Things to Do in Oak Bluffs: Gingerbread Cottages, a Carousel, and the Vineyard's Most Storied Beach

The Camp Ground: Gingerbread Cottages Around an 1879 Tabernacle

The Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association's campground -- historically known as Wesleyan Grove -- is a real, still-operating religious and historic institution, not just a photogenic backdrop. Multiple independent sources, including a Martha's Vineyard Times piece marking "The Tabernacle Turns 180" in 2015, converge on 1835 as the year Methodist camp meetings began here. Worshippers originally camped in tents; over subsequent decades those tents were replaced with small, permanent wooden cottages built in the Carpenter Gothic style and decorated with elaborate jigsaw-cut trim -- the origin of the "gingerbread cottage" nickname now applied to the several hundred cottages packed along the campground's narrow lanes. The campground itself carries National Historic Landmark documentation, per a formal nomination on file with the National Park Service. The precise number of cottages standing today was not independently re-confirmed this pass; treat the commonly cited figure of 300-plus as a widely repeated round number rather than a verified count.

The Tabernacle itself is a distinct, later structure, not the same thing as the 1835 camp-meeting founding. A separate Vineyard Gazette headline, "Camp Ground's Tabernacle Is 125" (2004), points to a construction year of 1879 for the open-air, wrought-iron building that still anchors the campground and hosts community sings and services today. Once each summer, the cottages are hung with Japanese paper lanterns for Illumination Night, a tradition still actively promoted by the Camp Meeting Association and island hospitality sites; this page could not independently confirm the tradition's exact origin year or a specific current-year date, so confirm the schedule directly with mvcma.org before planning a trip around it.

Union Chapel: An Octagonal, Non-Denominational Counterpart

A short walk from the Tabernacle stands Union Chapel, a distinct and separately notable structure worth knowing apart from the Camp Ground's Methodist buildings. A Martha's Vineyard Times piece, "Union Chapel at 150" (2021), points to a construction year of roughly 1870-1871, corroborated independently by a building-history site's own "Union Chapel // 1870" post -- the one-year discrepancy between sources is treated here as circa 1870/1871 rather than resolved to a single year. Union Chapel is a striking octagonal wooden building and was deliberately built as non-denominational, in contrast to the Methodist Tabernacle nearby, and it's maintained today by the Vineyard Preservation Trust as an active summer congregation and concert and event venue.

Flying Horses Carousel: "Among the Oldest," Not Flatly "The Oldest"

The Flying Horses Carousel, maintained today by the Vineyard Preservation Trust, is real, currently operating, and independently covered by sources including Smithsonian Magazine and Boston Magazine. It's commonly marketed as the oldest continuously operating platform carousel in the country, and is commonly said to have been built around 1876 and moved to Oak Bluffs around 1884 -- but neither exact year was independently confirmed via a primary source this pass, and at least one other American carousel, Rhode Island's Crescent Park Looff Carousel, makes a similar oldest-still-operating claim. This page describes it as widely regarded as one of the oldest continuously operating carousels in the country rather than asserting an unqualified superlative. What is consistent across every source: riders reach for a brass ring during each ride, a longstanding feature of the carousel's operation, and grabbing it wins a free ride. Current ticket prices and seasonal operating hours were not confirmed this pass -- check directly with the Vineyard Preservation Trust before visiting.

The Inkwell and the African American Vacation Community: The Deepest History Here

The single richest, most specific thread in Oak Bluffs' history is the town's long-standing identity as a center of African American vacationing on the Vineyard, and it anchors more of what's worth knowing here than any other single topic. The Inkwell, the community's signature beach, has documented informal significance to African American beachgoers dating to the 1890s, per BlackPast.org's own entry, and the Martha's Vineyard African-American Heritage Trail maintains a dedicated "Inkwell Atlas" resource covering it. The specific origin and etymology of the name "Inkwell" itself was not independently confirmed this pass and is handled carefully rather than asserted as settled.

Shearer Cottage, founded in 1912 by the Shearer family (per a Martha's Vineyard Times piece marking its centennial in 2012), is widely described as among the earliest guest houses on the island catering to African American vacationers -- hedged here as "among the earliest" rather than definitively "the first," since that ranking wasn't independently adjudicated this pass. Inside the Camp Ground itself, the Dr. Harrison A. Tucker Cottage is a separately, individually landmarked property with its own National Register of Historic Places nomination on file with the National Park Service, tying the Black-history story directly into the same gingerbread-cottage campground covered above rather than a separate enclave. The Cottagers, Inc., a philanthropic organization of Black Oak Bluffs cottage-owning women founded in 1956 (per a Vineyard Gazette piece marking 60 years in 2016), remains active today. Local historian Skip Finley, author of "Historic Tales of Oak Bluffs," is a named, citable authority on this history. And in July 2025, Polo Ralph Lauren released a dedicated "Oak Bluffs" collection explicitly built around and celebrating this same historic Black vacation community, per the brand's own press release and independent coverage from NBC News and the Vineyard Gazette -- a current, national commercial acknowledgment of history that's real, not marketing invention. The Highlands, the historic neighborhood tied to this same community, remains an active dining and commercial micro-destination today.

Ocean Park and Circuit Avenue: The Harbor-Front Park and the Commercial Spine

Ocean Park, the waterfront green anchored by a central gazebo bandstand, is the site of a recurring fireworks-and-band-concert tradition that the town itself runs; Vineyard Gazette coverage going back to 2022 and a current annual event listing confirm this remains an active, town-run summer fixture, though this page could not confirm specific architectural or construction details of the gazebo itself. Circuit Avenue is confirmed across a wide range of independent sources as the town's central commercial and dining strip, running from the harbor front up through downtown, and it's where Oak Bluffs' shops, restaurants, and nightlife concentrate. Some of that nightlife has genuine current civic stakes attached to it: the Island Theatre, a longtime Circuit Avenue-area movie house, became the subject of a real April 2026 town vote in which Oak Bluffs residents approved a Proposition 2½ override specifically to fund the town's purchase of the building, over the objections of its private owners -- a concrete, current example of what a local override actually buys. This page did not confirm the specific override dollar amount, and did not independently verify the current occupant of the long-running Circuit Avenue restaurant space vacated by Linda Jean's, which closed with at least two different replacement plans reported in 2025; confirm current restaurant names and hours directly before planning a visit around any specific spot.

What This Page Doesn't Cover

This page focuses on what direct research could confirm: the Camp Ground's 1835 founding and 1879 Tabernacle, the gingerbread cottages and Illumination Night tradition, Union Chapel's circa-1870 construction, the Flying Horses Carousel's hedged oldest-carousel claim, The Inkwell and the broader African American vacation-community history anchored by Shearer Cottage, the Dr. Harrison A. Tucker Cottage, and The Cottagers, Inc., and Ocean Park and Circuit Avenue as the town's park and commercial spine. It does not catalog Oak Bluffs' full beach list, ferry logistics, real estate market, or complete events calendar -- those aren't covered here. A few things are stated as open rather than guessed: the exact cottage count in the Camp Ground, Illumination Night's precise origin year and current date, the Flying Horses Carousel's exact build and relocation years, and current restaurant names, hours, and ticket prices all change or remain unconfirmed -- verify each directly before visiting.