Welcome to Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard
OAK BLUFFS, MASS. — “Please return to your vehicles,” the ferry attendant announced over the intercom. “We are approaching the terminal.”
I dusted off powdered doughnut residue and left the circular snack bar as the boat crossed the Vineyard Sound.
My first vacation on Martha’s Vineyard was bartered. Jessica B. Harris, a culinary historian, English professor and writer, needed eyes for the drive up from New York, and hands, to unload multiple pieces of luggage and white plastic shopping bags filled with pantry items and Swedish red licorice.
In return I would stay in Harris’ pink-trimmed cottage in Oak Bluffs. Between the pale blue hydrangea bushes of that storied neighbourhood and the shoreline of the Inkwell, a historically African-American beach on the island, I met seasoned black Vineyarders whose screen doors swung open in time-honoured hospitality.
Many lifelong connections to Martha’s Vineyard began in Harris’ kitchen. The moments spent communing over brimming picnic baskets, and the salty-sweet smell of serenity, bring people back time and again.
At least five generations of the African-American creative and professional classes have spent summer breaks on this island off Cape Cod, from 19th-century whaling captains to filmmaker Spike Lee. Every August, Barack Obama and his family sign the imaginary visitor log and devour New England’s casual pace, long bike rides and ice cream pit stops.
An African-American resort area that’s more than 125 years old, Oak Bluffs has earned its seat at history’s table. Black families stay all over the island now, huddling over lobster rolls or fried clams from Chilmark to Edgartown, but that was not always the case. “Oak Bluffs,” Harris said, “was the hub of the island’s black life.”
The community is showcased in an exhibition at the National Museum of African American History and Culture called “Power of Place.” But the common labelling of homeowners and regular visitors there as “the elite” leaves out the social nuances.
The fact is, strivers are responsible for making Oak Bluffs a destination: Formerly enslaved people, or their descendants, bought property around Baptist Temple Park in the early 20th century, drawn by the religious services held there. Teachers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs all arrived and flourished for decades afterward.
This summer was my seventh on the island, and I was itching for a proper tour of the African-American Oak Bluffs.
I met Abigail McGrath, the founder of Renaissance House writer’s retreat, and the daughter of poet Helene Johnson. McGrath invited me to hop in her truck, and we circled the Highlands area of Oak Bluffs, where almost every facade has a quarter board listing the household name. We cruised past the Oval, the grassy park where Dorothy West, McGrath’s aunt, set her 1995 novel, “The Wedding.” It’s across from the Bunny Cottage, once home to Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the congressman from Harlem, and his first wife, Isabel.
We reached a large round stone marked “Shearer,” announcing the inn founded by Henrietta and Charles Shearer, who had attended the school now called Hampton University and then moved to
Boston, where Charles was the head waiter at the Parker House Hotel.
The cottage was their summer home starting in 1903; accommodations were added in 1912, along with a dining room, where Parker House rolls were present at all meals. In the 1963 edition of Ebony magazine’s vacation guide, the Shearer Cottage listing speaks of its fine foods.
Inside the inn, the brightest minds congregated for breakfast at small tables covered over with pancakes, bacon, sausage, fish cakes, hominy. Or they might have made reservations for dinner, said Lee Jackson Van Allen, the current owner and innkeeper, and a great-granddaughter of Henrietta and Charles. The dining room closed in the 1970s, but in its day you’d rub elbows there with African-American luminaries: singer and composer Harry T. Burleigh; entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C.J. Walker; actors and singers Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters.
“My great-grandparents were born in Virginia, and the food was very much Southern: macaroni and cheese, peach cobbler and candied sweet potatoes,” Van Allen said. “Everything was always very fresh — they went to the market every day.”
Daylight was fading. To fully experience the Vineyard vibe, a barbecue or clambake invitation is needed. Sometimes, frying scup (better known as porgy) and lingering for hours at home happens, too.
But Harris was hosting a porch party: a throwback Vineyard “five to seven,” a post-sunbathing social that marks the beginning of dusk. Some say the two-hour function died out decades ago, but her dainty white linen napkins, stacked alongside antique dishes filled with local cheeses, said otherwise.
I met Martha Mae Jones, an artist who has been coming to the island for more than 35 years. “There’s something called Vineyard magic,” she said. “You’ll always meet someone from across the country that is connected to you.” Crisp, bubbly wine flowed; new bonds were forged.
After a week of up-island farm stand-hopping and West Tisbury farmers’ market-shopping, I felt like a bona fide seasonal dweller. My grey shingled rental house had an outdoor drop-leaf table, and I arranged platters of herb-rubbed grilled tuna and Southern succotash. It was the inaugural visit for my Brooklyn and Atlanta friends. They arrived and asked, “What makes the place so special?” The recipe is a secret.
Summer Southern Succotash
Yield: 8 to 10 servings Total time: About 30 minutes
1 pound okra, tops and tails trimmed, cut into ½-inch-thick rounds 6 large, ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and coarsely chopped (about 3 ½ pounds) 2 cups freshly cut corn kernels (from about 2 medium ears) 1 habanero chili, pricked with a fork (optional) Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
1. Combine okra and 1 cup water in a medium saucepan. Add tomatoes, corn and habanero, if using, and place over medium heat. Do not stir. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to simmer. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the flavours are well blended. Stir to combine.
2. If you used the chili, remove it from the pan when the dish has reached the desired spiciness. Season with salt and pepper, and serve hot.