Oak Bluffs is a city located on the island of Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population is 4,527 in the Census of the United States 2010. This is one of the main points on the island of arrival for summer travelers, and noted for "gingerbread cottages" and buildings mid to late nineteenth century are well-preserved.
Video Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
History
The first inhabitants of Oak Bluffs are the Wampanoag people, who have lived in Martha's Vineyard (name Wampanoag: Noepe) for approximately 10,000 years. The area now Oak Bluffs is called "Ogkeshkuppe," which means "wet/wet or forest."
The area was later inhabited by Europeans in 1642 and was part of Edgartown until 1880, when it was formally included as Cottage City. The city was re-established in 1907 as Oak Bluffs, named because it is the site of an oak forest along a cliff overlooking Nantucket Sound. Oak Bluffs is the only one of six consciously planned islands of the six cities, and the only one developed specifically with tourism in mind.
The people of African descent first arrived at Martha's Vineyard in the 1600s as enslaved West Africans working in the fields of European settlers. The Port of Oak Bluffs attracted slaves, workers, and free sailors in the 18th century, and locals who sold the land. After slavery was abolished, the liberated blacks came to work in the fishing industry, in turn attracting blacks from Massachusetts land, who came and started businesses to serve the growing population of the Vineyard. In the 1800s some black workers also worked as waiters for wealthy white families and at the hotel. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks bought or rented summer homes, and many of their descendants returned each year. In the past the enslaved people, or their descendants, bought property around the Temple Baptist Garden in the early 20th century, drawn by the religious services held there. Teachers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs lived there for decades thereafter.
Rich African Americans from New York, Boston and Washington come to Oak Bluffs, the only town of Martha Vineyard that welcomes black tourists because other cities on the island do not allow black guests to stay in inns and hotels until 1960 -an. Many buy houses in the area they call the Oval or Highlands, the Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West wrote in his novel in 1995, The Wedding (edited by Doubleday editor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, a visiting Vineyard resident West for two summers). In the 1930s, local black land owners turned the city into America's most famous and most exclusive African-American vacation spot. Just down the road from the West, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. has a cottage in the Oval where Artic explorer Matthew Henson is a guest. Further down the road is Shearer Cottage, the first lodging for African American tourists. It was built by Charles Shearer, son of a slave and slave owner, when Shearer noticed that black visitors could not stay home due to sorting. Guests at the inn included the first self-made American millionaire, Madame CJ Walker, singers Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, and Lillian Evanti; and composer Harry T. Burleigh.
In 1866, Robert Morris Copeland was hired by a group of New England developers to design a planned residential community on Martha's Vineyard. The site, a large grassland, rolled up, with no trees overlooking the Vineyard Sound, is adjacent to the hugely popular Methodist camp encounter, Wesleyan Grove, a curved network of narrow streets lined with ancient "Carpenter's Gothic" huts, picket, and pocket park. Seeking to take advantage of the seasonal popularity of the camp (and abundant population), the developers set up Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company, gained immediate success: Five hundred lots sold between 1868 and 1871. Copeland will end by creating three plans for people to accommodate expansion constant. Oak Bluffs is one of the earliest planned residential communities and mostly informs suburban developments later in the United States.
Some of the earliest visitors to the area that became Cottage City and then Oak Bluffs were Methodists, who gathered in the oak forests each summer for a multi-day religious "camp meeting" held under a large awning and in the open air. As the family returns to small forests year after year, tents mounted on the ground pave the way for tents erected on wooden platforms and finally to small wooden huts. On a small and dense scale, the lodges grew more complicated over time. Porches, balconies, intricate doors and window frames became common, as were elaborate wooden wobbles taped to the fringes of the roof as decorative ornaments. The unique "Carpenter's Gothic" architectural style of the lodges is often accommodated by the owners who use a brightly colored paint scheme, and give it an odd summer feel, almost like a storybook. Dubbed the "gingerbread cottage," they became a separate tourist attraction in the late nineteenth century. Likewise, does the Tabernacle: an open, circular pavilion covered by a metal roof supported by high wrought iron columns, erected in the late 1880s, which is the venue for worship and community events. The gingerbread cottages at the camp are a respected historic building as well as very expensive real estate. Many are still family owned and passed down from generation to generation. On April 5, 2005, the yard and building on Earth Campground was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Interior Secretary.
Nineteenth-century travelers, arriving by steamboat from the mainland, can also choose from a variety of secular attractions: shops, restaurants, ice cream parlors, dance halls, band concerts, walks along the seaside promenade, or swim in the waters of Nantucket Sound. The resort hotels, where Wesley House is the only surviving example, march by the beach and cliffs. For a short time, the narrow-gauge railway brought in curious travelers from the steamboat dock at Oak Bluffs to Edgartown, running along a pathway located at what is now called Joseph Sylvia State Beach. In 1884, the Flying Horses Carousel was brought to Oak Bluffs from Coney Island and installed several blocks to the mainland from the ocean, where it remains operational today. Built in 1876, it is the oldest operating carousel platform. Like yards and campsites (designated in April 2005), the Flying Horses were designated a National Historic Landmark by the Interior Secretary.
In 1873, the neighboring community of Harthaven was founded by William H. Hart when he bought much of the Oak Bluffs Land and Wharf Company. The community then moved in 1911 to its present location between the city of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown.
"Grand Illumination" is an annual event, usually held in August, a date that is not always disclosed to the public. For the summer 2012 event, there is an Open Pond Tour, from Registered National Historic House, on Wednesday, August 8, and Night of Great Enlightenment on Wednesday, August 15th. Martha's Vineyard, Oak Bluffs, and Camping events attract many travelers. For one special night, the campers are decorated with Chinese lanterns (some electricity, some still lit only with a candle), around every Gingerbread Cottage. The lantern is still dark until after dusk. At the appointed hour, people gathered in the Tabernacle to sing together and community meetings. In the end all the lights went out and thousands of Chinese lanterns came to life in brilliant light throughout the camp. This celebration ends after a visitor walks through the Camp enjoying the sights and sounds of an event taken directly from the beginning of the 20th century.
Maps Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
Geography
According to the US Census Bureau, the city has a total area of ​​26.0 square miles (67 km 2 ), which, 7.4 square miles (19 km 2 ) of it is ground and 18.6 square miles (48 km 2 ) of it (71.61%) is water. In terms of land area, the city is 323 out of 351 communities in the Commonwealth, and the third smallest community (behind Aquinnah and Tisbury) in Dukes County. Oak Bluffs is bordered by Nantucket Sound to the north and east, Edgartown to the south, and Vineyard Haven Harbor, Lagoon Pond and Tisbury to the west. It also shares a common corner, along with Tisbury and Edgartown, with West Tisbury.
The northernmost point of the city, East Chop, is just five miles from the mainland. The city shares Sengekontacket Pond with Edgartown, with the town land ending on Sarson Island, but wraps around the waters around Felix Neck to Major's Cove. The highest point in the city is between Sengekontacket and Lagoon Ponds, and west of Lagoon Pond in an irregular triangular land jutting into Tisbury.
There are four public beaches in town: Eastville Beach, overlooking Vineyard Haven Harbor and adjacent to the entrance of Lagoon Pond; Oak Bluffs Town Beach or The Inkwell is a popular beach name frequented by African Americans beginning in the late nineteenth century. The thrust is dubiously termed "The Inkwell" by a nearby white man referring to the color of the leather of the beach-goers. This is the most famous beach in the entire US to turn this disgusting nickname into a symbol of pride, which borders Nantucket Sound just south of the Steamship Authority's Dock; Hart Haven Beach, further south; and Joseph Sylvia State Beach, a barrier beach (shared by Oak Bluffs and Edgartown) that separates Sengekontacket Pond from Nantucket Sound. The State Beach is interspersed by two inlets connecting the pool to the sea. The smaller of the two are stretched by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Bridge, located entirely inside Oak Bluffs, and larger by the American Legion Bridge, the midpoint of which is the boundary between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. The formal names of the bridges are generally ignored by residents who support the traditional designations of "Little Bridges" and "Big Bridges."
Oak Bluffs has a small, sealed port that attracts large numbers of recreational sailors, and serves as a year-round harbor home for a small number of fishing boats. Seasonal passenger ferries to Falmouth, Hyannis and Nantucket docks along the east side of the harbor, as well as high-speed ferries to Quonset Point, RI. Timber's seasonal car-and-truck service operated by Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority outside the harbor, on a long dock projected onto Nantucket Sound, as well as fast ferries that provide seasonal services to New Bedford. The exposed nature of the dock means that the Authority Department Steam ferry is routinely diverted to Vineyard Haven during strong northeast winds. Oak Bluffs is also the location of Trade Winds Airport, a private grass landing lane just north of Sengekontacket Pond.
Demographics
At the 2000 census, there were 3,713 people, 1,590 households, and 914 families living in the city. Population density was 504.1 people per square mile (194.5/km ²). There are 3,820 housing units with an average density of 518.6 per square mile (200.1/km²). City's racial makeup is 86.72% White, 4.31% African American, 1.51% Native Americans, 0.67% Asian, 2.50% of other races, and 4.28% of two or more races. Hispanic or Latin of any race is 1.19% of the population.
Like other cities in Southeast Massachusetts, Oak Bluffs has a large Portuguese-American population since the late 19th century. Many of the city's inhabitants are from the island of Faial in the Azores, and the neighborhood where many of them live, is located between Vineyard Avenue and Wing Rd, once dubbed Fayal. Today, the Portuguese legacy in this city is greatly appreciated at the annual Portuguese Feast, held at the Portuguese-American Club on Vineyard Avenue in mid-July.
There are 1,590 households of which 27.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.3% are married couples living together, 9.4% have unmarried female households present, 42.5% are non-family, 32.6% were made of individuals and 13.0% had someone living alone 65 or older. The average household size is 2.33 and the average family size is 2.94.
In the city, the population is spread by 22.6% under the age of 18, 6.0% from 18 to 24, 31.9% from 25 to 44, 24.8% from 45 to 64, and 14.8% years or more. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 women, there are 94.3 men. For every 100 women age 18 and over, there are 93.2 men.
The average income for households in the city is $ 42,044, and the average income for families is $ 53,841. Men have an average income of $ 39,113 compared to $ 31,797 for women. The per capita income for the city is $ 23,829. About 6.2% of families and 8.4% of the population are below the poverty line, including 13.0% of those under the age of 18 and 8.5% of those aged 65 and older.
Oak Bluffs ranks 263 in the population at Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and third in County Dukes (behind Edgartown and Tisbury). This is 173 at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in terms of population density, and second behind Tisbury in County Dukes.
Government
At the national level, Oak Bluffs is part of the 9th congress district in Massachusetts, and is currently represented by Bill Keating. Massachusetts is currently represented in the United States Senate by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey.
At the state level, Oak Bluffs is represented at the Massachusetts House of Representatives as part of the districts of Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket, which includes all Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as parts of Falmouth. The city is represented in the Massachusetts Senate as part of the Cape and Islands district, which includes all Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and most of Barnstable County (with the exception of Bourne, Sandwich, Falmouth, and most of Barnstable). This city is home to the D fifth Troop Barracks of the Massachusetts State Police, serving all Dukes County.
Oak Bluffs is arranged at the local level by an open city government meeting, and headed by a selection board. The city has its own police and fire department, with police located near Oak Bluffs Harbor and a more centrally located fire station located in the city. The post office is located east of the Vineyard Association of Vineyards, such as the Oak Bluffs Public Library, which is a member of Cape Library's Automatic Materials Library sharing network. Oak Bluffs is also home to Martha's Vineyard Hospital, in the northeast of the Lagoon, which serves all the islands.
Famous people
Famous residents and former residents of Oak Bluffs:
- Edward W. Brooke, a former Massachusetts senator who was the first black senator after Reconstruction and the first from the Northern United States.
- Bebe Moore Campbell, author
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr., professor, author and filmmaker
- Charlayne Hunter-Gault, journalist and author
- Lani Guinier, professor and former nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights.
- Reggie Hudlin, the filmmaker
- Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama
- Vernon Jordan, lawyer and former presidential adviser
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights figure
- Spike Lee, the filmmaker and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, a lawyer and television producer
- Willie Levesque, a former professional hockey player designed by San Jose Sharks in the NHL Draft 1999.
- Manning Marable, professor and author
- Jill Nelson, author and journalist
- Stanley Nelson, documentary filmmaker. The Documentary, Our Own Place , is an account of the summer spent at his childhood holiday home in Oak Bluffs and Oak Bluffs history as a resort community frequented by affluent African-American families. The film premiered on the PBS series Independent Lens and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.
- Peter Norton, founder of Peter Norton Computing who developed Norton Utilities.
- Charles Ogletree, professor and lawyer
- Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., congressman, and ex-wife Isabel Powell, sister of Fredi Washington actress
- Paul Robeson, actor
- Carole Simpson, former ABC Newsreader
- Louis Wade Sullivan, former US Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Ethel Waters, singer
- Dorothy West, author
Gallery
See also
- Vineyard Haven
References
External links
- Oak Bluffs travel guide from Wikivoyage
- Oak Bluffs City
- The Martha Farmers' Meeting Association
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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