Oak Bluffs is a town located on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,341 at the 2020 United States Census. It is one of the island's principal points of arrival for summer tourists, and is noted for its "gingerbread cottages" and other well-preserved mid- to late-nineteenth-century buildings. The town has been a historically important center of African American culture since the eighteenth century.
The first inhabitants of Oak Bluffs were the Wampanoag people, who have lived on Martha's Vineyard (Wampanoag name: Noepe) for approximately 10,000 years.[3] The area that is now Oak Bluffs was called "Ogkeshkuppe," which means "damp/wet thicket or woods."[4]
The area was later settled by Europeans in 1642 and was part of Edgartown until 1880, when it was officially incorporated as Cottage City. The town re-incorporated in 1907 as Oak Bluffs, named because the town was the site of an oak grove along the bluffs overlooking Nantucket Sound. Oak Bluffs was the only one of the six towns on the island to be consciously planned, and the only one developed specifically with tourism in mind.
People of African descent first arrived at Martha's Vineyard in the 1600s as enslaved West Africans who worked on the farms of European settlers. The Oak Bluffs harbor drew freed slaves, laborers and sailors in the 18th century, and white locals sold them land.[5] After slavery was abolished, the freed blacks came to work in the fishing industries, in turn drawing black residents from the Massachusetts mainland, who came and started businesses to serve the Vineyard's growing population.[6] In the 1800s some black laborers also worked as servants to wealthy white families and in the hotels.[7] In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks bought or rented summer homes, and many of their descendants returned annually.[5] Formerly enslaved people, or their descendants, bought property around Baptist Temple Park in the early 20th century, drawn by the religious services held there. Teachers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs resided there for decades afterward.[8]
Affluent African Americans from New York, Boston, and Washington came to Oak Bluffs, the only Martha's Vineyard town that welcomed black tourists as other towns on the island did not allow black guests to stay in inns and hotels until the 1960s.[6][7] Many bought houses in an area they called the Oval or the Highlands, which Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West wrote about in her 1995 novel, The Wedding (edited by Doubleday editor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a Vineyard resident who visited West for two summers).[5][7] By the 1930s, local black landowners were transforming the town into the country's best-known and most exclusive African American vacation spot.[6] Down the road from West, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. owned a cottage in the Oval where Arctic explorer Matthew Henson was a guest.[7] Further down the road is Shearer Cottage, the first inn for African Americans vacationers. It was built by a Charles Shearer, the son of a slave and a slave owner, when Shearer saw that black visitors were not able to stay at the homes due to segregation. Guests at the inn included the first self-made American millionairess Madame CJ Walker, singers Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters and Lillian Evanti; and composer Harry T. Burleigh.[7][9]
In 1866, Robert Morris Copeland was hired by a group of New England developers to design a planned residential community in Martha's Vineyard. The site, a large, rolling, treeless pasture overlooking Nantucket Sound, was adjacent to the immensely popular Methodist camp meeting, Wesleyan Grove, a curving network of narrow streets lined with quaint "Carpenter's Gothic" cottages, picket fences, and pocket parks. Seeking to take advantage of the camp's seasonal popularity (and overflowing population), the developers established Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company, gaining immediate success: Five hundred lots were sold between 1868 and 1871. Copeland would end up creating three plans for the community to accommodate its constant expansion. Oak Bluffs is one of the earliest planned residential communities and largely informed later suburban development in the United States.[10]
Some of the earliest visitors to the area that became Cottage City and later Oak Bluffs were Methodists, who gathered in the oak grove known as Wesleyan Grove each summer for multi-day religious "camp meetings" held under large tents and in the open air.
Gingerbread Cottages at Wesleyan Grove
As families returned to the grove year after year, tents pitched on the ground gave way to tents pitched on wooden platforms and eventually to small wooden cottages. Small in scale and closely packed, the cottages grew more elaborate over time. Porches, balconies, elaborate door and window frames became common, as did complex wooden scrollwork affixed to the roof edges as decorative trim. The unique "gingerbread" or "Carpenter's Gothic" architectural style of the cottages was often accented by the owner's use of bright, multi-hue paint schemes, and gave the summer cottages a quaint, almost storybook look. Dubbed "gingerbread cottages," they became a tourist attraction in their own right in the late nineteenth century. So, too, did the Tabernacle: a circular, open-sided pavilion covered by a metal roof supported by tall wrought iron columns, erected in the late 1880s, which became a venue for services and community events. The campground's gingerbread cottages are cherished historic landmarks as well as very expensive real estate. Many are still family owned and passed on generation to generation.[11] The cottages and the Tabernacle were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, recognized in 2000 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and declared a National Historic Landmark by the US Department of the Interior in 2005.[12]
Nineteenth-century tourists, arriving by steamer from the mainland, could also choose from a wide range of secular attractions: shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors, dance halls, band concerts, walks along seaside promenades, or swims in the waters of Nantucket Sound. Resort hotels, of which the Wesley House is the sole surviving example, lined the waterfront and the bluffs. For a time, a narrow-gauge railway carried curious travelers from the steamship wharf in Oak Bluffs to Edgartown, running along tracks laid on what is now Joseph Sylvia State Beach. In 1884, the Flying Horses Carousel was brought to Oak Bluffs from Coney Island and installed a few blocks inland from the ocean, where it remains in operation today. Built in 1876, it is the oldest platform carousel still in operation. Like the grounds and buildings of the Campground (so designated in April 2005), the Flying Horses were designated a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior.
In 1873, the neighboring community of Harthaven was established by William H. Hart when he purchased a lot from the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company. The community later moved in 1911 to its present location between Oak Bluffs town and Edgartown.
Geography
The lights of Oak Bluffs at twilight viewed from Mashpee (about 9 miles/14.5 km distant)Ocean Park Bandstand, Oak Bluffs
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 26.0 square miles (67km2), of which 7.4 square miles (19km2) is land and 18.6 square miles (48km2) (71.61%) is water. In terms of land area, the town is 323rd out of 351 communities in the Commonwealth, and the third smallest community (behind Aquinnah and Tisbury) in Dukes County. Oak Bluffs is bordered by Nantucket Sound to the north and east, Edgartown to the south, and Vineyard Haven Harbor, Lagoon Pond and Tisbury to the west. It also shares a common corner, along with Tisbury and Edgartown, with West Tisbury.
The northernmost point of the town, East Chop, is just over five miles from the mainland. The town shares Sengekontacket Pond with Edgartown, with the town's land ending at Sarson's Island, but wrapping around the waters around Felix Neck into Major's Cove. The highest points in town are between Sengekontacket and Lagoon Ponds, and west of Lagoon Pond in the irregular triangle of land which juts into Tisbury.
Oak Bluffs Fishing Pier
There are four public beaches in the town: Eastville Beach, facing Vineyard Haven Harbor and adjacent to the entrance to Lagoon Pond; Oak Bluffs Town Beach or The "Inkwell" is the name of the popular beach frequented by African Americans beginning in the late nineteenth century. The strand was pejoratively called "The Inkwell" by nearby whites in reference to the skin color of the beach-goers. It is the most famous of beaches across the U.S. to transform this odious nickname into an emblem of pride,[14] bordering Nantucket Sound just south of the Steamship Authority Pier; Hart Haven Beach, further to the south; and Joseph Sylvia State Beach, a barrier beach (shared by Oak Bluffs and Edgartown) that separates Sengekontacket Pond from Nantucket Sound. State Beach is punctuated by two inlets that connect the pond to the ocean. The smaller of the two is spanned by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Bridge, which lies wholly within Oak Bluffs, and the larger by the American Legion Bridge, the midpoint of which is the boundary between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. The formal names of the bridges are generally ignored by residents in favor of the traditional designations "Little Bridge" and "Big Bridge."
Oak Bluffs has a small, tightly enclosed harbor that draws large numbers of recreational boaters, and serves as a year-round home port to a small number of fishing boats. Seasonal passenger ferries to Falmouth, Hyannis, and Nantucket dock along the east side of the harbor, as does a high-speed ferry to Quonset Point, RI. The seasonal car-and-truck-ferry service operated by the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority docks outside the harbor, at a long pier projecting into Nantucket Sound, as does the fast ferry that provides seasonal service to New Bedford. The exposed nature of the pier means that Steamship Authority ferries are routinely diverted to Vineyard Haven during strong northeasterly winds. Oak Bluffs is also the site of Trade Winds Airport, a private grass landing strip located just north of Sengekontacket Pond.
Oak Bluffs town, Massachusetts – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
As of the census[27] of 2000, there were 3,713 people, 1,590 households, and 914 families residing in the town. The population density was 504.1 inhabitants per square mile (194.6/km2). There were 3,820 housing units at an average density of 518.6 per square mile (200.2/km2). The racial makeup of the town was 86.72% White, 4.31% African American, 1.51% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 2.50% from other races, and 4.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.19% of the population.
Like other towns in Southeastern Massachusetts, Oak Bluffs has had a large Portuguese-American population since the late 19th century. Many of these town residents were originally from the island of Faial in the Azores, and the neighborhood where many of them lived, located between Vineyard Avenue and Wing Rd, was once nicknamed Fayal. Today the town's Portuguese heritage is best appreciated at the Annual Portuguese Feast, held at the Portuguese-American Club on Vineyard Avenue in mid-July.
There were 1,590 households, out of which 27.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.3% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 42.5% were non-families, 32.6% were made up of individuals, and 13.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.94.
In the town, the population was spread out, with 22.6% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.2 males.
The median income for a household in the town was $42,044, and the median income for a family was $53,841. Males had a median income of $39,113 versus $31,797 for females. The per capita income for the town was $23,829. About 6.2% of families and 8.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.0% of those under age 18 and 8.5% of those age 65 or over.
Oak Bluffs ranks 263rd in population in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and third in Dukes County (behind Edgartown and Tisbury). It is 173rd in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in terms of population density, and second behind Tisbury in Dukes County.
On the state level, Oak Bluffs is represented in the Massachusetts House of Representatives as a part of the Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket district, which includes all of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as a portion of Falmouth. The town is represented in the Massachusetts Senate as a portion of the Cape and Islands district, which includes all of Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and most of Barnstable County (with the exception of Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth and Mashpee).[28] The town is home to the Fifth Barracks of Troop D of the Massachusetts State Police, which serves all of Dukes County.[29]
Oak Bluffs is governed on the local level by the open town meeting form of government, and is led by a board of selectmen. The town has its own police and fire departments, with the police being located near Oak Bluffs Harbor and the fire department being more centrally located in the town. The post office is located just east of the Vineyard Camp Meeting Association lands, as is Oak Bluffs Public Library, which is a member of the Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing library network. Oak Bluffs is also home to Martha's Vineyard Hospital, just northeast of the Lagoon, which serves all of the island.
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Island. It is the 58th largest island in the U.S., with a land area of about 96 square miles (250 km2), and the third-largest on the East Coast, after Long Island and Mount Desert Island. Martha's Vineyard constitutes the bulk of Dukes County, Massachusetts, which also includes the Elizabeth Islands and the island of Nomans Land.
Nantucket is an island about 30 miles (48 km) south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government in the state of Massachusetts, USA. Nantucket is the southeasternmost town in both Massachusetts and the New England region. The name "Nantucket" is adapted from similar Algonquian names for the island.
Dukes County is a county in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 20,600, making it the second-least populous county in Massachusetts. Its county seat is Edgartown.
Mashpee is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States, on Cape Cod. The population was 15,060 as of 2020. The town is the site of the headquarters and most members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, one of two federally recognized Wampanoag groups.
Aquinnah is a town located on the western end of Martha's Vineyard island, Massachusetts, United States. From 1870 to 1997, the town was incorporated as Gay Head. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 439. Aquinnah is known for its beautiful clay cliffs and natural serenity, as well as its historical importance to the native Wampanoag people. In 1965, Gay Head Cliffs were designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.
Chilmark is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,212 at the 2020 census. The fishing village of Menemsha is located on the western side of the town along its border with the town of Aquinnah. Chilmark had the highest median home sale price of any town or city in Massachusetts in 2013.
Edgartown is a town on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States, for which it is the county seat. The town's population was 5,168 at the 2020 census.
Gosnold is a town that encompasses the Elizabeth Islands in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 70, making it the least populous town in Massachusetts. Most of the residents live in the village of Cuttyhunk, while most of the land in the town is owned by the Forbes family.
Tisbury is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,815 at the 2020 census.
Vineyard Haven is a community within the town of Tisbury, Massachusetts, United States on the island of Martha's Vineyard. It is listed as a census-designated place (CDP) by the U.S. Census Bureau, with a population of 2,114 as of the 2010 census.
West Tisbury is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,555 at the 2020 census. Along with Chilmark and Aquinnah, West Tisbury forms "Up-Island" Martha's Vineyard.
Chappaquiddick Island is a peninsula and occasional island off the eastern end of Martha's Vineyard. Norton Point, a narrow barrier beach, connects Martha's Vineyard and Chappaquiddick between Katama and Wasque. Breaches occur due to hurricanes and strong storms separating the islands for periods of time. The two islands most recently reconnected on December 31, 2023. While both land forms have mostly been connected to one another in modern history, Chappaquiddick is nevertheless referred to as an island.
Martha's Vineyard Regional High School or MVRHS is the primary public high school for the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, United States. It is located in Oak Bluffs.
The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority, doing business as The Steamship Authority (SSA), is the statutory regulatory body for all ferry operations between mainland Massachusetts and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well an operator of ferry services between the mainland and the islands. It is the only ferry operator to carry automobiles to and from the islands. The Authority also operates several freight vessels, thus serving as the main link for shipping any commercial goods that are not transported using the airports on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard.
Katama is a residential area in the town of Edgartown, Massachusetts, on the south shore of the island of Martha's Vineyard. It is bordered on the west by Edgartown Great Pond, on the east by Katama Bay and on the south by the Atlantic Ocean. It starts at a fork in the road when you head south on Katama Road out of central Edgartown; Katama Road leads to the left and Herring Creek Road leads to the right.
Monohansett was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the island of Martha's Vineyard during the late nineteenth century. She was named after Monohansett Island, a tiny 12-acre (4.9-hectare) island off Naushon Island.
Edgartown Harbor Light is a lighthouse located in Edgartown, Massachusetts, United States, where it marks the entrance to Edgartown Harbor and Katama Bay. It is one of five lighthouses on the island of Martha's Vineyard. The first lighthouse, a two-story wooden structure that also served as the keeper's house, was constructed in 1828. It was demolished, and replaced by the current cast-iron tower, in 1939. Originally located on an artificial island 1/4 miles from shore, the lighthouse is now surrounded by a beach formed, since 1939, by sand accumulating around the stone causeway connecting it to the mainland.
Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority(VTA) is a bus transportation system serving Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. In addition to diesel buses, it has 19 electric buses charged at several points. The Edgartown facility has 700 kW solar panels and a 1.5 MWh battery adding to the bus power.
Massachusetts Senate's Cape and Islands district in the United States is one of 40 legislative districts of the Massachusetts Senate. It covers 66.7% of Barnstable County, all of Dukes County, and all of Nantucket County population in 2010. Democrat Julian Cyr of Truro has represented the district since 2017. He is running unopposed for re-election in the 2020 Massachusetts general election.
Massachusetts House of Representatives' Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket district in the United States is one of 160 legislative districts included in the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court. It covers Dukes County, Nantucket County, and part of Barnstable County. Since 2017, Dylan A. Fernandes of the Democratic Party has represented the district. Fernandes is running unopposed in the 2020 Massachusetts general election.
↑ Ellen Weiss, "Robert Morris Copeland's Plans for Oak Bluffs." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 34, No. 1 (March 1975) pp. 60-66.
↑ "1950 Census of Population"(PDF). 1: Number of Inhabitants. Bureau of the Census. 1952. Section 6, Pages 21-10 and 21-11, Massachusetts Table 6. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1930 to 1950. Retrieved July 12, 2011.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
↑ "1920 Census of Population"(PDF). Bureau of the Census. Number of Inhabitants, by Counties and Minor Civil Divisions. Pages 21-5 through 21-7. Massachusetts Table 2. Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1900, 1910, and 1920. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
↑ "1890 Census of the Population"(PDF). Department of the Interior, Census Office. Pages 179 through 182. Massachusetts Table 5. Population of States and Territories by Minor Civil Divisions: 1880 and 1890. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
↑ "Oral History Unit: An Interview with Aquinnah Wampanoag Elder Helen Manning". Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved January 17, 2023. I was the only person of color in the (school) system in Oak Bluffs, Gay Head, or Vineyard Haven until the late 1960s when there was Daniel Burgo, Wanza and Bettie Davis and Bob Tankard. You could count us on one hand.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
