Village Green

By the mid-nineteenth century, the character of Martha’s Vineyard, and Edgartown especially, began to change as more and more merchants began to invest resources in the emerging maritime trades. The Village Green, now tucked away behind commercial buildings, became generally untended where animals often roamed freely and watering troughs, hay scales, powder houses, animal pounds, and horse sheds for the church were all located. The Village Green was less a public park and more like the forgotten back yard for the many businesses in the center of town.

It was not until the late nineteenth century that townsfolk began allocating funds to improve the conditions of the Green. They graded and improved soils, installed fences, planted grass, removed stumps, and planted trees to beautify the space.  Yet, despite their efforts, the Village Green fell into disrepair, and by the mid-1940s it came under increasing pressure from active recreation and traffic mitigation measures.

Threatened by a plan to develop it as a parking lot in 1946, the Village Green and two adjacent historic commercial properties were acquired by the North Water Street Corporation in an effort spearheaded by Henry Beetle Hough. Today, the Village Green is preserved, managed, and maintained by the Vineyard Preservation Trust in perpetuity as an open space with paths leading to three downtown streets that meet at the heart of the park.