It was an ex-slave from Virginia, Mr. John Saunders who brought Methodism to Martha’s Vineyard. He lived and preached in Eastville until 1795  when the Island was visited by Reverend Jesse Lee. It was the large numbers of worshippers attracted by Rev. Lee's reputation that set the stage for one of the largest and most popular annual religious gatherings of its day, the camp meeting. Founded in Kentucky in 1799, the camp meeting was viewed as "a place where people of all classes could come together in an environment that would necessarily displace worldly preoccupations.”


Campmeeting Roots in Oak Bluffs
In Oak Bluffs camp meetings began modestly in 1835 with local Methodists setting up a semicircle of nine tents and holding small gatherings in isolated Wesleyan Grove.  These meetings grew in popularity and congregants from as far away as Providence and New York flocked here each August. 

By the mid-1850s, the Sabbath meetings were drawing congregations of 12,000 and the dwellings had evolved from communal tents to wooden cottages. The owners competed with each other by decorating the cottages with gingerbread detailing, an architectural style now known as Carpenter’s Gothic.

The visual impact of hundreds of illuminated white tents, and later the decorative cottages, combined with the rustic appeal of the setting and services attracted spectators along with the faithful.  Within 40 years of the first camp meeting here, rowds of 30,000 attended Illumination Night, which marked the end of the summer season with stunning displays of Japanese lanterns and fireworks.


Commerce Follows Communal Worship
Along with the hoardes of people making the pilgrimage to Cottage City, as the town was then called, came commerce. Though attracted by the spectacle of the campmeeting, the beauty of the area soon became a draw on its own and developers started buying up the area around the campground. Businesses sprouted and the resort town of Oak Bluffs was born.

 
 

Wealthy individuals copied the whimsical style if not the size of the campground cottages when building their homes in the surrounding area. The Methodist’s ideal of incorporating nature into their gatherings was reflected in the town plan by  the including small parks in residential areas. Even the meandering streets of Oak Bluffs are styled after the Wesleyan Grove layout.
                                                                        
Tent City Trivia
1. Designed to resemble the tents they were replacing,  the cottages  were built to retain the width and shape of the original “family tents,"  their double-wide doors recall the tent openings and the fancy woodwork emulates the scalloped edges of the tent’s canvas awnings.

2. Illumination Night evolved from the popularity of strolling through the campgrounds to marvel at the tents lit by thousands of spermaceti candles, made from whale oil were manufactured at Daniel Fisher’s Edgartown factory, the largest of its kind in the world.

3. Circuit Ave. is named for the preaching style favored by early Methodists:  itinerant preachers “rode the circuit” from town to town reaching out to followers living where churches were scarce.

 4. The “radial-concentric” or wagon wheel layout of the campground is unusual in this country. A series of circles intersected by spoke-like avenues is rarely seen in American cities, two notable exceptions being Detroit and Washington DC.

5. The Illumination at one time included banners bearing inspirational messages and political slogans and a strange event called “The Antiques and Horribles Parade."Ghosts bearing croquet mallets, people dressed as Siamese twins and other “indescribable things” were led around the area by a tin-pan drum corps. 

6. Recognizing the threat of commercial land development to their peace and solitude, campground residents briefly considered moving the entire community, building by building to Chappaquiddick. They opted instead to erect a seven foot high fence around the perimeter.This fence has since been removed.

by Gwyn McAllister photography by David Welch