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Her gorgeous color, treasure glimpses of outstanding private homes and gardens hold coffee table court in countless Martha’s Vineyard homes and across America. The book affords rare glimpses into outstanding private homes and gardens, from Edgartown mansions to Gay Head beach cottages; with every kind of garden from perennial border to wildflower meadow. Glimpses of unexpected, wild and traditional flower arrangements make the pages sparkle. Polly introduces us to homes we would love to visit during a Vineyard Playhouse or political fundraiser. And, of course, attending a yard sale there would be a fantasy. Polly did the spying for us, and shares the unique character of each town, reflected in its houses and gardens. She gives us Edgartown whaling captains’ houses, and magnificent English style gardens facing the harbor; charming Oak Bluffs gingerbread architecture, lending a holiday atmosphere; East Chop’s dignified shingle style, overlooking Vineyard Sound; handsome Greek Revival homes of bustling Vineyard Haven, fanning out toward shoreline West Chop summer cottages. Add to that North and West Tisbury working farms, colonial reproductions, and modern summer houses, peacefully coexisting among some of the Island’s loveliest plantings. Large contemporary Chilmark houses, perched on hilltops where flocks of sheep once grazed, and old weathered farmhouses dot the landscape. Polly tells that “elegant to austere beach houses, amidst windswept sea grasses and majestic cliffs denote Gay Head/Aquinnah,” just East of which is “the tiny port of Menemsha, where the ancestral homes of fishermen and new cottages fit together seamlessly.” This remarkable patchwork of architecture and gardens is presented to us through the stunning full color photographs of Lisl Dennis, of Santa Fe, and a third generation summer resident on Martha’s Vineyard. Covering three centuries of historic homes and contemporary architecture, Polly’s keen sense of place even includes the pastoral Farmers’ Markets and Agricultural Fairs. Discussing the original version, Polly exclaims: “Some of those houses are no longer standing. Katharine Graham’s house, Mohu, in Lambert’s Cove, is now gone! The interior of that house was as beautiful as the natural terrain of fields, ponds, marshlands, and meandering shoreline.” Polly recalls, “Kay remarking that the house was a tumbledown wreck when she bought it in 1972.” Still delighted that Katharine agreed to include her elegant, serene home on a bluff overlooking the North Shore, Polly feels that “this is history, beyond fabulous houses and
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Prolific 12 book Vineyard author, Polly Burroughs penned the cherished Martha’s Vineyard Houses and Gardens 15 years ago and is thrilled with its republishing by Schiffer Publishing Ltd., of U.S. and England.