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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 front door of Oak Bluffs and 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, 160 years later it is still the town's main gathering place.
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 October 2026.
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Ocean Park at night, the lawn running toward the sea with 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 goes back to the 19th century. It was most recently renovated with Community Preservation Act funds from 2008 to 2011. Two free concert series fill Sunday evenings all summer: "Sundays in the Park" (late May–mid-October, local musicians) and, on at least one summer Sunday, the Vineyard Haven Band, a volunteer ensemble founded in 1868 by Civil War veterans, one of the oldest bands in the country that has played regularly since its founding.
The Ocean Park bandstand lit up on an August night in 2025, with musicians inside and people with glow sticks on the dark lawn around it.
The Ocean Park lawn filling up at dusk before the August fireworks, blankets and beach chairs spread out around the fountain.
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 the easy way in.
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The houses around Ocean Park are a different style from the gingerbread cottages of the nearby Campground. The Campground has 300 tiny Gothic Revival cottages; Ocean Park is ringed by large Queen Anne and Second Empire mansions built for wealthy resort visitors. The Corbin-Norton House (87 Ocean Avenue, 1891) is the best known: originally built for Connecticut hardware magnate Philip Corbin, later restored by computer pioneer Peter Norton, destroyed by fire in 2001, and rebuilt as a replica with a Russian inscription reading "Dacha Peterhof" over the door. The Villa Rosa / Overton House on Seaview Avenue has its own place in civil rights history: 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 had curving streets woven through a series of parks, and the development came two to three years before Olmsted and Vaux's Riverside, Illinois (1869). 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 four-story Sea View House hotel, opened in 1872 at the head of the wharf, once anchored the view; it lasted only about twenty years. In 1887 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in an opinion by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., overturned a ruling that would have let the parks be sold, and a final ruling in 1891 kept them in public hands.
The park is a one-to-two-minute walk from the Oak Bluffs ferry terminal at 1 Seaview Avenue. Circuit Avenue is four minutes away on foot. Oak Bluffs Town Beach runs along Seaview Avenue across from the park. The park has no restrooms; in season the ferry terminal does. 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 (usually the third Wednesday in August; August 18 in 2027) 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.
The long pier at Oak Bluffs and the beach below the seawall in the last pink light of an August evening.
Seaview Avenue along Ocean Park in August: parking full, harbor and the Steamship wharf straight ahead.
Exploring the town? Start with our complete Oak Bluffs guide for food, beaches and parking.
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 on at least one summer Sunday, a volunteer ensemble founded in 1868 by Civil War veterans.
It goes back to the 19th century, though we have not found a firm construction year. The town renovated it from 2008 to 2011 with Community Preservation Act funds.
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.
Yes. It has been the town’s main gathering place for 160 years: blankets on the grass, with the harbor and the ferries in front of you.
Island tip of the day Timing No. 58 of 79 New tip at midnight, island time
Oak Bluffs restaurants are packed 6–8 PM. Eat at 5 PM or after 8:30 PM: same food, half the wait, easier parking.
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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