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"10 Times More Exclusive Than The Hamptons": All About Where Summer House: Martha's Vineyard Is Filmed
President Barack Obama brought renewed attention to Martha's Vineyard when he vacationed there with his family, but a town on the Massachusetts island has a rich history dating back hundreds of years.
Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, has a reputation as one of the more affluent, expensive areas of the United States to vacation — at least according to some of the cast on Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard.
“The impression I had was very posh … and very white,” Amir Lancaster said during the series premiere of the show.
Bria Fleming declared the island is “10 times more exclusive than the Hamptons,” while Jordan Emanuel added, “You have to get there by plane, boat, or helicopter.”
So is Martha’s Vineyard just a dream vacation destination for a certain part of the population? No way, Jasmine Ellis Cooper said.
“Nope, nope, nope, if you’re melanated, Martha’s Vineyard is the place to vacation during the summer,” she said during the series premiere.
What makes it so special? Here's what to know.
Where is Summer House: Martha's Vineyard filmed?
The show is filmed in a certain area of the island: Oak Bluffs.
“Oak Bluffs is a town that has long been a vacation destination for affluent African-Americans,” Preston Mitchum said on the series premiere.
In fact, African-Americans have been vacationing in the spot for more than a century, according to Town and Country magazine. The residential development was called Cottage City until it was reincorporated as Oak Bluffs in 1907.
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Martha’s Vineyard got renewed attention when President Barack Obama first vacationed there in 2009, with Town and Country adding, “It was seen as a nod to both the Kennedy-Clinton presence and the unique heritage of Oak Bluffs.”
“Ironically, when most of America was discovering the wonders of the Cape and the Vineyard through the Kennedys, there was a class of Black people that knew that world very well,” Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, said in an interview with Town and Country.
He pointed out it was one of the few places in the country that made Black families feel welcome.
“It was very free. There wasn’t just one way to be black,” Gates Jr. said to Town and Country. “Everybody would be accepted, even if your mother was white, or your father was white, or whatever sort of sub-division Blackness you fell into. It was a nurturing environment, but a socializing environment too.”
What's the history behind Oak Bluffs?
The first Black people to be on Martha’s Vineyard were likely slaves, as slavery was legal in Massachusetts until 1783, when the state became the first to abolish slavery.
“Martha’s Vineyard was part of the Underground Railroad, so it was known as a safe and welcoming community for African Americans,” Nancy Gardella, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview with Vox.
After slavery became illegal, Black people began to look for work on the island as laborers, sailors, and craftsmen, according to Adelaide M. Cromwell in The History of Oak Bluffs As a Popular Resort for Blacks, published in 1984.
By the early 1900s, more Black people started coming to the island from Boston.
“First they rented or boarded, but soon were buying homes, establishing the solid foundations for the Black community in the Highlands of Oak Bluffs,” the article said.
Charles Shearer, who was the son of an enslaved woman and a slave owner, opened the first Black inn in Oak Bluffs in 1912, according to Ebony magazine. Word of this inn also encouraged families from Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and New York City to visit, according to Vox.
“This was a time when discrimination and racial segregation ran rampant across the United States, and Black travelers had limited options on safe places they could stay overnight during vacation,” Ebony magazine reported. “Shearer Inn became the go-to summer haven for middle and upper class black families as the Harlem Renaissance and other black economic booms took place.”
August has now become the most popular month for people to visit, partly because of the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, which celebrated 20 years in 2022, according to Ebony.
“I can be who I want, when I want [on Martha’s Vineyard],” said Skip Finley, an author and former broadcaster, to Vox. “Which is not necessarily true of the rest of the country. When we get on a boat or plane to leave here, we call it ‘going to America.’”
Watch the Season 2 premiere of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday, March 24 at 9/8c and the next day on Peacock.
