G is for Gingerbread Cottages

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The town of Oak Bluffs, home of yesterday's Flying Horses, is also home to more than 300 brightly colored gingerbread cottages.

The cottages were built in the 1800s by members of the Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association in an area known as Wesleyan Grove. Founded in 1835 by a man named Jeremiah Pease, Wesleyan Grove eventually became the most famous Methodist camp meeting site in the country. In 1860, as many as 12,000 people attended the week-long meeting and more than 500 tents were pitched on the site.

The camp members built the original cottages to replace the tents as the meetings became more social and the Grove continued to expand. The "Martha's Vineyard cottages" are architecturally unique and are considered an invention of 19th century island carpenters. Between 1859 and 1880 the association built 500 cottages.

A stereoscopic view of Crane's Cottage in the late 1800s (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

(One of the cottages today (Source: Wikimedia Commons))

The Martha's Vineyard Campmeeting Association is still active today and now presides over 34 acres of land. Members conduct a Campground Cottage tour every summer and run a museum which showcases the history of the Campground. The Campground is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.