Inkwell Beach, Oak Bluffs: The History, the Polar Bears, and How to Visit Well (2026)

Filmed March 2022The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked September 2026.

The Inkwell is a short, sheltered town beach on Seaview Avenue, five minutes on foot from the Oak Bluffs ferry, with warm shallow water, two stone jetties and a lifeguard stand. On those terms it is one of a dozen pleasant beaches on the island. On every other term it is one of the most important beaches in America: the shore where Black families have summered for more than a century, where a swimming club founded under segregation still meets at 7:30 every morning, and where a name that many say began as an insult was turned into a badge. This guide covers the history, the name, the Polar Bears and their eightieth summer, what happens here in August, and the practical side of a visit, including how to be a good guest at a beach that belongs, in every sense that matters, to a community.

How Oak Bluffs became the place

Black families began buying and renting summer houses in Oak Bluffs in the 1890s, in the Highlands above the harbor and near Baptist Temple Park, at a time when no other town on the island, and few resorts anywhere on the East Coast, would have them. In 1912 Charles Shearer, who was born into slavery in Virginia, and his wife Henrietta, born free in Lynchburg, opened Shearer Cottage as a guest house for Black visitors who were turned away everywhere else; it is still run by the family, it was the first stop on the island's African American Heritage Trail when the trail's first bronze marker was dedicated there in 1998, and it has a place in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. The guest book over the decades reads like a history of Black America: Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Dorothy West, the youngest and last surviving writer of the Harlem Renaissance, summered here and then lived here until her death in 1998, and her novel of the island's Black summer community, The Wedding, was edited by her neighbor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In our own time the Obamas vacationed on the island most summers from 2009 and bought a house in Edgartown in 2019. Our Heritage Trail guide walks the whole story, site by site.

The name

The most widely told story is that white summer residents coined the name as a slur in the Jim Crow decades, when this was the stretch of sand where Black bathers gathered. Other versions circulate, including one that ties the name to the writers and thinkers who gathered here, and the Heritage Trail says as much. What nobody disputes is what happened next: the community kept the name and made it its own. Some islanders would still rather it were retired; most say it with pride; the Heritage Trail uses it, the Polar Bears use it, and the shops on Circuit Avenue print it on T-shirts. Say it the way the people on the beach say it, which is plainly and without a wince.

The Polar Bears: 7:30 every morning since 1946

The Polar Bears began in 1946, the way the Martha's Vineyard Times tells it in its eightieth-anniversary piece: the O'Brien sisters bought a Campground cottage and ran it as a bed and breakfast, and Myrtle O'Brien, an innkeeper with a passion for fitness, marched nine Black guests working on the island that summer into the water at sunrise, because sunrise was the only time they could use the beach in peace. Breakfast at the sisters' house followed, and the habit became an institution; today it survives as the Monday potluck breakfast on the sand, which draws the swimmers and a crowd of admirers who never get wet. Eighty summers later the Polar Bears still meet on the Inkwell every morning at 7:30 from the Fourth of July to Labor Day for water aerobics, deep-water laps and a meditation, led for the past 38 years by the same instructor, who calls it the most democratic organized non-organization on the island. It is open to anyone of any age who turns up in a swimsuit; visitors from across the country do, and are welcomed. On July 4, 2026, the opening morning of the eightieth season, the Vineyard Gazette counted 273 people in the water, a record. The anniversary summer also brought an exhibition of paintings and photographs of the group at Cousen Rose Gallery on Circuit Avenue, a garden dedication at Waban Park in the instructor's honor, and a concert on the Fourth.

If you want to join: be on the sand before 7:30, wade in with the group, follow the routine, and stay for the circle at the end. Ask before you film it. The Polar Bears will tell you themselves that the point is not the exercise; it is that grief takes care of itself, and joy has to be shared.

What happens here in summer

Finding the Inkwell

Visiting: the practical page

Being a good guest

• It is a community beach first. Families here have held the same spot on the sand for generations. Set up with the same courtesy you would want on your own street: not on top of anyone, radio low, tents at the back.
• Photographs. The beach is public and the early light is lovely. For a close-up of a Polar Bear or a family gathering, a hello first goes a long way. The photo spots guide has the light.
• The history is worth reading first. The Heritage Trail guide takes twenty minutes to read; the plaque at Shearer Cottage is a ten-minute walk. Questions asked from knowledge land differently.
• The name. Use it as the beach uses it; the people who live here know its story better than any guide.
• The rest of island manners are in the rules and etiquette guide, and the town’s other beaches, Pay Beach next door and State Beach up the road, in our beaches guide.

At a glance

How we checked this

The Polar Bears’ origin, routine, leadership and eightieth-anniversary events are from the Martha’s Vineyard Times of June 25, 2026 and the Vineyard Gazette of July 30, 2026, including the Gazette’s count on July 4. Myrtle O’Brien’s role and the Monday breakfast are from Martha’s Vineyard Magazine’s 2017 history of the Inkwell. The Shearer Cottage dates, the Heritage Trail’s founding in 1989 and first marker in 1998, and the trail’s thirty sites are from the trail organization and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The name’s origin is as told by the Heritage Trail and by island writers, who note that more than one version circulates. Beach rules are the town’s; lifeguard coverage changes by season and should be checked at the stand. The photographs are ours. The video at the top is our own walk along Seaview Avenue to the beach.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get to Inkwell Beach from the ferry?

Walk out of the Oak Bluffs ferry terminal, turn left along the water on Seaview Avenue, and you are on the sand in about five minutes. The beach sits between two stone jetties just south of the Steamship pier, down a set of stairs from the rail.

Is there parking at the Inkwell?

Not much. Metered and permit spaces along Seaview Avenue fill by ten in August. Leave the car at your rental or take the fare-free bus to the ferry terminal stop. Our parking guide has the Oak Bluffs lots.

Is Inkwell Beach good for small children?

Yes, it is our top pick on the island for little ones. The jetties protect the water, so waves are small, the slope is gentle, and the water runs warm by August. There is a lifeguard stand, but coverage changes by season, so check it before you rely on it.

Can visitors swim with the Polar Bears?

Anyone can. Be on the sand before 7:30 in the morning between the Fourth of July and Labor Day, wade in with the group, follow the routine and stay for the circle at the end. Ask before you film. It is open to all ages and visitors are welcomed.

Are dogs allowed on Inkwell Beach?

Not during the day from May 15 to September 15. In the off-season dogs are welcome. If you are traveling with a dog in summer, our dog-friendly guide lists the beaches that allow them.

When is the best time to visit?

August is the busiest, with reunions and the film festival filling the town, so book a year ahead if that is the week you want. June and September are quieter, though the water is warmest in August. The Polar Bears only meet from July 4 to Labor Day.