Gingerbread Houses!

"For sale: Extremely bright pink house in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard. Gingerbread cottage style, built circa 1864, 2 bedrooms, 770 square feet. Exterior has 14 different kinds of filigree trim, including many pink hearts. Price includes pink wall-to-wall carpeting and pink and white furnishings, but no land, no insulation, hardly any storage space, creaky slanted floor, the buyer must agree to keep the house pink. Buyer must be willing to tolerate tourists peeping through the windows at all hours."


On our recent trip to Martha's Vineyard we visited these beautiful houses in Oak Bluffs. The above description sums it all up....I don't know if I could live there, but it was great fun looking. You walk away realizing how little you really need...or you start appreciating what space you already have.

Here's a little background info...

"The campground grew out of the religious camp meeting movement of the 19th century, introduced by the Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists in Kentucky, and brought by the Methodists to New England. They held weeklong Bible-thumping meetings in Oak Bluffs, where the cottages are now.

'It was religion morning, noon, and night'  says Sally Dagnall, author of a history of the campground. 'They were interested in reclaiming souls, and converting them.'
Of course they needed a place to sleep, so they set up primitive tents (500 of them, eventually) in circles and parks around a tabernacle. Gradually, the tents with straw floors started to undergo a strange metamorphosis. Wooden sides went up and floors went down, and the tents gradually turned into cottages - except they still looked a lot like tents, with canvas tops and pointy roofs. They looked oddly ecclesiastical, too, with cathedral windows and doors and steep gables. Then came the filigree decorations, or gingerbread. For reasons that still puzzle historians, local carpenters began to have a heyday with it.Continued...

If you find yourself on the beautiful island of Martha's Vineyard, these cottages are a must-see! And a lobster roll is a must-eat. For me, a good trip always comes down  to the food...