Even though we had a year-round house in Hanover, and I moved to the West Coast 20 years ago, this is home - why I come back.Ī complete mix of 20-somethings to seniors, some with kids, and some bring relatives.
To answer your question, this is my home, this is what I do with my home.
I made lifelong friends there who I see again when I return to the Island each summer. When it deteriorated, the town did not replace anything. One year no one bid on it, and my mother agreed to run it, as she did for the last four years (I have the permit). Someone would pay the town a certain amount to run it as a concession: They’d hire a lifeguard, staff the lunchroom, and collect the money. Summer visitors and Islander parents were comfortable sending their kids there with the dime it cost to get in. We grew up across the street in the ’50s and ’60s at what used to be called the “pay beach.” It had lifeguards, a pier, rafts, a lunchroom, running water, toilets - like a summer camp - it was full-service. I don’t think that practice works so much now. Lifestyles have changed a bit: Back then, women came to the Island for the whole summer with kids, fathers came down on the weekends after work. How has beach living changed since you were a child summering here? My son was here recently my daughter is coming soon … my stepdaughter with children comes for Tivoli Day every year, and a lot of other family visit. We are right across the road from the beach - the stairs are right there - it’s so simple. I love the beach - the water, the boats, fishing - now I can spend the whole summer here again. The two rooms up front have a connecting door, so I’m thinking of reorganizing to set that up as a suite. We’ll be creating at least one more bath. Right now we have six rooms and three baths. Customers want private baths and air conditioning. We usually have one rough week in the summer with high heat and humidity. People think I need it, even with ocean breezes from across the road. We are in the process of adding mini-splits for heat and air.
Then I retired a little early, and I took on the tasks of innkeeper. In 1982 we converted it to a guesthouse, with my mother running it until 2013. It became our summer residence, as my mother, sister, and I spent all our summers here, wintering in Hanover. My family rented the house from friends in the 1950s, and later bought the house in 1959. It is one of six cottages remaining on the Island designed by Pratt. Our Victorian-style Oak Bluffs cottage was built in 1873 for the Tillinghast family - prominent merchants and ship owners from Rhode Island and New York - by well-known architect Samuel Freeman Pratt.
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