“My clearest memories of growing up in Harthaven have to do with the development of Martha Hart Park. I can remember when only the “Big House” (William H. and Martha P. Hart’s “White House”), the Hookers just to the north, Uncle Max and Aunt Lou Hart’s house to the south and the Abbe’s and Coholan’s to the west were the only houses on the Park. I believe Sandy and Ginny Low were the first ones to place a house on the Park after those others. I use the term “placed” because they moved a Victorian ii gingerbread house from the Campground in Oak Bluffs.

Of course there were other houses in Harthaven, but these were along the harbor or otherwise not in Martha Hart Park itself. I also recall the harbor entrance being a short distance to the south of the seawall. It was a circuitous route to get through the harbor and out that entrance. Then I remember the entrance being placed just to the north of the Youngs’ property when the original entrance closed up as a result of the ‘38 hurricane.

Louis Young was an avid photographer and loved to take moving pictures with his 16 mm camera. His son Willits (Bill) Young fancied himself a great photographer and wanted all of us kids to dress up as pirates so he could capture our sham battles on film, complete with sword fights and dramatic falls into the harbor. A couple of hours of filming later, he found he had no film in the camera. We never repeated his pirate “do.”

The summers centered a great deal around boats. Our family had a little 12 or 14 foot sailing dory that we kept in what was known as Lake Mahomey, a small pond between our Crow’s Nest and the Vibberts’ house. And of course Great Uncle Howard Hart, always known to us as Jim, had a succession of boats. One of the most memorable was the “Wildcat,” a high powered speed boat. He loved taking us out on it.”  in John Moore - A Brief History

From Rick Hart: “Left to Right: Sterling Clark (son of Mary Hart), Bruce Dayon (my step brother), and Rick Hart (son of Russ Hart).”

Photos from Diana H. Clark

From Russ Hart: “William Hart (my Great, Great, Grandfather) had 7 kids. One of which was George, my Great grandfather.  George had 4 kids and one of his sons was Donald R. Hart , my grandfather.  He also had 4 kids and one of his sons was Henry Russell Hart, my father. He married Jean Wiegand from New Britain and they had me.  I am named after my grandfather, Donald R. Hart. You may know my uncle Pete Hart who is Donald R. Hart Jr. and my other uncle who is David Hart who lives on MV.  When I spent my summers on the island we stayed at the Crow's Nest which is on Beach Rd. just past the Country Club entrance on the left. 

Help - I need captions for these photos - below

Russ Hart responds to Gazette slur

Sam Low wrote a regular Harthaven column for the Vineyard Gazette from about 1962 to 1964. In one of them he managed to set the jaws of a cousin, by referring to him as "Captain Ha-Ha" Russ Hart. This resulted in a number of letters-to-the-editor from Russ and his brother Pete. In one of them Russ took Sam to task by pointing out his vast seafaring experience:

"Breaking in on small sailboats at the age of 5 or 6, in the pond between Crows' Nest and the Vibberts' place," he wrote, "I early learned the finer points of dirty yachting and the art of treading water. I served an apprenticeship, working my way from first mate to able seaman, on Vineyard Fifteens and Eighteens under the harsh tutelage of such redoubtable captains as Al 'Whaddya mean, rocks? The chart shows 60 feet of water' Pease. I have a blue captain's hat with gold braid. Fifteen years ago, I could chart courses with precise, accurate speed, take azimuths, shoot the sun, and determine latitude and longitude, and correct compasses to within a degree. Today, I must confess, I chart courses slowly and inaccurately, have no idea what an azimuth is, can 'shoot the breeze' but not the sun, seldom know exactly where I am, consider my compass accurate if, on a cloudy day when I can't see the sun, it tells me 'North is roughly speaking over that way', and think that 'tide tables' are instructions as to the proper amount of detergent for various fabrics."

"Nevertheless, when a brilliant neuro-surgeon becomes, in time, a doddering, wheezing, incompetent old windbag who couldn't put on a Band-Aid without making a hash of it, people still call him 'doctor,' out of respect for the skill and knowledge he once possessed. So, young insolent pup, shall I continue to have my title In front of my name on my calling cards and stationary, and so I shall expect others to call me."

The dispute over the "Captain Ha-Ha" title continued for many weeks in the letters-to-the-editor section with non-Harthavenites joining in to condemn the letters as drivel and others approving the right of the Gazette to publish drivel. Eventually it all died down. Sam Low

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Donald R. “Pete” Hart Jr.,passed away on Sunday, April 17, 2011.  He was 93.   A lifelong New Britain resident until late in his retirement years, he was truly part of the “Greatest Generation.”

He was the first born child of Donald R. Hart and Elise Russell Hart and grew up on Hart St. in New Britain.  He was one of the first four graduates of Mooreland Hill School in Berlin, CT., and then went on to graduate from Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Ct., and Amherst College in Mass.  He also took courses at La Sorbonne in Paris, France.

Pete was multilingual, speaking over thirteen languages, (nine of them fluently), and later taught French, German, Spanish, and Latin after his graduation from Amherst.  At one point he was Head of the Language Department of Avon Old Farms School.

It was his innate language abilities that helped shape his military career.  Drafted early in WWII he was one of 250 Americans asked to “volunteer” to start the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services, which later became the C.I.A.) and he did.  He served with distinction, handling French sabotage operations in occupied France, running a spy “transit station,” and capturing Nazi collaborators in Paris after its liberation.  He was especially pleased to receive the “Legion of Honor” medal from the French Government for his efforts, the highest award they bestow on a non-French citizen.  After discharge he served in the U.S. Army Reserve for a total service of 33 years, retiring as a Colonel, with a top secret clearance.

His government service didn’t end there.  Vera (who he married in 1979) and Pete again “volunteered” for the disaster relief program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  Being on call 24/7 they flew out to over 30 disasters between 1983 to 1999 earning nothing but expenses.  From 1981 on he was also a member of the National Defense Executive Reserve, a government organization set up to help the nation survive a nuclear attack.  He was a true patriot.

Pete loved the Island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. The Hart family has had homes on the Island since 1811 with most of them in the community of Hart Haven and Up-Island in Chilmark. It was here that Pete organized an annual family gathering over Labor Day. Relatives and friends from all over the Island and main land came to “The Bash” each year.  His last Island home was in Vineyard Haven.