Things to Do in Edgartown: A Whaling Church, Captains' Mansions, and a Ferry With No Fixed Schedule

The Old Whaling Church: A Landmark Built on Whaling Money, Still an Active Stage

The Old Whaling Church, at 89 Main Street, is a genuine Greek Revival landmark and one of Edgartown's most-photographed buildings -- a grand, columned former Methodist meetinghouse built substantially with money from the whaling trade that made the town wealthy in the 19th century. It's commonly dated to around 1843, but that specific year, along with finer architectural and construction details, was not independently re-confirmed via a primary source this pass; treat 1843 as the commonly cited date rather than a settled fact until it's checked directly against the Vineyard Preservation Trust's own history of the building.

What is well documented is its current status: the Vineyard Preservation Trust maintains the church as one of its properties, and it operates today as a working performance and event venue rather than a museum piece behind glass -- it appears on ticketing platforms' event listings and on the Vineyard Gazette's own community events calendar as an active venue for concerts, lectures, and other programming. It's also a working church building available for weddings and similar events. Because programming is seasonal and changes year to year, confirm the current event schedule directly with the Vineyard Preservation Trust or the church's own listings before planning a visit around a specific show or open-hours window.

North Water Street: The Captains' Mansions

North Water Street is Edgartown's signature streetscape: a row of white Greek Revival mansions built with whaling-fortune money in the early-to-mid 1800s, still standing largely intact as private homes along the harbor. It sits within the Edgartown Village Historic District, a National Register-listed historic district covering the town's downtown core, and it's the subject of dedicated coverage from architecture-focused sources and Martha's Vineyard real estate brokerages alike -- consistent, independent confirmation that this is real, documented architectural history rather than marketing color.

What isn't independently confirmed at the level of specific detail: the exact construction dates of individual houses, the names of the specific whaling captains associated with them, and a precise count of how many original mansions survive intact. Multiple sources describe the street in general terms consistent with the above, but no single primary source pinned down those specifics this pass. The street is a walkable, publicly viewable stretch -- since the houses are private residences, the appropriate way to see them is from the public sidewalk, not as a ticketed attraction.

Dukes County Courthouse: Edgartown as the County Seat

Edgartown is genuinely the seat of Dukes County, and the Dukes County Courthouse is real, dated, and still in use: a Vineyard Gazette article from September 26, 2013 -- "County Courthouse, Built in 1858, Will Get Needed Repairs" -- confirms both the 1858 construction date and that the building was, as of that reporting, in need of capital repair. The courthouse building also houses Edgartown District Court, and Dukes County Superior Court sits in the same town, which is why the county's judicial functions are centered here rather than elsewhere on the island.

This is a working government building, not a visitor attraction with posted hours or tours -- it's included here as a genuine piece of Edgartown's institutional history worth knowing about while walking the historic downtown, not as a place to plan a visit around.

The Vineyard Gazette: A Community Newspaper Older Than Most of the Country’s Institutions

The Vineyard Gazette is genuinely headquartered in Edgartown and genuinely old: the paper’s own 2021 anniversary coverage, "Gazette Celebrates 175 Years, In Shifting Landscape for Journalism," confirms a founding year of 1846 (2021 minus 175), making it one of the oldest continuously operating community newspapers in the country. The Vineyard Preservation Trust separately maintains the Vineyard Gazette Building as one of its own preserved properties, confirming the paper’s historic home is itself a documented landmark, not just a working newsroom.

Current ownership and leadership details beyond that founding date were not independently re-confirmed this pass, so this page states the founding and the building's preserved status rather than naming a current publisher. The Gazette building isn't a ticketed attraction, but it's a real, citable piece of the town's identity as a place where 19th-century institutions -- a church, a courthouse, a newspaper -- are still standing and, in the Gazette's case, still operating.

Katama Airfield: A Working Grass Runway South of the Village

South of the village, in the Katama neighborhood near South Beach, Katama Airfield (also called Katama Airpark) is a real, currently operating general-aviation airfield with grass runways rather than pavement -- it has its own Wikipedia entry and is documented by aviation-community sources. It's informally described in some aviation-enthusiast sources as one of the largest grass-runway airfields in the country; treat that specific superlative as a repeated informal claim rather than an independently adjudicated ranking. The nonprofit Katama Airfield Trust is involved in stewarding the property, consistent with the airfield's identity as a piece of working aviation history rather than a private commercial operation.

The airfield is also understood, from general knowledge rather than a primary source independently re-confirmed this pass, to be a base for glider rides and skydiving operations in season. Confirm current operators, seasonal schedules, and pricing directly with the airfield or a specific operator before planning a flight around it -- small-aircraft operations here are seasonal and subject to change.

Chappaquiddick and the On Time Ferry

Chappaquiddick is a separate island reachable from Edgartown only by boat -- there's no bridge -- and the "On Time" ferry, a small vehicle-and-passenger boat running the roughly 200-yard channel between Edgartown's Memorial Wharf and Chappaquiddick, is the way almost everyone makes that crossing. Its name is genuine local lore, repeated consistently across independent write-ups: the boat is called "On Time" because it runs continuously back and forth on demand rather than on a fixed timetable, so in practice it's rarely early or late by definition. The service scales down seasonally -- a news post on the ferry operator's own site announced a reduction to a single boat beginning October 20 in a recent off-season -- so trip frequency and wait times shift with the time of year. Confirm current hours, fares, and whether it's carrying vehicles or passengers-only that day directly with the ferry operator (chappyferry.com) before planning a crossing, especially outside peak summer season.

Once across, Chappaquiddick holds its own real attractions: conservation land including the Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge and Wasque Reservation, managed by The Trustees of Reservations, and quiet, less-developed beaches by comparison to the main-island shoreline -- though this page did not independently re-confirm specific acreage or boundary details for those refuge lands this pass. Chappaquiddick is also the site of a well-documented, consequential piece of 20th-century American political history: on the night of July 18, 1969, a car driven by Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy went off Dike Bridge into Poucha Pond, and his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. That event is treated by historians as a serious, real part of the island's history, not a curiosity, and it's noted here for context on the island's story -- not as a reason to visit.

What This Page Doesn't Cover

This page focuses on what direct research could confirm: the Old Whaling Church's building history and current status as an active event venue, North Water Street's documented historic-district status, the Dukes County Courthouse's 1858 construction date, the Vineyard Gazette's 1846 founding and preserved home, Katama Airfield's grass-runway operation, and the On Time ferry's genuine on-demand operating model and access to Chappaquiddick. It does not catalog Edgartown's beaches, restaurants, harbor and boating culture, or full events calendar -- those aren't covered here. A few things are stated as open rather than guessed: the Old Whaling Church's precise 1843 construction date and North Water Street's exact house-by-house dates and captains' names were not independently re-confirmed via a primary source this pass, and current hours, event schedules, and seasonal operating details for the church, the airfield, and the ferry change year to year -- confirm all of them directly before planning a visit.