Chris Baer
This Was Then: The new jail
During 1874-5, a new jail was built on the corner of Main and Pine streets in Edgartown. Pressure to move the jail had begun...
This Was Then: The old jail
“Oh, that jail!” wrote a Chicago Tribune reporter visiting Edgartown in 1873. “It’s not well patronized. A few years ago, a man was put...
This Was Then: 02573
Frederick Alton Long, a 29-year-old butcher from West Dennis, was hired as the first postmaster for the new development of West Chop in 1891....
This Was Then: Harry Horton
The electric trolleys which ran between Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven for more than two decades ceased operation about 1918. One became a house,...
This was then: Speed
In 1902, Edward Mulligan of Quincy, a wealthy Boston broker and Cottage City summer resident, was charged with manslaughter after his speeding automobile caused...
This Was Then: The artificial creek
Tashmoo is a saltwater estuary today, fed by a small, spring-fed freshwater pond, but prior to the 1938 hurricane, it was a freshwater lake...
This Was Then: The boys who fled
Philip Higgins of Westfield was 13 years old when he was arrested for robbing $40 dollars from a local store in 1879. One of...
This Was Then: The grist mill and the rat fire
The old S.B.S. grain store on Water Street, Vineyard Haven, was a longtime side business of the successful grocery enterprise of Smith, Bodfish, and...
This was then: Going up!
Elevators have long remained off-Island curiosities for the entertainment of Vineyard kids visiting the mainland, as there have been precious few to ride here...
This was then: The Martha’s Vineyard Air Meet of 1928
“Fully 10,000 persons” reportedly thronged the road from Edgartown to Katama over two days in 1928 to witness the Island’s first-ever air meet. More...
This was then: Arvagasugiaqpalauqtut Kinguvaanginnik Qaujinasungniq
Consumer DNA tests have become an important new tool for historians. Companies like 23andMe and AncestryDNA (which recently announced its 5 millionth customer) can...
This Was Then: Cap’n Dave
Cap’n Dave Butler of Menemsha Creek (1859-1943) grew up on Nomans Land, the son of artist George Butler, one of the Vineyard’s first photographers.As...
This was then: The Edgartown Cornet Band
The Edgartown Cornet Band, under the direction of band leader Richard G. Shute, played during the summer months in the late 1890s.Chappaquiddick ferryman Charles...
This Was Then: Stella
Stella Abiah Ryan was born in 1885 in the town once known as Gay Head, the daughter of Charles Ryan and Rachel Diamond of...
This was then: The Joggins
It emerged from a heavy fog into Vineyard Haven Harbor just after midnight on August 8, 1888. It was nearly an eighth of a...
This was then: Summer Toboggans, the Casino, and the North Bluff Flying Horses
The Flying Horses, the Casino, and the Summer Toboggan Coast are clustered in the background of this late-1880s view down Kennebec Avenue toward North...
This Was Then: Studley’s store
Clem Studley came to the Island as a toddler with his Yarmouth-born parents, and after a brief period selling tea in Providence with his...
This Was Then: Harding’s clothing store
W.D. Harding’s clothing and shoe store stood on Circuit Avenue roughly where Reliable Market is today. Mr. Harding, a Vineyard Haven native who opened...
This Was Then: Conant’s Studio
Photography arrived in the United States in the early 1840s and spread astonishingly quickly. By the end of the decade there were dozens of...
This Was Then: Warned out
One of the main functions of town government in the 1700s and 1800s on Martha’s Vineyard, or anywhere in the commonwealth, was caring for...