To the Editor:
Have we learned nothing from the loss of the Mill House on Vineyard Haven Harbor?
When a person or a corporation decides to wipe out the few remains of Tisbury history for their personal desires or profit, it’s time to think of the greater good for generations. The Prouty House in Vineyard Haven, standing where it stood for so long, is a historic gem that harkens back to a town whose homes kissed the harbor.
Crawling through the weeds behind Stop & Shop, all one needs to get the flavor of the building is to peek in its windows to the artful balustrade curving up the interior stairway. This house should be owned by the town and restored in place as a welcome and information hub for visitors pouring off the ferries. The first thing they see now of Martha’s Vineyard is a tiny “info” kiosk amid bus, truck, and car traffic that leads into the clog of Five Corners. What needs to be demolished is the old Golden Dragon building, owned by the current eyesore of Stop & Shop, and turned into a park leading up to the historic Prouty House. Stop & Shop’s expansion should be contained and limited to the footprint they currently use, with no additional parking to further destroy the town’s welcome to the Vineyard, and the town should take over the Prouty House and its view of the harbor.
Stop & Shop is opening a megastore in Edgartown, and Vineyard Haven Harbor cannot support the traffic it already has. This is an opportunity for Stop & Shop to give back to the Island.
Stop & Shop, the M.V. Commission, the Tisbury selectmen, and all the MV residents can have a stake in preserving Island history. Can we work together to make this happen?
Georgia Morris
Vineyard Haven
I believe a lot needs to be done to Tisbury to make it ‘welcome’ people to the island. The Prouty House is the least of its worries. Let’s concentrate on things like flooded roads and intersections, a grocery store reminiscent of Cold War soviet architecture, telephone poles in the middle of the sidewalk, the collective eyesore known as the ‘working waterfront’ fraught with EPA violations, the apathetic town leadership, spontaneously exploding sewer system, sand covered streets etc. All that and more should be addressed before we go galloping off to save a crumbling house and turn it into a welcome center.
Just because a building is old doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything historic about it.
Personally I’d rather have a modern,clean and all on one level grocery store in Tisbury then another old crumbling building in the downtown area.
Homelessness and food insecurity mentioned often. Stop and Shop provides good food at good prices as opposed to Cronigs which is much more expensive. Stop and Shop in Edgartown is too far to go for Tisbury residents and the market was to be expanded and remodeled. Why turn that down and concentrate on a dilapidated old house that does nothing for the people
I agree with Andrew ! Trying to revise that house should not be a propriety when our kids are displaced because of unsafe conditions at a seriously dilapidated building. Perhaps the historical society could remove the “artful balustrade curving up the interior stairway” and put it in the museum. The current set up at stop and shop is embarrassing. If you want to really welcome visitors , give them a modern supermarket.
Sounds like a great plan. When are you going to buy all that property and set it in motion?
I still like the thought of moving to the old fire station lot and making it the welcome center. But I’d rather see a bunch of other stuff done first.