Celebrating over 160 years of Oak Bluffs’ Gingerbread Cottage community.

Not to be confused with a festive holiday treat or a make-believe home in a fairytale forest, the Gingerbread Cottages on Martha’s Vineyard are not made of cookies or decorated with candy but rather adorned in history and charm. The American Victorian architecture found tucked in the town of Oak Bluffs has stood for decades as the surrounding blueprint of the island develops with the everchanging modern world. 

The land, owned by Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association (MVCMA)—a religious nonprofit established on the island back in the 1800s—is recognized as a National Historic Landmark. What began as a modest religious group living in tents transformed into a thriving community. According to MVCMA’s website, tenants of the land began building cottages between 1859 and 1864 that later became known as the iconic Gingerbread Cottages due to their unique Carpenter Gothic style. Nearly all of the over 300 cottages standing today are independently owned—most of whom have been passed down through generations—and owners lease their lots from the association under long-term lease agreements.

Second generation cottage owner Ken Potter says his family began renting cottages at the Camp back in the 1950s. “My parents were drawn to the campgrounds and Martha’s Vineyard, they [Amy and Robert Potter] purchased their cottage back in 1982, and after my mom passed in 2018 the cottage went to us kids,” Potter explains, as he notes he purchased the property from his siblings a year later. For over 40 years, their cottage at 47 Trinity Park has been home to “a lot of joy and warmth. My parents loved it, and I have really nice family memories there.” Like many cottage owners, the Potters welcome...