Gingerbread houses

The Town of Oak Bluffs is a resort town on the northeast shore of Martha's Vineyard. Originally incorporated in 1880 as Cottage City, in 1907 the town's name was changed because of the growth in the year round population and the changing face of the resort required an acknowledgement the town was not just "Cottage City" any more. Oak Bluffs is also home to many whimsical "gingerbread cottages", all arranged around the Tabernacle in Trinity Park. The area was originally used for Methodist camp meetings starting in 1835. At the time they were housed in large tents arranged in a semicircle. In the 1860s and 1870s the tents were replaced with wooden cottages. Today there are over 300 cottages in this community of summer residents and a smaller number of year-round residents who value the intimacy created by the crowding of cottages on small tent lots. Many of the cottages have been owned by the same families for generations. Walking around you can see street after street filled with these colorful cottages which look like they were pulled right off the pages of a fairytale.