Why Are Martha’s Vineyard and Compare Other Island So Expensive?

This old-school New England island has become the favourite retreat of US presidents, playwrights and pop stars alike, and it isn’t hard to see why. It’s a haven of peace and privacy, with white-sand beaches, pretty towns and great places to eat and drink, says Jay Parini

MARTHA’S VINEYARD: THE TREASURED ISLAND

• Martha’s Vineyard is about the changing relationship of sea and sky, and it’s a dynamic thing, always shifting. I think that’s what attracts so many. It’s why I live here,’ says Tony Balis, a writer and self-described ‘dreamer’ who heads the Humanity Initiative in Vineyard Haven.
• It has been his home year-round for 16 years, although he has been coming to the island in summer for half a century. ‘There is a deep sense of calm here,’ he adds. ‘I think that’s because of the six miles that separate us from the mainland. The journey, however brief, enforces a shift of consciousness. The pace of life alters when you step off the ferry

MARTHA’S VINEYARD IN THE 1960S

• Memories abound. I first went there as a college student in the late 1960s, with long hair brushing against my shoulders and a guitar in hand. The Vineyard was widely known for good parties, which occurred at windswept, salt-worn houses on isolated roads – often quite spacious, always with fetching views of the sea or undulating fields of wild flowers.
• I remember walking barefoot through a deep patch of barley one June morning at dawn, as the sun had just turned the sea beyond Gay Head Cliffs into a violet pool of light.

• To this day, Martha’s Vineyard is famous for its party atmosphere, especially in July and August when seasonal visitors arrive in force. More than half the houses are summer places.
• A few are quite palatial in aspect; but they are more usually tiny, saltbox affairs, with six-over-six windows and dark-green shutters against shingle or clapboard, sometimes with dormers, gingerbread eaves and crooked, wooden porches surrounded by white picket fences

MUSICIANS ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD

• The Vineyard was fairly obscure until Steven Spielberg filmed Jaws there in 1974, using a lot of locals as extras. Soon thereafter, in 1981, Jackie Onassis bought a lovely house in Aquinnah on the western end of the island, which signalled to the world that this was a trendy place. (In an ironic twist of fate, her only son, John Kennedy Jr, died when the Piper Saratoga he piloted went down in poor weather just off the coast of the Vineyard on the evening of 16 July 1999.)

• Tony Balis says, ‘I think Mia Farrow was more responsible than Jackie Onassis for the Hollywood influx. She bought a house on Lake Tashmoo near Vineyard Haven, even though the house was supposedly not for sale. She instructed her lawyer to pay whatever it cost to get the property, and the asking price was at least twice its normal value. Suddenly, everyone realised that you could make a lot of money by selling out. The situation got worse in the 1990s

CELEBRITIES ON MARTHA’S VINEYARD

• An elderly woman came into the restaurant, walking with a cane, and Trudy nodded to her. She sat at the next table. ‘That’s Lillian Hellman,’ Trudy whispered; Hellman was a famous playwright who had a house on the island. By chance, I’d just seen a performance of The Little Foxes, her classic play about an aristocratic Southern woman called Regina Hubbard Giddens, and her struggles for freedom in a constrictive society.
• I wanted to shake Hellman’s hand, but I knew that on the Vineyard one just didn’t do that. Privacy is guaranteed here, and even the presidents of the USA – many of whom have been regular visitors (including Obama) – expect to be ignored when ‘on island’.

• In other words, you can look but not touch. Yet one of the persistent pleasures of a visit to the Vineyard is star-gazing, and one is likely to see any number of movie actors, rock musicians, writers and politicians (sometimes barefoot) in places such as Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury (founded in the mid-19th century).
• Actor Ted Danson is often in Alley’s with his wife, Mary Steenburgen, buying fresh fruit and vegetables. Judy Blume – author of popular books for children and young adults – might be there, too, as she has had a home on the island for three decades.

HISTORY AND LANDSCAPE

• I remember talking to William Styron (author of Sophie’s Choice) years ago about the Vineyard. Along with his wife, the poet Rose Styron, who still lives there, he was a long-time resident, moving into a place overlooking Vineyard Haven Harbour in 1959. He died in 2006 and was buried in the tiny cemetery at West Chop, about two miles from his house. It was a place he liked more than anywhere in the world, because all manner of people mingled there in a low-key fashion, and conversation itself was the point of gatherings. I recall him saying that it took him back to the South of his boyhood, as it was a place where storytelling was the point of life.

• The vineyard is not nearly as large, physically, as its reputation, being roughly 20 miles long and 10 miles across at its widest point. Lying several miles off the shoulder of Cape Cod, which has become overcrowded in recent decades, it is surprisingly undeveloped given its population, which rises to about 100,000 in July and August, but which sinks after early September to a mere 15,000 – the permanent residents, a stalwart breed who must endure long, icy winters.

ISLAND TOWNS OF MARTHA’S VINEYARD

• The main feature of the Vineyard for many visitors will be the six towns: the so-called down-island towns (Vineyard Haven, Oak Bluffs and Edgartown) and the up-island communities of Chilmark and Aquinnah. North and West Tisbury exist somewhere in the middle but are considered up-island, being somewhat elevated compared to the others. ‘Each of these towns has a very separate history and character,’ says Frederick Noyes, a well-known architect who has done a good deal of renovation work on the island over many years.

• Noyes, whose family first brought him to the Vineyard as a small boy in the 1950s, is a long-time summer resident. ‘It’s the degree of formality that marks the different towns,’ he says. ‘Vineyard Haven and Edgartown represent the more formal end of the island, which is reflected in the architecture. The houses there are classic, old New England: big, Victorian, clapboard structures, often with a “widow’s walk”, where a widow actually used to walk.’ He also notes that these houses ‘date back to the whaling industry in the 19th century’. The buildings are, indeed, gorgeous, with an old-world solidity fashioned from authentic materials. They are substantial.

RESTAURANTS IN MARTHA’S VINEYARD

• Desire leads, as always, to the stomach, and in truth, there are so many good places to eat on Martha’s Vineyard that it is difficult to single out a few. In Edgartown, you should certainly stop for breakfast or lunch at Among the Flowers Café in Mayhew Lane: their waffles are perfection, topped with fresh berries, and their granola is special.

• In Vineyard Haven, you should have lunch at the ArtCliff Diner on Beach Road. Tony Balis says, ‘Gina, who runs the place, used to be the chef at Blair House in Washington DC, where VIPs stay when they’re visiting the Oval Office. She has an amazingly varied menu and it’s great for breakfast or lunch.’

• But for dinner, all my friends agree: the best place to dine is State Road in West Tisbury. It has a remarkably varied menu, even though it’s based on local ingredients. Balis notes, ‘Jackson and Mary, the owners, have a great way with the staff. You feel welcome there. And the food is inventive and wonderfully good.’

WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO GET THERE

WHAT TO DO Vineyard Golf Club The first organic golf club in the USA, this 18-hole course is groomed without synthetic pesticides, fertilisers, or herbicides, meaning that you might come across a weed or two – the goal is playability, not perfection. 100 Clubhouse Lane, Edgartown (00 1 508 627 8930; www.vineyardgolf.com)

Alley’s General Store In business since 1858, this ancient shop stocks everything from fishing lures to hula skirts, fruit and hammers, and houses 150 mailboxes in the old general-store tradition. The sister store, Alley’s Farm Stand, deals exclusively in fresh, local farmers’ produce. 299 State Road, West Tisbury (00 1 508 693 0088)

FAQs: