OAK BLUFFS, Mass. - Gingerbread covered cottages painted a rainbow of colors sit in the historic Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association (MVCMA).
Visitors interested in architecture, history, religion or just wanting a quiet, peaceful escape will find it here. The island is filled with many other activities too - beaches, horseback riding, golf and more make this a family-friendly place to visit.
"It's a unique area," said William C. McConnell, MVCMA general manager. "Once you step on the grounds people say they enter another world. It's quieter. The atmosphere, the location, the people all combine to make it a unique area."
About 315 cottages are preserved from the mid to late 1800s in this small town on Martha's Vineyard. The cottages have a fascinating history. The grounds formerly known as Wesleyan Grove has a documented history with the religious "camp meeting" movement of the early 19th century and the layout of the grounds is like the post Civil War camp meeting sites.
"They started with tents and then to tents with a wood floor and later built a wood frame cottage on the camp sites," McConnell said. "That was during the 1860s. People came from off island, that's what we call it here when they come over on boats and such, to attend the meetings."
Visitors can walk around the campgrounds, looking at how different each cottage is decorated and how close they are to one another. It is almost like a miniature village but people live in the cottages, some year round, and others just for the summer. Visitors have the opportunity to see inside a cottage since one has been preserved as a museum.
"People get to see what the inside of a cottage looks like," McConnell said. "It's done in period furnishing. People can see just how small it is inside."
Visitors entering the Cottage Museum, find a small living room where an admission of $2 is paid. The room is filled with memorabilia and a scrapbook of photos from the early days. The kitchen houses the gift shop filled with unique items, not the usual souvenirs found in tourist shops.
After climbing a very steep, narrow staircase, two small bedrooms are found on the second floor. The rooms are tucked into the rafters under the 90-degree angle of the gable and offer a glimpse into a simpler lifestyle.
Visitors intrigued by cottage life may want to rent a cottage for their vacation but they are only available during the summer months because most are not insulated and few are ever for sale, McConnell said.
"Forty residents are full-time, some just use them strictly for cottages, and a few rent them out for a few weeks. Some cottages have been in the family for three or four generations. The kids come here and enjoy it so much they come back and buy a cottage then pass it down through the family," McConnell said.
The MVCMA cottages are the most perfectly preserved collection of Carpenter Gothic style architecture in the world. A new building type, the Martha's Vineyard cottage, was built between 1859 and 1864. The architectural form is unique. In 1979, the MVCMA was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Visitors will find the cottages are built to resemble a tent. The wide double doors on the first floor resemble the tents opening. On the second level, a second set of double doors open onto a balcony. The doors were used to get furniture to the second floor because the steps are too narrow for furniture to go up them since the roof has a 45-degree pitch
The Victorian gingerbread cottages surround the famed Tabernacle that serves as the center of activities. Wrought iron arches and supports, dozens of colored glass windows and an octagonal cupola make the Tabernacle a unique structure. Built in 1879 by John W. Hoyt of Springfield, Mass., it is the spiritual and cultural center of the campground.
Visitors can attend the weekly services held during July and August or one of the many other events held throughout the year, McConnell said.
Whether visitors can spend a day or stay for a week, they will find Oak Bluffs weaves a spell that will draw them back to this small wonderland time and time again.
Source:http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/
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