After a great deal of thought, our family has decided to sell Red Gate Farm. This may come as a surprise to members of the Island community, so we wanted to share our reasoning.
After a great deal of thought, our family has decided to sell Red Gate Farm. This may come as a surprise to members of the Island community, so we wanted to share our reasoning. The Vineyard will always be a part of our lives. The Island and people here have touched our family in ways for which we will be forever grateful. Being able to raise our children in a place that meant so much to my mother and my brother has kept them close to our hearts. Now that our children are grown, it is time for them to spread their wings, and for us to explore new places.
I dimly remember my first visit to Martha’s Vineyard. I was a little girl when we sailed over from Hyannis Port and climbed the cliffs at Windy Gates. Those memories came back in the late 1970s when my mother told us that she had fallen in love with the rolling hills, wild dunes and silent ponds of Aquinnah. A group of people she knew were having second thoughts about buying a large property on Squibnocket Pond. She decided to move quickly, and having acquired one of the most beautiful places on earth, she took great pride in her real estate acumen as well as in her stewardship of nature.
My mother believed that a North Atlantic summer was one of the most magical gifts in life. She had grown up spending summers in East Hampton and Newport with her parents and grandparents. She loved exploring the Cape, sailing Nantucket Sound with my father, and being part of all the family activities in Hyannis Port. But when my brother and I were grown, she wanted a place of her own.
Red Gate Farm provided her with the sanctuary she needed and the freedom to be close to nature, her family, her friends and her books. It was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit. She loved the old stone walls, the blue heron that lived in the pond behind the dunes, the hunting cabin that was the only thing on the property when she acquired it, the clay cliffs, the Wampanoag legends, and building a fairy tree-house for her grandchildren.
She researched the history of New England architecture and its farm buildings. She wanted a house “built to weather.” No pool and no air conditioning — she wanted to swim in the ocean and breathe the salt air. No tennis court — she hated the sound of balls being whacked around, but relented eventually.
She bicycled to the Gay Head Lighthouse every morning, and checked the tide charts so she could run on the beach at low tide. She spent late afternoons reading on the deck, and loved the literary life of the Island. She was always ready for a trip to Berta’s shop on the Gay Head Cliffs or The Galley in Menemsha for soft ice cream.
Together we wove the traditions of summer across three generations — setting lobster pots in Menemsha Pond, entering the Fair and never winning, growing a vegetable garden, bringing home the best shell from the beach every day, getting stuck at the airport when the fog rolled in. It’s hard to believe it has been 25 years since she left us.
My mother taught us by example that life always offers new adventures. When she married Aristotle Onassis, she embraced her life in Greece and learned all she could about the ancient Mediterranean. One of her favorite poems was Ithaka by Constantin Cavafy which has the lines:
. . . Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars . . .
Our family will always come back to Martha’s Vineyard. We are keeping our mooring, a beach key and a small house, but now it’s time for us to discover new ports of call. We hope that another family will treasure Red Gate Farm as we have — it’s still the most beautiful place on Earth.
Comments
We can only hope the new
DMM NJ (but 3x/year visitor to MVY)We can only hope the new owners will keep the same conservation and preservation-minded mentality.
Red Gate Farm is truly the premier spot on the Vineyard.
My feelings are also echoed
Theresa King Zachary, LouisianaMy feelings are also echoed in this letter as my parents moved on from the Island to new adventures. It's always home no matter how many ports away.
It said to see family
Laura Holdread IndianaIt said to see family treasure go I think it should stay in the family.
Nice neighbors to all on the
TAD ChappyNice neighbors to all on the island.
So sad another reminder she
Phyllis Whitmer MackinacSo sad another reminder she is gone. Everyone is different, my family memories are important not something I could. Even if my children weren’t interested I could get rid of it but that’s me I treasure my family memories and try to show my children how important
Amabassador Kennedy What a
Michelle Morrissette St LouisAmabassador Kennedy What a joy this home must have brought to your Mother,Brother and your family.Wherever those new ports of call may be I wish you happiness.
Nature Conservancy, do a
Rachel Carson Woods HoleNature Conservancy, do a fundraiser!!
Beautiful letter,poem and
Joanne Salem, MABeautiful letter,poem and family memories to keep always. This Island could never leave you or you leave it. It will call you back! But so sad to have to leave such a beautiful place, Red Gate Farm. The next people who purchase this property are certainly going to enjoy this little spot of heaven.
Thanks for doing your part
Malcolm Boyd Vineyard HavenThank you for your poetic contribution and for doing your part in preserving wild lands on Martha's Vineyard. Continue well.
Well said, Mr. Boyd, I echo
Lorraine EdgartownWell said, Mr. Boyd, I echo your literate and meaningful sentiments.
As I get ready to part from a
Roseline Glazer MenemshaAs I get ready to part from a home I shared with my late husband, I, too, hope that whomever has been blessed to watch Menemsha sunsets as we did for summer after summer, will be as connected to the beauty and ongoing magic of having been part of the island for awhile. Our family’s memories will remain and sustain us forever.
I still remember having
Bob Dumais Oak BluffsI still remember having coffee at the airport and your brother John would come in from a run or roller blading , sit down and enjoy a short rest as I would have my coffee before going across the street to get my horse at Scrubby Neck Farm for a morning ride through State owned woods. All my very best wishes for a future of happy memories, thank you for all your family has done throughout the years!
Namaste
Jac critchley New JerseyNamaste
Very well said, Caroline.
Patricia Cape CodVery well said, Caroline.
What a beautiful letter. I
Nina Garde Kingston, MaWhat a beautiful letter. I have loved and admired Jackie Kennedy Onassis since I was a little girl. I remember the concern I felt seeing my Dad cry for the first time ever, while watching President Kennedy’s funeral. I remember the beautiful young widow, stoically walking behind the riderless horse. I am happy that she found comfort and peace on the island which became the home of my heart, the same year that those sad memories were seared into my mind. After that first visit as a ten year old, the island called to me year after year, until I was able to settle there full time. I feel fortunate to have lived there for 37 years. I too have had to leave in body, but, my heart remains. I have a new house, in a new town, but Martha’s Vineyard is my only home. I wish Caroline and her family well, and peace in her new horizons. She has endured much.
This maks me sad, especially
Arlen Roth AquinnahThis maks me sad, especially as I must say good-bye to my Aquinnah home as well, not far from Caroline's. I had some fleeting great times with the Kennedys in MV, and I'll always remember performing at The Hot Tin Roof for Jackie's lighthouse preservation passion, and how we all sat around the campfire on the beach, sang songs, played football with John-John, and most of all how Caroline held my late daughter, Gillian, telling her "you were so cute when you ran up onstage and started dancing last night!" I will no longer have my little slice of heaven in Aquinnah as of this mid-summer, and so sad to see my neighbors go.....let us hope it all remains preserved, as one of the great and heavenly spots on the north Atlantic!
Very nice....
Rick Hatch ChathamVery nice....
Caroline ( if I might be so
David A Jordan Oak Bluffs, Edgartown & WorcesterCaroline ( if I might be so familiar) my first memory of anything “political” was of your father and mother. I grew up in Newport and my parents would often drive by Hammersmith Farm and tell me about how inspiring your Mom and Dad were to them. President Kennedy fashioned in me a belief that anything , with good intentions , was possible. Years later I own my own little piece of Camelot here on Martha’s Vineyard. You have been and remain a symbol of what America can be - strong yet replete with the belief that people are inherently good if given the opportunity. I can only hope the future stewards of the land your Mother cherished in our island will cherish it as much as she did.
Beautifully put.
Aleza Beauvais Oak BluffsBeautifully put.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
We are all sad to lose those
Harriet Bernstein West TisburyWe are all sad to lose those who have been pillars of our community.
But you will forever be ambassadors of our Vineyard ways to those you meet.
Thank you for your eloquence,
Holly Gleason Somewhere on the RoadThank you for your eloquence, and your elegance. These transitions are so bittersweet, and yes, new generations/memories/places in the heart are part of it.
Your mother, your family have been such wonderful stewards of the wild beauty of Aquinnah, of the Vineyard, of the ben of who we are for generations. The example of your mother, your own beautiful growing up wasn't lost on me -- and the Red Gate Farm was one to drive by, and smile. You knew your best self, even a spec of it, was somewhere on the coast.
To reach out and offer this note, when in Nashville where I technically live and historic buildings are sold + destroyed in the middle of the night in the name "Development" and the truth of profiteering, you're a good woman to send this letter. The Vineyard spirit is mighty inside you, but really you are just embodying the truth heritage in your veins.
Godspeed for you + yours. Thank you + your entire family for making sure one of the island's jewels had so much love and care.
Since you were a child you
Steve Boylston Summerdale AlabamaSince you were a child you have seen it all, good and bad,, somethings a child should never have to see, your family has stood up for the less fortunate many many times over, and will never be forgotten, when you were born the stars shinned on you, No other family has touched so many, even Neil Diamond said it best “ Sweet Caroline” . I have been passed your place many times and thought of how it would be to live three, no common person will ever know. You children understand how lucky they are. There are many places left for you to see, enjoy it,, this is a one way ride. My ancestors settled on the Vineyard 300 years, when I moved there t was easy to see why. The Crown Jewel.
Thank you Ms. Kennedy! Very
Alexei Levine Hadley MassachusettsThank you Ms. Kennedy! Very inspiring writing. Very evocative, how I miss the salt sea air on a summer evening when I’m not on the Vineyard. Happy traveling down the road of life, I hope you find many beautiful places to rest in time.
This is the first summer in
Suzanne R Brown Louisville KY and Edgartown MAThis is the first summer in over 22 years that I have not come to the Vineyard, having first come when I married my now late husband 9n 1978. My health is just not up to it, but I rejoice that at least part of my family will enjoy it this summer.
Do I not remember that when Ms Kennedy bought this property, she paid a bit less than the asking price as she agreed to put it into conservation in perpetuity? That it can never be subdivided?
I hope that is the case and that another family will enjoy the Vineyard magic in this house.
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