Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
<!-- End ImageReady Slices -->If you're lucky, one of the first sights you'll see when you visit Martha's Vineyard is the magnificent schooners Shenandoah and Alabama under full sail a thrilling reminder of the Island's maritime past.
The schooners, owned by the Douglas family who built the famous Black Dog Tavern, have been anchored in the Vineyard Haven harbor for more than four decades, and they ride at anchor a few thousand feet away from the big ferryboats that connect the Vineyard to the mainland at Woods Hole year round via a 45-minute trip.
Just beyond the schooners along the harbor is one of America's few wooden ship boatyards, Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway. Here, beautiful schooners are still designed and built for people enthralled with creations that can only be done by hand. The launch of the boats, designed and constructed by Ross Gannon and Nat Benjamin, are minor holidays on the Vineyard. Hundreds of people come out to see the beautiful new boats, built with the same type of tools used for a century or two. As they slide into the harbors, the boats take their places among more wooden boats than in any other harbor in America.
As these emblems of Martha's Vineyard might suggest, Vineyard Haven the village is the center of the town of Tisbury has an extraordinarily deep maritime tradition. This was one of early New England's busiest ports. Coastwise shipping passed through Vineyard Sound and the boats docked here. Sailors from around the world knew Martha's Vineyard through the Seaman's Bethel here. First called Holmes Hole, the town only had three families in 1700. Just eighty years later, it had twenty-one inns, servicing visitors in the same way that many of the inns and hotels do now. The town was almost totally destroyed by fire in 1883, and the stores and homes along Main Street in the downtown area date since that time.
In the modern era, Tisbury's summer crowd has had a literary/journalistic bent: Lillian Hellman, William Styron, Mike Wallace, Art Buchwald, Diane Sawyer and Mike Nichols all have had seasonal homes here, and on a summer's evening, Buchwald, a much-beloved summer resident instrumental in starting the annual benefit Possible Dreams' Action, would saunter down to the movies at the Capawock Theater, built in 1919.
Today, you can do your own sauntering, finding galleries, a variety of shops, and Leslie's Drugstore, with the out of town newspapers. The famous independent book store, Bunch of Grapes, is here Bill and Hilary Clinton have both held book signings there, and dozens of other writers hope for one of the summer signing spots at the store. There are also a couple of coffee shops open all year, tiny places that become the collecting points for both year round and seasonal visitors. And, if you've forgotten your blender for your margaritas (the town is dry, so you'll be making your own), you can buy a blender from LeRoux At Home kitchenware store.
Vineyard Haven is the Island's most year-round community and has a regular schedule of community events, many of them at the Katharine Cornell Memorial Theater, an old meeting house (1844) named for the stage actress and summer resident who was an early Island celebrity. Two blocks away, the Vineyard Playhouse, at 24 Church Street, has for a quarter of a century provided a full summer calendar of live theater, and does many productions in the winter, as well.
The Tisbury Street Fair held in July invites you to help it celebrate its birthday each year, when the town closes off Vineyard Haven's main street and turns it into a teeming party scene complete with bands, food and sales. The party starts in late afternoon and goes long past dark one of those rare night-time activities on the Vineyard that attracts everyone of every age.
Tisbury itself is eight square miles. It's outermost tip, a jutting piece of land called West Chop, is only five miles from Cape Cod. The land slopes up from Vineyard Haven toward the Chop, and water-front homes bordering the narrow road that loops around the Chop, usually constructed with the graying cedar shingles so defining of Vineyard and Cape Cod architecture, have glorious views. The West Chop Woods is a Sheriff's Meadow preserve. And the West Chop lighthouse, built in 1838, sits almost on top the hill with a precipitous drop down to a rocky private beach below on the lighthouse grounds is a great place to watch the ferries go to and from the mainland.
Also outside downtown:
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Public Beaches
- Lake Tashmoo Beach. At the end of Herring Creek Road. Lifeguard on duty.
- Owen Park Beach. A harbor beach just a short walk from downtown.
- Vineyard Haven Harbor. A narrow strip of land between the Steamship Authority and the Black Dog Tavern. Not great for swimming, but good place to wade.
- State Road leading out of Vineyard Haven take you past a handful of small shopping areas and the Lake Tashmoo overlook. The beauty of the overlook is so strong that you'll often see Vineyarders pulled over, eating their lunches in their cars. They might have picked those lunches up at Humphrey's, a well-known sandwich shop on the Vineyard, or at Cronig's Market, one of the five grocery stories on the Vineyard. And, they might also have a handful of items they'd picked up at Shirley's Hardware whose wonderfully cheesy television advertisements feature the same clerks you'll see in the store.
- In addition to Owen Park, the town maintains War Veterans' Memorial Park off Causeway Road, which includes playground equipment for young children and playing fields used by local teams.
Tisbury's population is just over 3,000, and it has just over 300 children attending its elementary school. Its library is at the end of Main Street in Vineyard Haven. It also is the home of the Island's only synagogue, the Martha's Vineyard Hebrew Center, which has a major Summer Institute series featuring outstanding speakers on Wednesday nights.
Martha's Vineyard Transit Authority buses serve Vineyard Haven, departing regularly from the ferry dock at the Steamship Authority. Taxi stands there also offer transport to any of the Island towns. Year-round ferries serve Woods Hole and New Bedford.
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