And that was before the private-equity folks

Edgartown Harbor

—Photo by D Ramey Logan

Main Street in Vineyard Haven

“Today the human footprint is all over the place. The old salts and first families are only dimly evident, towns are run by business interests….No one even considers the possibility of keeping the Island as it was. Instead they debate the ideal rate of growth.’’

Anne W. Simon, (1914-1996) in On the Vineyard II (1990). She was a rich American author, writer and environmentalist who summered on Martha’s Vineyard.