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Martha's Vineyard Towns

The history of each of the Vineyard's towns is as varied as their differing personalities. Though settlement began in Edgartown, people began to settle in different parts of the island. Farming and fishing provided the staples of life early on, but soon each town developed based on its unique characteristics. Edgartown prospered as a whaling port during the early to mid-1800s. More than 100 whaling captains hailed from this town, and today their stately homes, a majority of them built between 1830 and 1845, line the main roads as reminders of the fortunes made harvesting whale oil. The last half of the 19th century saw a rapid decline in whaling when the discovery of petroleum made the pursuit of the leviathan an obsolete profession.
Edgartown's prosperity stagnated until tourism restored the town and its many beautiful buildings to their 18th- and 19th-century splendor.

Vineyard Haven, known early on as Holmes Hole, is the island's second-oldest town, incorporated in 1671 as Tisbury. Its excellent harbor made it an important port town where the wares of the Vineyard could be readily sold to off-islanders. Oceangoing traffic was so busy in the area that Nantucket and Vineyard sounds were considered second to only the English Channel for the number of vessels passing through. The sea played a large part in the town's development since locals would serve as sailors and fishermen on local and foreign vessels.
Today, Vineyard Haven maintains its port status, providing a busy harbor connecting the island to the mainland--and to the rest of the world, for that matter.

The town of Oak Bluffs, incorporated in 1907, was once part of Edgartown. Its development as a seasonal community began in 1835 when an Edgartown man, Jeremiah Pease, selected the area of Oak Bluffs to hold a Methodist camp meeting. The idea caught on, and each summer the camp meeting grounds were visited by religious folk who pitched tents to spend time worshiping and relaxing beneath the oaks, which grew abundantly in the area. Very soon the tents were replaced by cottages. So many cottages were built that when Oak Bluffs broke away from the town of Edgartown in 1880 it was named Cottage Town (until 1907 when it was renamed).
Residents decorated the cottages with ornate woodwork, and today their gingerbread flavor dictates the personality of this quaint resort town.

Up island lie the towns of West Tisbury, Chilmark, and Aquinnah.
West Tisbury was largely a farming community and maintains its rural personality. It was formally a part of the town of Tisbury until it broke away as a separate town in 1892.
Meanwhile, Chilmark, with its fishing village of Menemsha, earned its living from both the sea and the land. Chilmark was incorporated in 1694.
Aquinnah, which became an independent town in 1870, is a geological wonder with its cliffs of clay displaying the fingerprint of the last ice age. The town's roots stem from a Native American settlement, and today Aquinnah is home to more than 100 members of the Wampanoag tribe.

At present Martha's Vineyard economy is largely driven by tourism. Tourism began in the mid-19th century at Oak Bluffs. In fact, the tourism, prevalent in Oak Bluffs and then in neighboring Vineyard Haven, helped resurrect Edgartown years after the whaling boom of the mid-1800s had gone bust. Islanders seized this new industry by renovating the old sea captains' houses, turning them into inns, bed and breakfasts, shops, and restaurants. In the process, they also preserved magnificent architecture and irreplaceable history. Today, Edgartown is an upscale vacation town where you can stay and dine in buildings that speak volumes about a century when men went to sea to hunt whales.

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