Mystery at the Light
The strange story of the Gay Head Light Keeper’s House and the unimaginable tragedy that befell one lightkeeper’s family.
Owen Little Way: A Love Story
Once, long ago, I fell in love with a house and then I fell in love with the man who built it.
Let the Sun Shine
Homeowners go solar on the Vineyard to save the planet and to save money. For Llewellyn Rogers, the priority was reducing his electric bill. In less than four months he saved more thna $1,000 on electricity costs.
There’s a Chart for That
For two Island ferry captains, the end of paper nautical charts only makes them more precious – both as practical aids and works of art.
Have Goats, Will Travel
The only sounds were the rustling of branches and the crunching of leaves. It was a brilliant late-summer morning, and a herd of goats was having breakfast on a piece of land near Black Point Pond, where Rebecca Brown of Island Grazing was working on a private meadow restoration project. There were tall Kiko and…
Wes Craven’s The Birds
Our bird columnist has begun to worry about his avian conversations. So in the spirit of mental transparency, he booked a session with the respected Boston psychiatrist Dr. Malleus Maleficarum.
Pillow Talk
After twenty years of focusing on her Vineyard Haven gallery, Nancy Shaw Cramer is ready to take a step back.
Island Classic: The Picket Fence
Something there may be that doesn’t love a wall, according to Robert Frost, but who can resist a white picket fence? No one in Edgartown, it would seem. Dating back to the colonial period, this classic decorative fencing style has been popular in the United States for centuries. The first formal fences were heavily influenced…
How It Works: Mouseproofing
I once had a friend who lived in an old farmhouse that had a five-foot blue racer snake living inside the walls. I asked him why he didn’t have it removed and he tersely replied: No mice.
Imagine
Bonnie McElaney Menton has a clear recollection of an evening forty years ago: the day John Lennon came for a slumber party.
Why Is This Man Smiling?
Longtime Island regular Vernon E. Jordan Jr. recently received the 2014 “lifetime achievement award” from American Lawyer magazine for reasons too long to list.
Teak Talk
Let’s break it down by the numbers.
From the Editor
When I heard recently that the Discovery Channel is coming to the West Tisbury Dumptique to shoot a series about the famous giant sword maker of Martha’s Vineyard, I was filled with remorse and fear on multiple levels. What if those worn-in, but not worn-out Spanish boots of Spanish leather I left there not long…
There’s Something About Mary
When Mary Rentschler signed on to help Robert Luskin decorate a new addition in his West Tisbury home, she had no idea that she would become his roaming interior designer for the next dozen years. From a rural Martha’s Vineyard setting to downtown Atlanta and historic Washington, D.C., Rentschler has logged the miles, creating comfortable,…
Notes from the Tackle Room: The Reverse Atom
One of the most famous of all striped bass plugs, the Reverse Atom was born on the beach at North Truro on Cape Cod on a hot August afternoon in 1949.
DAW: Photographic Tricks
The architecture magazineShows bathrooms gleaming and pristineWhose sinks, it seems, have never seenA toothbrush cup or Listerine
Real? Repro? Go Ask Nancy.
In the age of “reality” shows like Antiques Roadshow and Pawn Stars, when appraisers are minor celebrities and every grandmother’s attic seems to contain at least one semi-precious vase or imposter impressionist, it often appears as if determining the worth of a thing – any thing – takes little more than a quick once-over by…
Going Solar: How Are We Doing?
Back in 2002, architect Kate Warner set a goal for all of Martha’s Vineyard: install 500 rooftop solar arrays by 2010.
No, We Mean a Really Great Aunt
It started at Thanksgiving. Peggy Ehrenkranz, then eighty-three-years-old, and her twin children, Katherine and Doug, gathered with their families from various parts of the country to celebrate the holiday at Katherine’s home in McLean, Virginia. They all would have preferred to be coming together at their beloved Vineyard family camp at Makonikey, a two-structure rustic…
Goats on a Boat
The Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation is now in its second season of using goats to clear invasive Asiatic bittersweet vines from Cedar Tree Neck. That decision was mostly a logistical one. “We were just brainstorming different ways to manage the neck because it’s really hard to access with machinery to mow,” said Kristen Fauteux, director of stewardship for…
Karasik Cartoon
Oceanography
Oceanography: Don’t Steal This Eel
An appetite in Asian markets for the littlest of little American eels has led to a spike in their price. And that, in turn, has led to a rise in illegal harvesting and concerns about the species as a whole.
That's My Boat
That’s My Boat: Rich Washington
“I bought it last year – it wasn’t [called] Chocolate Chip. It was some ungodly name that you can’t even pronounce that meant nothing to me at all. I have a forty-four-footer, and the name of that boat is Hot Chocolate.”
The Look
The Look, 1975
Photographer Peter Simon’s housemates pose in front of their semi-commune in Aquinnah, where they spent the summer outfitting the house with utilities.
