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Twin Maples

Bonni & Clyde Diamondblue Surf Shop Glass Onion My Oyster

DO A LITTLE CREDIT CARD damage in some of the island’s fine clothing shops; pick up some new sunglasses, hats or bathing suits for long days at the beach; or browse for Block Island inspired goods to take home — from home décor to unique island-shaped jewelry. Only steps away from the ferry dock in Old Harbor is the heart of Block Island’s historic downtown. Most island stores are mom and pop businesses and the range of items offered is truly astounding. Hand-painted wooden signs of island locations, and locally famous T-shirts vie for space with designer handbags and fashionable resort wear. Forget something? Not a problem. There are a host of choices to hook you up with everything from fishing and surfing gear to sunscreen and paperback books.

In addition to the shopping in town, there is a Farmers Market where island artists, chefs, and farmers gather each Wednesday and Saturday morning to sell their wares. It’s a great way to pick up locally grown produce, home-baked goodies, locally made preserves, handcrafted jewelry, and much more.

Block Island’s natural beauty, its rolling hills, vivid skyline, clifftop vistas, and fog-cloaked hollows have inspired scores of poets, painters, potters, musicians, and photographers. Its solitude and grandeur have also created a vibrant community where artists can create in a place that, in the off seasons, is removed from the hustle and bustle of ordinary life and, in summer, is filled with visitors seeking to view and buy their work. From Marilyn Bogdanffy’s painted murals at the island’s State Airport, to Malcolm Greenaway’s landscape photography, Block Island art has become worldrenowned.

Local artists and craftsmen show at the many galleries that dot the downtown, during the Arts and Crafts Guild Fairs hosted on the Historical Society lawn a few times each season, and at the twice-weekly Farmers Market. Be sure to pencil in the Holiday Shopping Stroll for late fall: During the Thanksgiving weekend, island stores open their doors and offer dynamite discounts just in time for the holidays.

Block Island Trading Company Spring Street Gallery Odd Fellow’s Hall shops

Thea Monje, owner Beachcomber

Thea Monje

There are many beautiful places in the world, but there is only one Block Island. Having spent my entire life here, I can say with certainty that anyone who crosses paths with this island is lucky, and, perhaps, destined to be here—if even for just one summer, one week, one day.

In 2015, I graduated from the Block Island School in a class of twelve students. I think all my peers would agree with me in saying that growing up here is an experience unlike any other. Block Island is a place of mystic familiarity. In the off-season, I’ve noticed the same deer and pheasant appear in the backyard, together, day after day. Friends are seemingly everywhere, and the ritual wave of a hand over the edge of a steering wheel occurs with each passing vehicle. In the thick of the summer, streets dense with unknown visitors are disrupted by familiar faces; they appear in the restaurants, in the driver’s seats of passing taxis, sitting in nearby beach chairs.

My Block Island is the sort of place where one doesn’t have to make plans to meet friends for breakfast at Persephone’s, because it’s simply an unspoken fact that there will always be friends having breakfast at Persephone’s. It was impossible to find these kinds of circumstances when I went away to college,

www.blockislandinfo.com My Block Island

Spring Street Gallery and when I brought the friends I’d made at Brown back to the island, they agreed that Block Island was unlike any other place. Though it’s only two hours outside of Providence, the island is a world away, stuck in time, and mesmerizing to all who visit.

Throughout my life, the island community has always created and encouraged new learning opportunities for its residents and visitors, even when the beautiful landscape remains the same. For example, last year, my mother and I took over the Beachcomber, a longstanding store on Dodge Street. Running the store with her has taught me about island business and tourism from an entirely new perspective—there is always something to learn here. My Block Island is filled with new opportunities, and one thing has always rung true, day after day: we are all very, very lucky to be here.

Living History The Block Island Historical Society’s Island Cemetery Tour

BLOCK ISLAND’S HISTORY is a rich one, encompassing Native American tribes, Revolutionary War heroes, legendary shipwrecks, and its emergence in the late 1800s as one of New England’s premiere summer attractions.

Learn more about the island’s history by visiting the Historical Society Museum and gift shop downtown. A white mansard-roofed building, the Historical Society houses an extensive collection of furniture, textiles, quilts, oral histories, fishing gear, tools, and Native American artifacts. Then head to Isaac’s Corner, at the intersection of Center Road, Lakeside Drive, and Cooneymus Roads. Named for the island’s last full-blooded Native American, who died in 1886, it is near the Indian burial ground and the stone monument in honor of the Manissean Indians.

On that same corner, overlooking Fresh Pond, sits the gambrel-roofed cottage of composer and poet Arthur Penn, who lived there with his wife Nell in the 1920s. His song “Smilin’ Through” is named for his Block Island home. No history of Block Island would be complete without

26 Close To Home, A World Away mentioning shipwrecks. While some have become the stuff of legend, others remain accessible for sport divers. Among the legendary is the Princess Augusta, which inspired John Greenleaf Whittier’s 1867 poem “The Palatine.”

Block Island’s rough seas and rocky coastlines would certainly have claimed more ships were it not for two lighthouses. The North and Southeast Lighthouses have achieved iconic status, revered for their historic significance and as symbols of the community spirit that has allowed them to be restored and preserved.

The Southeast Lighthouse made national headlines in the early 1990s when, after years of erosion, it found itself just 50 feet from the cliff’s edge. Islanders banded together to save the beloved structure, raising nearly $2 million in federal and private grants, and donations to move the National Historic Landmark 245 feet back from the bluff.

You’ll want to see the North Light, too, by hiking past Settlers’ Rock. The lantern on that lighthouse was recently restored and re-lit, and its small museum renovated.