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Edgartown Edgartown is an eminently walkable town and everything (except some of the beaches) is within walking distance. That's fortunate, for in summer the place tends to be wall-to-walk people, bicycles and cars. The shops, restaurants and inns are compressed into a maze of narrow streets leading from or paralleling the harbor. Interspersed with them and along side streets that live up to the description "quaint" are stately large white whaling captain's homes, neatly separated from the brick sidewalks by picket fences and colorful gardens. Here you see and sense the history of a seaport village preserved from the 19th century. Walk around. Don't miss the churches: The Old Whaling Church, the tall-columned Greek Revival structure that doubles as the Performing Arts Center, the little St. Andrew's Episcopal Church with its beautiful stained-glass windows, a cheery interior and a carillon that tolls quite a concert across town in the late afternoon; the imposing First Federated Church with old box pews and a steeple visible far at sea. Other highlights are the newspaper offices of the revered Vineyard Gazette in a 1764 house across from the Charlotte Inn, the towering Pagoda Tree brought from China as a seedling in a flower pot early in the 19th century and now spreading over South Water Street to shade the Victorian and Harborside inns, the Old Sculpin Art Gallery showing works of various artists, and all the august sea captain's homes of diverse architectural eras along Water and Summer streets in particular. Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society/Vineyard Museum, 59 School St., Edgartown. Here is a block-size museum complex worth a visit. The eleven rooms of the 1765 Thomas Cooke House are filled with early island memorabilia. You're apt to see historians at work in the Gale Huntington Library of History, through which you pass to get to the Francis Foster Museum, which has a small maritime and island collection. Outside is a boat shed containing a whaleboat, fire engine and old wagon, plus the original Fresnel lens from the old Gay Head Lighthouse, mounted in a replica of the lighthouse lantern and watch room, and still lighted at night. (508) 627-4441. Open Tuesday-Saturday 10 to 5,
June to mid-October; Wednesday-Friday 1 to 4 and Saturday 10 to 4,
spring and fall; by appointment late December to mid-March. Adults, $7. The Vincent House Museum, 99 Main St., Edgartown. The Vineyard’s oldest house (1672) contains most
of its original woodwork, glass and hardware. During recent restoration,
some of the walls of the unfurnished house were left exposed to
demonstrate the types of construction used. The museum offers tours of
the nearby Dr. Daniel Fisher House (1840), an imposing Federal presence
on Main Street, and the Old Whaling Church (1843), where summer resident
André Previn and Friends were about to give a benefit concert at our
latest visit. (508) 627-8619. Open Monday-Saturday noon to 3, May to
Columbus Day. Admission $4, museum and tour $6. Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, off Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, Edgartown. With blinds on Sengekontacket Pond, this is a favorite spot for birders, but we know locals who try to walk portions of the six miles of marked nature trails every day. The sanctuary embraces 350 acres of beach, marsh, fields and woodlands. The executive director has been instrumental in bringing back the endangered osprey to the island. Naturalists offer bird walks, canoeing, stargazing and snorkeling, among special activities. A visitor center in a renovated barn has freshwater and saltwater tanks containing local species. (508) 627-4850. Visitor center open daily, 8 to 4
in summer; Tuesday-Sunday 9 to 4, rest of year. Grounds open daily, 8 to
7. Adults, $3. Beaches. Katama Beach, the public part of the seemingly endless South Beach along the open shore three miles south of Edgartown, has excellent surf swimming, a tricky undertow, shifting dunes and a protected salt pond inhabited by crabs and scallops. A shuttle bus runs from Edgartown in summer. Non-surf swimming is available at the picturesque Joseph A. Sylvia State Beach, a narrow, two-mile-long strip between Edgartown and Oak Bluffs. Back toward Edgartown is Bend-of-the-Road Beach; its shallow waters are good for children. In town is Lighthouse Beach at Starbuck's Neck, on the harbor at the end of Fuller Street and seldom crowded. Chappaquiddick Island. Reached by a five-minute ride on the On Time ferry from Edgartown, it has a public beach facing the Edgartown Harbor at Chappy Point, plus the Cape Pogue Wildlife Refuge and Wasque Reservation beaches. These are remote and secluded, three miles from the ferry – best reached by car as bicyclists may find it difficult negotiating some of the sandy roads (but parking is limited). On the way you'll pass the forested My Toi Preserve, a surprising Zen-like oasis of Japanese gardens, and the Chappaquiddick General Store and gasoline station, surrounded by abandoned cars and the only commercial enterprise of size on the island. The sponsoring Trustees of Reservations, which continues to buy up open land here, offers countless hiking trails as well as a variety of activities on Chappaquiddick, from fishing trips to natural history tours – three-hour guided expeditions over ten miles of remote barrier beaches (reservations, 627-3599). Extra-Special Chicama Vineyards, Stoney Hill Road, West Tisbury. The wild grapes that gave Martha's Vineyard its name have been cultivated since 1971 by ex-Californians George and Catherine Matheisen and daughter Lynn Hoeft, who make "the kinds of wines we like to drink," Catherine says. They specialize in dry viniferas, among them a robust shiraz, a Summer Island red that's meant to be drunk young, and the first Martha's Vineyard-appellation merlot. Much of the winemaking operation is outside and rather primitive, as you might expect after negotiating Stoney Hill Road, a long mile of bumps and dirt that we'd rename Stoney Hole. Several hundred people make the trek on a busy summer day and relish the shop's choice of wine or herbal vinegars, dressings and jams, all neatly displayed in gift baskets and glass cases lit from behind so the herbs show through. In the fall, the Christmas shop also offers festive foods, wreaths and hot mulled wine. (508) 693-0309 or (888) 244-2262.
www.chicamavineyards.com. Open Monday-Saturday 11 to 5, Sunday 1 to 5,
Memorial Day to Columbus Day, to 4, mid-November through December;
reduced hours, rest of year. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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