Until a major storm reconstructed our coastline around 1725, Cape Poge and the whole northern tip of Chappaquiddick the landmasses we sometimes refer to as Great Neck and Little Neck were a distinctly separate island. It was referred to in 17th and early 18th century deeds as “the island of Natick, alias Capoag, near […]
Henry Beetle Hough, in his 1936 book “Martha’s Vineyard, Summer Resort,” listed the Island’s five most colorful, outward-facing characters of the late 19th century: a “bell ringer at the camp meeting,” “a somewhat mad woman with her hens,” “Blind Nathan Athearn from North Tisbury who went about with a green market basket calling, ‘Bananas […]
At 3:45 am on Friday, Jan. 18, 1884, the 275-foot steamer City of Columbus, bound for Savannah from Boston, struck Devil’s Bridge off Gay Head, and sank beside the treacherous rocks. Despite the heroic labors of local residents mostly Wampanoag fishermen willing to brave the bitter, dangerous winter surf more than a hundred […]
The English settled Martha’s Vineyard from the outside in; early colonial settlements clustered around natural harbors and mill-powering streams, mostly near the periphery of the Island. The dry interior that scrubby triangle formed by the highways connecting Vineyard Haven, West Tisbury, and Edgartown remained virtually uninhabited for centuries. Modern inland developments like those […]
Welcome to the new Tisbury School! It’s 1930. Students, staff, and teachers have moved into the new school on West William Street, to pomp and parades. The deteriorating old Tisbury School on Center Street, together with its overcrowded, two-classroom annex (known as the “portable building” or “portable school”) is abandoned, soon to face the wrecking […]