the visitor's center and at 4:30 I boarded the yellow bus again and arrived in Oak Bluffs just in time to get my bike and watch the 4:45 ferry pull away from shore.Perhaps it was time to trade my sign that read "I don't wear a watch because I am a lady of leisure" for a watch!

I returned down the bike trail as the sun set behind one of the mansions along the shore. It was a fast paced but lovely ride as again I saw walkers, joggers, and children playing. I crossed a narrow area where you could see the water and there were two swans in a bay with a half moon above them. At dusk I was glad to see the van, Ziggy. I turned onto 6 and then north on 130 and came to the Shawme-Crowell campground in the national forest with the same name.