This Was Then: A story of three Vineyard men
Brothers William and Luther West of Chilmark were of solid Island stock. Their parents and grandparents were all Island natives, as they were. Their family tree was a constellation of Island names including Tilton,...
This Was Then: Doppelgängers and namesakes
Our Island shares its names with people, places, and products around the world, some for historically connected reasons and others by coincidence, complicating our Google searches and rerouting our Amazon orders.
Tisbury and Chilmark on...
This Was Then: Superintendent of streets
“You didn't have tractors, you didn't have the machinery that you got today,” recalled the late Basil Welch of Vineyard Haven in a 1982 recording. “We had an old 1936 ton-and-a-half dump truck, and...
This Was Then: Welcome to Oak Bluff … Manitoba
It’s a little unfair to ridicule tourists for asking directions to “Oaks Bluff.” There is an Oaks Bluff. About a 47-hour drive west of Woods Hole, Fair Oaks Bluff, located in a scenic park...
This Was Then: Some assembly required
The Ford Motor Company is often lauded for the invention of the modern assembly line (a claim that begins with a lot of caveats). But the truth was, unless you lived near Detroit, that...
This Was Then: Smith, Bodfish, and Swift
S.B.S. — Smith, Bodfish, and Swift — was once an extensive Island chain. Their flagship store was a grocery on Main Street, Vineyard Haven, under the shade of the Linden Tree, but at the...
This Was Then: Dolph
“I recall Dolph; his job in the winter was to plow the sidewalks after a snowstorm,” remembered the late Stan Lair (1902-1987) of Vineyard Haven. “He had a horse, and a small snowplow. In...
This Was Then: Street Store
There were no fewer than seven grocery stores in downtown Edgartown at the turn of the 20th century. The list, which included Pease Brothers, Thomas Mellon, Holmes Smith, and four others, doesn’t even include...
This Was Then: North School and Hill Mill
There were four school districts in Edgartown at the time of the American Revolution: “Pohoganut,” the Plains, Chappaquiddick, and Edgartown village. In 1837, a statewide survey overseen by educational reformer Horace Mann reported six...
This Was Then: The 1918 flu
In Massachusetts, 16,358 residents died in the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, according to the official figures of the time. Twelve of them were from Martha’s Vineyard. But both numbers were undercounts. The best...
M.V. Museum explores the history and myths around Thanksgiving
Many pervasive myths surround Thanksgiving, a holiday celebrated by the majority of Americans. Historian, professor, and author David Silverman will join Aquinnah Wampanoag and tribal elder David Vanderhoop for a conversation about these myths...
Museum will host interactive Halloween show
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum hosts UnExquisite Corpse, a Halloween spectacle, on Friday Oct. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 31, from 6 to 8 pm. This immersive and farcical show shapes its haunted landscape through storytelling,...
This Was Then: Lost graves of Martha’s Vineyard
Jonathan Tilton, here he lies,
Nobody laughs and nobody cries;
Where he's gone and how he fares,
Nobody knows and nobody cares.
Jonathan Tilton (1770–1837) of Tisbury was described by author Charles Hine as “one of the odd...
This Was Then: Woodpecker Hall
Chilmark’s first town hall was built on Middle Road in 1844, not far from Tabor House Road, on land given to the town by Capt. Nathan Bassett. Town business was conducted here for more...
This Was Then: Classic Rocks, Part II
Twenty thousand years ago, two colossal glaciers crossed paths to form Martha’s Vineyard as we know it. To the east was the mountain of ice now known as the “Cape Cod Bay Lobe,” a...
This Was Then: Poison Vineyard
This Island is full of native poisons. Black widows, water hemlock, jimsonweed, baneberry, amanita, man o' war, and many, many others. Moshup, the legendary Wampanoag giant, smoked pokeweed rather than tobacco in some versions...
This Was Then: The manufactories
Flipping through the “1907 Business Directory of Oak Bluffs,” you’ll find it’s arranged by category. One might look up “Boarding Houses,” for example (there were 14), or “Electricians” (there was only one). Many categories...
This Was Then: Swept aground
It was ten o’clock on a Monday night, August 24,1931. The steamer Naushon was arriving in Vineyard Haven from New Bedford via Woods Hole, with an unusually small number of passengers (28), and a...
History, culture, and sculpture
Oak Bluffs has long been known for its rich history, specifically when it comes to African American culture. This is the legacy that Mariposa Museum hopes to emphasize with its newest exhibit, “Freedom Songs!”
Mariposa...
This Was Then: 10 minutes to Boston
In August 1807, Dr. James Freeman visited the port of Holmes Hole (today, Vineyard Haven). He described a rustic village consisting of about 70 homes, two schoolhouses, one church, 11 vessels, and one huge,...