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The Old Whaling Church on Martha's Vineyard is a historic Edgartown landmark built in 1843. Visitor information, events, and its cultural significance.
The Old Whaling Church at 89 Main Street in Edgartown is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in New England, built in 1843 by Methodist whaling captains when the town's whaling money was at its peak.
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Inside the Old Whaling Church: the hall doubles as one of the island’s main performance venues.
The church was built in 1843 when the original congregation of whaling captains and their families outgrew their earlier church (now Edgartown Town Hall). The architect was Frederick Baylies Jr., born in Edgartown in 1795 and Harvard-educated, who also designed multiple Edgartown public buildings. Construction was supervised by Ellis Lewis using local carpenters and shipwrights, craftsmen equally skilled in building churches and ships. The wood was brought from Maine on the vessel Rhine, captained by John O. Morse.
The six Doric columns of the portico from the steps, looking up at the entablature and the pediment.
The façade features six massive tapered Doric columns supporting a cantilevered entablature with triangular pediment. The 92-foot clock tower is crowned with Gothic Revival elements including crenellations, rounded arches, and four spires capped with gilded acanthus leaf finials. The interior features an elegantly curved ceiling supported by massive trusses fashioned from ship-building timbers. Original whale oil lamps remain in the main hall. Seating capacity is approximately 470–500 in the sanctuary.
The Old Whaling Church on Main Street in Edgartown: the columns and the tower.
The clock tower up close: two black faces with Roman numerals, the louvered belfry above them.
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The murals were originally painted by Carl Wendte, a Swiss-born artist who worked closely with Baylies and died at age 28. Margot Datz restored and recreated these murals between January 2013 and December 2022, nearly a decade of work. She worked from a single grainy photograph from c.1865, using approximately 24 shades of gray for the full-scale trompe l'oeil arch that transforms a flat rear wall into what appears to be a light-filled antechamber.
The Methodist congregation transferred ownership to the Vineyard Preservation Trust in 1980. The church now serves as a performing arts center and community event venue hosting concerts, weddings, lectures, and town meetings. The Edgartown United Methodist Church still holds Sunday morning services during summer. Ticketed events vary in price. The Vineyard Trust also offers 75-minute guided Historic Walking Tours through their Carnegie Heritage Center.
The church from across Main Street in summer, the tower above the trees and the brick walk in front.
Located immediately adjacent at 99 Main Street, this Federal-style house was built c.1840 by Dr. Daniel Fisher, a wealthy whale oil industrialist who operated one of the largest whale oil processing factories in the country. The house is now used for events and is the site of the famous July 4th BBQ; see our 4th of July Edgartown Guide.
The church is part of the Edgartown Village Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. For a complete guide to Edgartown, see our Edgartown Town Guide (2026).
The porch and garden of the Dr. Daniel Fisher House next door, roses along the lawn under the columns.
Step 1 · WhenMonth PickerTwelve months compared on NOAA numbers, crowds, prices and what is open. 
Step 2 · DaysDay-by-Day Trip PlannerMorning, afternoon and evening sketched for every day, events dropped in, emailed to you. 
Step 3 · CostTrip Cost CalculatorFerry, beds with the rooms tax, meals, getting around and activities in one honest range. At 89 Main Street in Edgartown, a short walk from the harbor and the Main Street shops. The free VTA bus reaches downtown Edgartown from either ferry terminal, so you do not need a car. Our Edgartown guide covers the rest of the village.
Yes, when something is on. The Vineyard Preservation Trust runs it as a performing arts and community venue, so concerts, lectures, weddings and town meetings fill the calendar, and the Edgartown United Methodist Church holds Sunday morning services in summer. The Trust's 75-minute guided walking tour is another way in; ticketed events vary in price.
Not in the everyday sense. The Methodist congregation gave the building to the Vineyard Preservation Trust in 1980, and it now works as a venue. Summer Sunday services keep the original use alive, so check the schedule if you would like to attend one.
The curved ceiling held up by trusses cut from ship timbers, the original whale oil lamps, and the trompe l'oeil arch on the rear wall, recreated by Margot Datz between 2013 and 2022 from a single photograph from around 1865. The sanctuary seats roughly 470 to 500.
The Dr. Daniel Fisher House at 99 Main Street, a Federal-style home from about 1840 built by a whale oil industrialist. It is used for events today and hosts the July 4th barbecue; see our Edgartown 4th of July guide.
Downtown Edgartown parking is tight in summer. The easiest move is the Edgartown park-and-ride lot and the free Route 11 shuttle into town, which runs every 20 minutes through the middle of the day from late May to early September. Our parking guide has the lots.
Island tip of the day Food No. 19 of 86 New tip at midnight, island time
Espresso Love (17 Church St, Edgartown) opens at 7 AM daily. Excellent coffee, $5–12 for breakfast. One of the few places open early on the island.
Joshua Slocum, first to sail alone around the world, spent his last years farming in West Tisbury and vanished from Vineyard Haven harbor in November 1909. The voyage, the farm called Fag End, the last departure, and what a visitor can actually see: the harbor, a marker stone by a country road, the museum's Slocum papers, and the book itself.
Who summered where on Martha's Vineyard, and what a visitor can actually see: Eisenstaedt's Menemsha, Benton's Chilmark, Cronkite's Edgartown harbor, Styron and Buchwald in Vineyard Haven, McCullough and Katharine Graham in West Tisbury, Belushi's grave at Abel's Hill, and the Onassis farm in Aquinnah that opened to the public in 2025. Public places named, private homes left alone.
The red bus that gets the loudest cheer in the Edgartown Fourth of July parade belongs to Camp Jabberwocky, a tuition-free summer camp for people with disabilities that has run on the Vineyard since 1953. An islander's account of where it came from and what it is. For anything official, the camp's own site is the source.
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.
The words you will hear on Martha's Vineyard and what they mean: up-island and down-island, on-island and off, going to America, the boats, wash-ashore versus native, Five Corners, the Triangle, the Blinker, Chappy, OB, the Campground, the Derby, the Fair, island cars and the Vineyard shuffle, with pronunciations.
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.
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