Martha's Vineyard - Questions Answered
Martha's Vineyard, USA - October, 2005
Who is Martha? Is there a Vineyard? Why is this island such a famous holiday destination? Well, as it was only a 40 minute flight from Boston we decided to go for the weekend and find out!
The story behind these tiny holiday homes is a religious one but it may have been the birth of the tourist industry.
The plane journey itself was an experience as we huddled in the rain on the busy Logan International runway beside a tiny nine seater plane. Once relieved of our hand luggage we were allocated seats according to our weight, with one lucky passenger chosen to sit in the co-pilot’s seat. The views as we left Boston behind were incredible and our first glimpse of Martha’s Vineyard, seven miles off the Massachusetts coastline, a complete surprise.
The island is much larger than you expect (100 square miles) and on landing appears covered by trees. The airport couldn’t be more central and only took 10 minutes by taxi to reach our hotel in Edgartown. The town is exactly how you would imagine a New England harbour town to look like with quaint shops, stunning sea captains’ houses and a postcard perfect lighthouse. Everything man-made is painted brilliant white and stands out against the sky and sea.
The small harbour, crammed full of fishing boats and luxury yachts, is overlooked by restaurants and waterfront houses. The majority of the town is residential with only two commercial streets – Main Street and Water Street. The 18th century Old Whaling Church with its six massive columns is located on Main Street and looks out of place next to the small bookshops, restaurants, boutiques and galleries. The shops continue along North Water Street with irresistible homemade ice-cream and fudge shops.
When the shops end, keep walking and you will pass elegant sea captains’ houses with large verandas overlooking the street or the sea. Rocking chairs and swing seats fill the front porches and you wish you could sit down with a good book and enjoy the historical setting. After trying to decide which house you would buy if you had a few million dollars spare you arrive at the island’s most prestigious hotel, The Harbor View, built in 1891 and opposite you will find the town’s lighthouse.
A walk out to the lighthouse, through the gorse bushes and onto the sand spit, is well worth the trek and provides great views across the harbour. It is the perfect place to blow away the cobwebs, breathe in the sea air and listen to the seagulls. Despite being so close to town it feels like you are in a wilderness or bird sanctuary and it’s easy to imagine what the island must have been like before the days of the Colonial settlers.
The small harbour, crammed full of fishing boats and luxury yachts, is overlooked by restaurants and waterfront houses.
Edgartown is one of six towns on the island and is located on the South Eastern coast. There are two other towns on the East coast – Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs. Vineyard Haven aka Tisbury is the furthest north and the main harbour for ferries transferring holidaymakers from the mainland. Oak Bluffs lies just round the peninsula and is well worth a visit if only to see 1,000 candy coloured cottages.
The story behind these tiny holiday homes is a religious one but it may have been the birth of the tourist industry. The Civil War brought the end of the Whaling era which meant financial ruin to the ship owners and the island. In 1835 the Edgartown Methodists held a camp meeting in an oak grove high on the bluffs at the northern end of the town. The worshippers and their preachers slept in tents and over the years attracted other Methodist church groups from the mainland.
By the 1850’s the size of the Sunday congregation reached 12,000 and each church group would sleep in their own communal tent and services would take place in a large central tent. Eventually the tents became wooden cottages and the central tent was replaced by an iron Tabernacle in 1879. The cottages to this day are all painted in soft pinks, blues, greens and yellows with tiny porches big enough for two rocking chairs. As you explore the streets and crescents it feels like you are walking among giant doll’s houses.
The town was called Cottage City until 1907 when it was renamed Oak Bluffs and still has a fish n’ chip and candy floss atmosphere. As well as its busy harbour and beach there is a seaside park with a Victorian bandstand as well as the Flying Horses Carousel, the oldest continuously operating carousel in the country, whose horses were carved in New York in 1876.
You can fish, boat, bike and walk till your heart’s content breathing in the sea air and enjoying the sunshine.
The island’s history goes back a lot further than the 18th century. The Wampanoag Indians have lived here for thousands of years and taught the 16th century settlers how to grow corn and kill whales. Unlike elsewhere the Indians were treated with respect and no land was taken from them without consent and payment. Wampanoag Indians still live on aboriginal lands on the South Western peninsula of the island in the town of Aquinnah, famous for its mile long expanse of cliffs.
The island’s remaining towns – West Tisbury and Chilmark – also lie to the west of the island and are easy to get to thanks to the public bus service which links the towns either through the mainland or along the coast. Martha’s Vineyard is also a biker’s haven with every town having at least two bike hire shops. A separate bike lane follows the main roads so if you can’t face the cycle back to your hotel you can take the bus as they are all conveniently fitted with bike racks.
The island is also a popular destination for weddings, three took place the weekend we were there, but if you don’t have a wedding to go to you can sample the fabulous choice of restaurants that the six towns have to offer. Although many people live on the island all year round it is still very much a summer holiday destination and many of the town’s restaurants open in April and close in October. The restaurant where we had dinner was closing its doors for the season that weekend which explained the party atmosphere at the bar as locals came to bid them farewell until next year.
So is there a vineyard on the island? Chic?ma Vineyards is located near the town of West Tisbury, the agricultural centre of the island. Their wines have wonderful names such as Summer Island Red, Oceanus, Cranberry Satin and Hurricane Chardonnay and are surprisingly good. The winery was only founded in 1971 but we know there were grapes on the island long before that thanks to the island’s name. According to legend, Bartholomew Gosnold arrived on the island in 1602 and named it after one of his young daughters and the wild grapes that grew everywhere.
Just as the Methodists discovered back in the 18th century Martha’s Vineyard is the perfect place to escape from the hustle and bustle of the mainland. You can fish, boat, bike and walk till your heart’s content breathing in the sea air and enjoying the sunshine. People move at a different pace on the island with cars stopping to let you cross the road and shopkeepers happy to spend time chatting and enquiring where you are from. There is no graffiti, no litter or crime and everyone is holiday happy. Sounds a little too perfect – perhaps – but as we flew back over the Boston skyline we had all our questions answered and more importantly had joined the ranks of those who had been to Martha’s Vineyard.