—How The Cottagers support Martha’s Vineyard — and each other
The Oak Bluffs organization of 100 Black women homeowners has raised money for local causes and built a close-knit community since 1956
How The Cottagers support Martha’s Vineyard — and each other
The Oak Bluffs organization of 100 Black women homeowners has raised money for local causes and built a close-knit community since 1956
Good food, moving our bodies and spending time with people. The key tenets to living well longer.
No one knows that social connection better than a group called The Cottagers, who have been a staple in the Martha’s Vineyard community for over seven decades.
The Cottagers have a legacy of giving back to the Martha’s Vineyard community and, in turn, have created their own strong community.
The Cottagers, headquartered right in the heart of Oak Bluffs on the Vineyard, are a lesson in history, humanity and how to build a community.
The Cottagers are a celebrated philanthropic organization of 100 Black American women homeowners on Martha’s Vineyard.
It all started in 1956 with The Cottagers' founder, Thelma Garland Smith, and an overheard conversation on Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs.
“She was walking up Circuit Avenue and she overheard a white person say that Negroes on the island did not participate or give back to the community,” cottager Jocelyn Coleman Walton said. “She decided then and there to talk to her friends who were used to having tea and cocktails on their porch in the afternoons that they should contribute to the community.”
From that moment, a movement was born.
“The fact that Black women own this building is fabulous,” Millie Anglin said.
Giving back, fundraising through suppers and dances, fashion shows, festivals and deep friendship, experts say all of these things will have a profound impact on their longevity and long-term health — something that is not lost on this group of women.
“It’s important as we grow up and as we experience life, that we have an understanding that it’s how important it is to feel connected to community and purpose,” Walton-Coleman said. “We commit ourselves to spending the summer raising money to give back to the community and we do it out of a love for each other.”
Sitting in the front room of The Cottagers headquarters, you can feel the power of how connecting socially and giving back together has strengthened their deep purpose and meaning in their lives.
“It’s about commitment. You can have fun with your sister; that’s what you’re supposed to do, but the commitment is what’s important to all of us,” Gretchen Underwood said.
‘So when I retired, I said I need to go someplace I can be kind with a lot of wonderful women and do great things in the community and that’s what keeps you alive,” Julia Burgess said. “It is sustaining and staying active and doing things with other people.”
The Cottagers are giving back and helping each other and their community become a better place.
“And while there are 100 women, I certainly don’t know everybody’s name, but I certainly know faces. And wherever you are on the Vineyard, if you see, you know, ‘Oh, I caught up to this person,” Anglin said.
The community aspect, the longevity, the giving back, the philanthropy. This is all rooted in the jewel of The Cottagers.
“I look around, I see faces who accepted me as Brenda, and I was just so impressed by this community,” Brenda Davenport said. “Everybody knows I lost my husband last year. Sorry, but I have so much support. This lady comes and visits me. This lady invited me out to a party; this lady calls me and checks on me.”
Looking out for each other, being there and giving back.
“Thank you everybody, you’ve been in my corner,” Davenport said. ”I found my community here on Martha's Vineyard.”
