Linsey Lee emerged from what was once the Vineyard’s first African American church last week peeling a respirator from her face. By her count, she had spent more than 150 hours in the Bradley Memorial Church in Oak Bluffs, and the mask stood as a shield between her and decades of dust.

Despite lingering concerns about the size, density and effect on a residential neighborhood, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday approved the multifaceted Bradley Square project at the corner of Dukes County and Masonic avenues in Oak Bluffs by a nearly unanimous vote.

A $5.1 million plan to convert the old Bradley Memorial Church off Masonic avenue in Oak Bluffs into a mixed use building with affordable housing and artist work space has quickly become a heated neighborhood controversy.

On one side is a group of longtime residents of Dukes County avenue and the surrounding area who are proud of their largely blue-collar neighborhood. On the other is a group of town and Island officials touting a dense plan to redevelop property that is the site of the first African-American church on the Island.

As many as 100 people attended an often emotional public hearing held by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday, March 20 to hear a proposal to transform the old Bradley Memorial Church in Oak Bluffs into a multi-use building with affordable housing, artists’ workshops and a museum.

It may be hard to tell now, but there was a time when the Bradley Memorial Church was arguably the spiritual and social center of Oak Bluffs.