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Walk through Ocean Park in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard: seven acres of open green with a historic bandstand, friendly geese, and open ocean views.
Ocean Park is a seven-acre, crescent-shaped public green overlooking Nantucket Sound, the symbolic front door of Oak Bluffs and literally the first thing you see stepping off the Steamship Authority ferry. Designed in 1866 by Boston landscape architect Robert Morris Copeland as the centerpiece of one of America's earliest planned resort communities, it remains the town's primary gathering space 160 years later.
Cottages on the harbor side of town at golden hour, scrollwork balconies and a row of white rockers, the masts of the harbor at the end of the road.
Filmed May 2021The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked September 2026.
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Ocean Park is the great green sweep between the gingerbread cottages and the sea, the bandstand at its center.
The bandstand strung with holiday lights, the town tree glowing inside. Summer Sundays it holds the band instead.
The Victorian bandstand at the park's center dates to c. 1886–1887, built by the Martha's Vineyard Club, not in 1867 as often claimed. It was most recently renovated with Community Preservation Act funds from 2008 to 2011, and its handcrafted copper whale weathervane was created by Anthony Holand of Tuck and Holand Metal Sculptors in Vineyard Haven. Two free concert series fill Sunday evenings all summer: "Sundays in the Park" (late May–mid-October, local musicians) and the Vineyard Haven Band (every other Sunday in July–August), a volunteer ensemble founded in 1868 by Civil War veterans, believed to be America's second-oldest continuously performing concert band.
The Ocean Park lawn fills an hour before the August fireworks: blankets down, the bandstand lit, the harbor going dark behind.
Oak Bluffs' annual fireworks are on the third Friday in August (canceled in 2026: rough seas scuttled both the August 21 show and its rain date), not Independence Day. The show launches over the harbor while the Vineyard Haven Band plays a pre-show concert from the bandstand starting at 8:00 PM. Families spread blankets across the seven-acre lawn (no unattended blankets before 4 PM; tarps prohibited), and Victorian homeowners on Ocean Avenue host their own porch parties. Seaview Avenue closes at 6:00 AM, paid parking ($20 cash) opens at 3:30 PM; the free VTA bus is strongly recommended.
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The architecture ringing Ocean Park is fundamentally different from the famous gingerbread cottages of the nearby Campground. Where the Campground features 300 tiny Gothic Revival cottages, Ocean Park is surrounded by large Queen Anne and Second Empire mansions built for wealthy resort visitors. The Corbin-Norton House (87 Ocean Avenue, 1891) is the most prominent: originally built for Connecticut hardware magnate Philip Corbin, later restored by computer pioneer Peter Norton, destroyed by fire in 2001, and faithfully rebuilt as a replica with a Russian inscription reading "Dacha Peterhof" over the door. The Villa Rosa / Overton House on Seaview Avenue carries deep civil rights significance: after WWII it hosted Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Jesse Jackson, which earned it the nickname "the Summer White House" among Black political leaders of the era. It's now a stop on the Martha's Vineyard African American Heritage Trail.
Robert Morris Copeland's plan for Oak Bluffs (dated October 25, 1866) featured curving streets interwoven with nine parks, predating Olmsted and Vaux's celebrated Riverside, Illinois by three years. Ocean Park was deliberately placed at the head of the steamship wharf so arriving visitors would see a grand green expanse as their first impression. The massive Sea View Hotel (1872, designed by Samuel Freeman Pratt, 225 feet long, 125 rooms) once anchored the view before burning down in under 40 minutes in 1892. An 1885 ruling by Oliver Wendell Holmes established that the park must remain "forever open to the public."
The park is a one-to-two-minute walk from the Oak Bluffs ferry terminal at 1 Seaview Avenue, the closest major attraction to any ferry terminal on the island. Circuit Avenue is four minutes away on foot. Oak Bluffs Town Beach runs directly along Seaview Avenue across from the park. There are no restrooms in the park itself. Use the ferry terminal facilities. Free street parking on Seaview Avenue fills fast in summer; the fare-free VTA bus (routes 7, 9, 13) is the easiest option. Grand Illumination Night (third Wednesday in August) is at the adjacent Campground Tabernacle, not Ocean Park, though historically the first Illumination, in 1869, was staged by developer Erastus Carpenter's land company rather than the Campground.
Sea View Avenue along Ocean Park in late August: parking full, harbor and the Steamship wharf straight ahead.
Exploring the town? Start with our complete Oak Bluffs guide: food, beaches, parking and the local rhythm, all in one place.
A seven-acre crescent of green facing Nantucket Sound, the first thing you see off the Steamship ferry in Oak Bluffs, designed in 1866 by Robert Morris Copeland as the centerpiece of one of America’s earliest planned resort communities.
Sunday evenings all summer: Sundays in the Park from late May to mid-October with local musicians, and the Vineyard Haven Band every other Sunday in July and August, a volunteer ensemble founded in 1868 by Civil War veterans.
About 1886 to 1887, built by the Martha’s Vineyard Club (not 1867 as often claimed), renovated in 2008 to 2011 with a hand-made copper whale weathervane by Tuck and Holand of Vineyard Haven.
The third Friday in August, not July 4th, launched over the harbor after a Vineyard Haven Band concert from the bandstand. The 2026 show and its rain date were both canceled by rough seas.
It is the town’s primary gathering space, 160 years on: blankets on the grass, the harbor and the ferries in front of you.
Island tip of the day Driving No. 16 of 86 New tip at midnight, island time
Driving an EV? The island's only DC fast charger is at the Harbor View Hotel and it is Tesla-only. Town Level 2 chargers: free in Aquinnah and West Tisbury, 25¢/kWh at the Oak Bluffs and Edgartown park-and-rides.
The Martha's Vineyard Songwriters Festival, September 17 to 20, 2026: a free kickoff at Nomans and three nights of Nashville writers at the Strand Theatre in Oak Bluffs, with our photographs from inside the Strand, the night-by-night lineups and practical notes for next year.
The Feast of the Holy Ghost in Oak Bluffs, held every third full weekend of July since 1928: the Queen Isabel legend behind the free soup, the Sunday parade from the ferry up Circuit Avenue, the crown blessed at Our Lady Star of the Sea, the sopas at the Portuguese-American Club, the club the rest of the year, and how a visitor should behave at the island's Portuguese feast.
East Chop Lighthouse in Oak Bluffs: the 1878 cast-iron tower on Telegraph Hill, the Sunday sunset openings run by the Martha's Vineyard Museum, the semaphore and Chocolate Lighthouse history, and the bus stop and parking below the hill.
Shearer Cottage, Dorothy West, the Inkwell and 30 marked sites across the island: how to walk or tour the African American Heritage Trail of Martha's Vineyard.
Take a guided Jaws tour of Martha's Vineyard with local guide Mike Currid. Walk the real Amity Island in Edgartown and book the “Amity” Walking Tour.
A first-hand look at the Edgartown Historic Walking Tour and “Amity” Jaws Tour with Mike Currid of the Edgartown Tour Company: what to expect, what you'll learn, and how to book.
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