I is for Illumination Night

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Each year on the third Wednesday in August the gingerbread cottages I wrote about in my "G" post are lit with Chinese and Japanese lanterns for the Grand Illumination Night.

The Illumination Night has been held since the 1800s and was originally conceived as a promotional tool to lure potential buyers to properties in the area. As the years went on the community rallied around the event as it grew larger and more festive.

In the present day, the Grand Illumination is one of the biggest events of the summer and includes a band concert and a community sing-along. At 9:00 the streetlights go out and the paper lanterns come on so spectators can walk through the narrow streets and enjoy the cottages.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

According to my mom I've been to an Illumination Night but I can't say I remember it. Someday I hope to go again, although I'd skip the sing-along. Anyone who has ever heard me sing would know why. :D

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.

H is for Hammett

Whaling Ships in New Bedford, Massachusetts (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

My great-great grandfather Franklin Hammett left Martha's Vineyard to set sail on a whaling ship (probably similar to the ones shown above) in 1845. He was only 15 years old at the time and sailed around the world for four years. I wrote about Franklin and his adventures for a guest post on Bards and Prophets back in December, so I am sharing a bit of that post again here.

Franklin wrote a letter about his whaling experiences to the Republican Standard and we are fortunate to still have the text of the letter. The ship left from New Bedford, Massachusetts and sailed around Cape Horn at the tip of South America. From there the whalers continued to Guam, Australia and Japan before heading home to New England.

It's impossible to imagine what that voyage must have been like, especially for a teenager on his own, but Franklin's account provides a glimpse into how frightening it must have been. This is my favorite passage of the letter:

"The next he [a whale] came up about five hundred feet, head out of water about 8 or 10 feet or it looked so to me, and some of the crew sterned and some pulled but I see he was acoming into the Boat so I started for the stern sheets of the Boat and the Mate says to me, "Where the Hell are you bound?"
It was the first time for me to be so near a Whale and my hat I guess lifted and there was not much time to talk or even to think but get a move on, so I told the Mate there was not room enough in this Boat for me and that fellow."

Franklin jumped out of the boat and this proved to be a good decision, as the whale ended up slamming that boat to pieces. I suppose if he hadn't made that call, I wouldn't be here today. :D

The passage made me laugh because I could hear my grandfather telling the story in the same way, especially the use of the phrase "that fellow."

Hammett is the maiden name of Stella, the main character in the 1884 section of The Ghosts of Aquinnah.

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.

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.

F is for Flying Horses

Photo by Melanie Speight

The Flying Horses Carousel is located in the Vineyard town of Oak Bluffs and is the oldest platform carousel in the United States. It was built in the 1870s and originally resided in Coney Island, but was moved to Martha's Vineyard in 1884.

The carousel is housed in a distinctive red wood barn and is one of the few carousels left to include a brass ring for riders to grab as the carousel rotates. My main memory of the Flying Horses is wanting my dad to get the brass ring and win a free ride for me. Since I was the youngest of five kids, I imagine he rode the carousel many times over the years trying to get that ring for all of us.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

The carousel found itself in danger of being dismantled and sold to collectors before being purchased by the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust in 1986. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

If you take a trip to the Vineyard, be sure to take a ride on the Flying Horses.

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.

E is for Edgartown

Edgartown Harbor Lighthouse (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Edgartown, established in 1642, is the oldest town on Martha's Vineyard and a former whaling port. One of the things I have always loved about the town are the narrow streets lined with the old homes of whaling captains from the 19th century. Many of the homes have "widow's walks," which are platforms on the roofs of the buildings. The story goes that women stood on these platforms and searched the harbor for the return of their husbands' whaling vessels, but there is no evidence to suggest this actually happened. Instead, the platforms were built so that homeowners could to pour sand down the chimney in the event of a chimney fire, a story that is nowhere near as romantic as the widow's walks.

Edgartown is a beautiful little town and was one of the main shooting locations for the film JAWS in 1975. If you've seen JAWS, the town of Amity is Edgartown.

I am super excited to visit Edgartown when I go to the Vineyard in May because I will be doing a book signing at Edgartown Books!

Edgartown Books (Source: Store Website)

The book store is housed in one of those old whaling captain homes, shown above, and is located on the town's main street near the harbor. The woman who runs the store was incredibly nice when I contacted her and in addition to setting up the signing she told me she would be sure to stock The Ghosts of Aquinnah in the shop for the summer season.

It's safe to say I am a big fan of this shop and this town now. :D

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.

D is for Deafness

Source: Wikimedia Commons

In the 1800s, Martha's Vineyard was known for having an unusually high percentage of deaf residents. In 1854, 1 in every 155 people on the island was deaf. In Chilmark, where the highest concentration of deaf people resided, 1 in 25 was deaf. By comparison, the national average at this time was one deaf person in every 5,728 people.

Due to this high percentage, Martha's Vineyard Sign Language was widely used on the island by both deaf and hearing people. The language was so prevalent, used in schools, churches, and essentially in all facets of everyday life, that deafness was not a barrier to full participation in the island community.

Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, which was influenced by French Sign Language, later became a major influence on the creation and development of American Sign Language.

As islanders began to move to the mainland and back, often bringing spouses from off island with them, the lines of hereditary deafness on the island diminished and the Martha's Vineyard language began to die out. The last person born into the island's sign language tradition was Katie West, who died in 1952.

There is hearing loss in my Vineyard ancestors, and both my dad and grandfather wore hearing aids as they aged. Since I seem to have almost all of their genes, I would not be at all surprised if I end up wearing them as well when I am older. If I do, the hearing aids will definitely be a reminder of my Vineyard genes!

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.

C is for Chilmark

"Entering Chilmark" on State Road (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The town of Chilmark on Martha's Vineyard is the neighbor to the town of West Tisbury, which is the home of my family's cottage on the island.

I think Chilmark is one of the Vineyard's prettiest towns, as it is a combination of rural hills, winding roads lined with farmers' stone walls, and some of the most stunning coastal landscapes on the island.

Even the cemetery in Chilmark, called Abel's Hill, is pretty. At least during the daytime. It's a different story at night.

Abel's Hill Cemetery

Sheep farmers once populated the town and can still be found among the rolling green hills. Stella, the main character in my book The Ghosts of Aquinnah, lives in Chilmark and owns sheep herself.

My own great-great grandparents Franklin and Nancy Hammett lived on a farm in Chilmark. Not coincidentally, Stella's maiden name is Hammett.

If you were a fan of The X-Files, you may remember that Fox Mulder was born and raised in Chilmark, something I did not remember until I was doing research for this post. :D

My writing group Untethered Realms is also participating in this month's challenge and we are presenting an A - Z of fantastical creatures. For today's C post, I shared a fantastical feline called a Cat Sith. Visit us here to meet this kitty and to see our creatures throughout the month!

My A-Z of Martha's Vineyard theme is inspired by my book, The Ghosts of Aquinnah, which was published in December, 2013 and is set on the island. Click here for all the info on the book.