A Walking Tour of Oak Bluffs

The seeds of Oak Bluffs sprouted in August 1835 from a handful of tents pitched amid a grove of oak trees for a week of spiritual rejuvenation. By 1880, this Methodist revival meeting in the Camp Ground had grown into a summer city of a thousand wood frame tents and cottages.

Initially a part of Edgartown, Oak Bluffs was once known as the Cottage City of America. Soon church folk from all over the country gathered here for the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting. They came to preach, pray, reflect and repent in a spirit of religious fervor. As stores, hotels and larger homes sprang up around Cottage City, it developed into a seaside resort.

Oak Bluffs is a relatively young town, by Island standards, and since its economy had more to do with recreation than with the time-honored whaling or shipping trades of Edgartown and Vineyard Haven, it evolved with a much more frivolous, light-hearted air.

Instead of serviceable, weather-hardy salt-boxes or dignified captains' houses, Oak Bluffs filled with frilly, even gaudy, multicolored gingerbread cottages -- unwinterized "wooden tents" erected to replace the earlier Methodists' canvas ones.

Oak Bluffs businesses also leaned toward pure entertainment -- there were theaters, a giant roller skating rink, hotels, and a carousel (still in operation).

Before the turn of the century, townsfolk were feeling their own needs, separate from Edgartown, so community leaders began agitating for separation. In 1880, they broke away and renamed the town Cottage City. In 1907 they renamed it as Oak Bluffs.

As the Vineyard's first summer resort, Oak Bluffs fostered a vacation economy that soon spread throughout the Island to replace the disappearing whaling economy.

Circuit Avenue.
Always the business center of town, it was named for the "circuit" many of the Camp Ground's preachers rode. The Oak Bluffs Land & Wharf Company laid out most of the town and named it. Their first commercial building, the Arcade, is half-way up on the right side.

Camp Ground. Late 1800s, summer residences. Entrance to the famous Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Grounds. Original owners modeled their cottages after the Victorian styles popular in Newport, but added unique Revival elements, especially filigree trim. The result was the "Carpenter's Gothic" style.

Tabernacle at Trinity Park.
1879, open-air auditorium. Originally designed to be built of wood, the Tabernacle, one hundred feet high, 130 feet across, and seating more than 3,000, was built with wrought iron and replaced a one-ton tent. On Illumination Night, each August, hundreds of Japanese lanterns decorate the Tabernacle and the eaves of surrounding cottages.

The Lawton Cottage.
Number 70. Said to be the first family cottage to replace a tent, it was prefabricated, shipped from Rhode Island, and assembled on the site.

Cottage Museum.
A chance to see the inside of one of the gingerbread cottages. The public is invited to see exhibits that show how cottages were furnished for the past 100 years -- with rocking chairs, Bibles, hooked rugs, quilts and historical bric-a-brac. Located at 1 Trinity Park, open Monday-Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm.

The Ark.
Owned by Governor William Sprague of Rhode Island during the Civil War, this cottage was the most expensive one to build, costing $3,500. The name comes from its large size and from the rain water which sometimes surrounds it.

Tall Timbers.
This gray three-story cottage has long, one-piece pine boards that run the height of the house and form the principal support for the upper two stories.

Number 17.
Situated on Commonwealth Avenue, this cottage features a hunter and his dog pursuing a rabbit in its gingerbread woodwork. The new steam-driven tools of the late 1800s made detailed woodwork possible.

Wesley Hotel.
1879, commercial. Built by A.G. Wesley for the sum of $18,000, the hotel prospered until a November 1894 fire. Three days later, A.G. confessed to arson. He wanted to build "an even larger, more creditable hotel for the community." The hotel rehired A.G. as a cook after he served three years in jail. This sole survivor of the large hotels so prominent in Cottage City's heyday was remodeled in 1986.

Oak Bluffs Harbor.
Once a swampy, landlocked pond called Lake Anthony, this harbor was opened up to the ocean at the turn of the century. Now it holds as many as 5,000 boats snug and safe during the entire summer. The boardwalk still bustles with little shops as in bygone days.

Flying Horses.
1876, operating museum. The oldest operating platform carousel in the country is registered as a National Historical Landmark. There are twenty-two wooden horses with real horse hair.

Civil War Memorial Statue.
1892. Gift of Charles Strahan, who served in the Confederate Army and was editor of the now-defunct Martha's Vineyard Herald, which was printed in Oak Bluffs. In 1980, the town re-painted the statue. The statue clearly is of a Union soldier; U.S. is stamped on his kit. But the re-painting in Confederate gray honors Strahan's memory.

Ocean Park Gazebo.
Showplace seven-acre park. The annual fireworks and summer band concerts are held here. The houses reflect the more affluent families in their size and style -- Queen Anne and Gothic Revival. Mindful of public spaces, the densely housed folk of Oak Bluffs set aside an abundance of little parks.

Dr. Tucker's Cottage.
1872, summer residence. Built by a patent medicine king known for his hospitality. His diaphoretic compound Number 59 was sold across the country. President Grant once watched fireworks in Ocean Park from his balcony.

Hartford Park.
The Consecrated Tree, an old, gnarled, dried-up cedar set in cement and dedicated with a plaque, has been a place of worship since 1849. The plaque on this natural free sculpture tells the tree's story. Nathaniel Hawthorne mentions a prayer service held here in My Kinsman Major Molineaux.

Cottager's Corner. Once the town hall, this is now the office of Cottagers Inc., which supports a number of Island charities. Many "friends of" organizations such as this one channel the goodwill of civic-minded Vineyarders toward worthy causes.

Union Chapel.
1872, nondenominational church. Designed by noted architect Samuel F. Pratt, this octagonal, acoustically sound chapel with its three-tiered roof and four doors was the site of secession meetings when the town debated breaking away from Edgartown. Concerts are held here in summer.

©1999 Best Read Guide/Martha's Vineyard
P.O. Box 66 (34 S. Summer St.) - Edgartown, MA 02653