# Maryland's Historically Black Beaches (old Photos!)



## gimbap (Sep 1, 2017)

*http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...-Remembering-Mds-Black-Beaches-435438993.html*

*Going to the Beach: Remembering Maryland's Black Beaches*
*By Erica Jones*
*Thursday, Aug 24, 2017*
During segregation, African-American families couldn't go to the region's larger beaches. Fortunately, some enterprising entrepreneurs created spaces where African Americans could swim freely and without the fear of discrimination. Here's a vintage look at some of the region's popular black beaches.






Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
1/25
YWCA camp for girls at Highland Beach Girls, 1930





WANN Radio Station, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
2/25
Carr's Beach, affectionately called "The Beach," was a major stop on the "Chitlin Circuit." In this photo, singer Sarah Vaughn performs during a WANN broadcast in August 1956.





WANN Radio Station, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
3/25
"The Teenagers" perform during a WANN broadcast at Carr's Beach in August 1956.





WANN Radio Station, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
4/25
Four women pose in front of DJ Hoppy Adam's convertible at Carr's Beach.





WANN Radio Station, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
5/25
Teens hit the dance floor at Carr's Beach in July 1956.





WANN Radio Station, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
6/25
A crowd watches a WANN broadcast at Carr's Beach in July 1956.





7/25
Red and white sign from WANN broadcast at Carr's Beach





8/25
Known as "The Beach," Carr's Beach was a major stop on the "Chitlin Circuit," with performances from big stars of the day like James Brown and Etta James.





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
9/25
Family of six on the beach





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
10/25
"Wild" Bill Doggett





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
11/25
Crowd Dancing at Carr's Beach





Highland Beach Historical Commission
12/25
Group on pier at Highland Beach





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
13/25
Sparrow's Beach Beauty Pageant





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
14/25
Children Learning to Swim at Carr's Beach





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
15/25
Crowd at Carr's Beach





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
16/25
Hoppy Adams on Stage at Carr's Beach





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
17/25
Crowd at Carr's Beach





Collection of the Banneker-Douglas Museum
18/25
Five people lounging on beach





Highland Beach Historical Commission
19/25
Amusement rides at Sparrow's Beach.





Highland Beach Historical Commission
20/25
Women at Highland Beach


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## gimbap (Sep 1, 2017)

Highland Beach Historical Commission
21/25
Group at Highland Beach





Highland Beach Historical Commission
22/25
Haley Douglas, a descendant of Frederick Douglas and the first mayor of Highland Beach.





Highland Beach Historical Commission
23/25
Highland Beach





Highland Beach Historical Commission
24/25
Group of children at Highland Beach





Highland Beach Historical Commission
25/25
Beauty Pageant at Sparrow's or Carr's Beach



Source: Going to the Beach: Remembering Maryland's Black Beaches - NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...ds-Black-Beaches-435438993.html#ixzz4rT6pfWH5 
Follow us: @nbcwashington on Twitter | NBCWashington on Facebook


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## lavaflow99 (Sep 1, 2017)

They looked like they were enjoying themselves to the fullest!!  So happy to see that.

Maybe I'll make a field trip out to these beaches to check them out.


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## sunnieb (Sep 1, 2017)

Timeless beauties and handsome men!

I love these pictures showing us having regular days of fun!


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## Thump (Sep 1, 2017)




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## aquajoyice (Sep 1, 2017)

I love these! Everyone looked good! Natural beauties carrying themselves with class. These pics are refreshing to see.


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## Dee Raven (Sep 1, 2017)

These are nice. One thing I notice is that there don't seem to be any overweight young people. I wonder what their diet and lifestyle were like.


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## RainyDaze (Sep 1, 2017)

I love these pics.


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## Atthatday (Sep 1, 2017)

Priceless! Look at us shining!!


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## RossBoss (Sep 1, 2017)

Dee Raven said:


> These are nice. One thing I notice is that there don't seem to be any overweight young people. I wonder what their diet and lifestyle were like.



Good home cooked food and plenty of outdoor activities and of course lack of desk jobs. Now I'm seeing too many 20 somethings who have the bodies of 60 year old grandmas.


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## FlowerHair (Sep 2, 2017)

I love their hair and classy style!


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## Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold (Sep 2, 2017)

I love old photos!  It's so strange to me to see the expressions and  faces looking just the way they do today . like the guy with the hat and striped shirt dancing here on the lower left...he could so be from today 




Idk why  i always imagine people were so different then.


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## Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold (Sep 2, 2017)

Dee Raven said:


> These are nice. One thing I notice is that there don't seem to be any overweight young people. I wonder what their diet and lifestyle were like.


I noticed that and also the opposite. No one was bony skinny either.  I notice in most of these kinds of pics that the women look healthy, a bit fleshy and "normal" weight. Obviously not today's normal but I mean somewhere between skinny and chubby. And the men generally look lean.


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## Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold (Sep 2, 2017)

this  beautiful lady's waist!


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## RossBoss (Sep 2, 2017)

[


Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold said:


> I noticed that and also the opposite. No one was bony skinny either.  I notice in most of these kinds of pics that the women look healthy, a bit fleshy and "normal" weight. Obviously not today's normal but I mean somewhere between skinny and chubby. And the men generally look lean.



I do see a lot of beanpoles and Olive Oyls in old pics. And many of the slim people have no muscle tone since strength training wasn't popular among the masses back then.


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## FlowerHair (Sep 2, 2017)

Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold said:


> I love old photos!  It's so strange to me to see the expressions and  faces looking just the way they do today . like the guy with the hat and striped shirt dancing here on the lower left...he could so be from today
> 
> 
> 
> ...


What about the girl in the middle with her arms crossed? She looks like her sweetheart is dancing with someone else!


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## Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold (Sep 2, 2017)

FlowerHair said:


> What about the girl in the middle with her arms crossed? She looks like her sweetheart is dancing with someone else!


 she does look miffed.
at least there's no grinding


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## Lady S (Sep 2, 2017)

Dee Raven said:


> These are nice. One thing I notice is that there don't seem to be any overweight young people. I wonder what their diet and lifestyle were like.


Jobs that involved more physical activity like factory work or being a maid.  Even people in the office were probably more mobile because of physical files, paperwork,  etc.  If they're teens, they are walking to school, playing outside,  etc.  I would imagine the diet was close to traditional soul food.  At the time, no biggie because the level activity, but as they grew older you see high blood pressure,  diabetes, and heart disease,  etc.  My mom was born in 1942 and her childhood, teen and young adult stories involve so much walking.  It makes my feet hurt just thinking about it.


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## Always~Wear~Joy (Sep 2, 2017)

FlowerHair said:


> What about the girl in the middle with her arms crossed? She looks like her sweetheart is dancing with someone else!



And look at the man next to her looking down. Lol

Eta: actually the group of men behind her look so serious


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## doriannc (Sep 2, 2017)

I love seeing old pics of Black people having genuine fun and smiling. I wish history books showed the same thing.


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## Bunnyhaslonghair (Sep 2, 2017)

Thanks for this thread!


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## Goombay_Summer (Sep 2, 2017)

I'm totally enthralled by the four cool cats donning shades, although one of them missed the memo about wearing hats, in any event they're out there looking like the cat pajamas. (I probably used the lingo all wrong  ).

I wonder what become of these handsome young "shady" men radiating just the right amount of  bad boys of yesteryear. From a historical perspective are we seeing the distant predecessor of today's mordern kang?


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## intellectualuva (Sep 2, 2017)

Wow. I never knew about this. SO took me to a black beach here in North FL called American Beach. White folks are starting to push in from Fernandina, so were thinking of snatching up some land to build on later. 

My aunt would love these photos.


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## Naveah2050 (Sep 2, 2017)

My people are beautiful!!


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## SpiritJunkie (Sep 2, 2017)

I love all it. Beautiful.  When I stayed at RoundHill in Jamaica I visited the library for a couple of hours perusing their culturally history in photos just like these. It was the hotspot for the elite in the 50's.


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## SurferBabe (Sep 2, 2017)

Awww man, I would have killed it back then! Love seeing AA beach culture.


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## SoniT (Sep 2, 2017)

Beautiful photos! They look like they're having a good time. I've seen old photos of my family members at Carr's and Sparrow's beaches. The other beaches in the DC/Maryland area were segregated back then. There was also a segregated amusement park called Glenn Echo.


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## HappilyLiberal (Sep 2, 2017)

Dee Raven said:


> These are nice. One thing I notice is that there don't seem to be any overweight young people. I wonder what their diet and lifestyle were like.



High fructose corn syrup hadn't been invented yet!


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## awhyley (Sep 2, 2017)

Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold said:


> this  beautiful lady's waist!



YYYYEESSSSS, her waist is everything!!!


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## PretteePlease (Sep 2, 2017)

Wow these are nice. 

Serious question. Did only light skinned families have camera's or were we doing the 
same thing to ourselves that the white folks were doing?


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## aquajoyice (Sep 2, 2017)

Autumn~Tint~Of~Gold said:


> I love old photos!  It's so strange to me to see the expressions and  faces looking just the way they do today . like the guy with the hat and striped shirt dancing here on the lower left...he could so be from today
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The woman in the middle with her arms crossed looks like she's had enough.   She creates an interesting juxtaposition within the pic.


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## zora (Sep 2, 2017)

PretteePlease said:


> Wow these are nice.
> 
> Serious question. Did only light skinned families have camera's or were we doing the
> same thing to ourselves that the white folks were doing?


Highland Beach was considered an elite black beach back in the day. Not quite on the level as Martha's Vineyard and Sag Harbor, but elite none the less.  And being close to DC -the land of the light-skinned blacks- well, you do the math.


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## nysister (Sep 2, 2017)

We need more 'safe spaces' with just 'us'. No PC, PoC. Just us being comfortable, being included, being happy, being together.

There's nothing wrong with that. I miss old Brooklyn for that reason.


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## Lynnerie (Sep 2, 2017)

Although these are pics I can appreciate they still make me feel some type of way cause this is the brown paper bag era. And yes light skinned blacks did the same thing to dark skinned blacks that whites did to us all.


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## RossBoss (Sep 3, 2017)

It just dawned on me that I have a book with many of these pictures on my coffee table. It contains pics from the 1950s and earlier in Annapolis, MD. The Banneker-Douglas Museum in Annapolis has a hand in preserving many of these pictures and I highly recommend that people visit it when they are in town. Very beautiful and historic building, I have attended several lectures and art shows there.


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## larry3344 (Sep 4, 2017)

PretteePlease said:


> Wow these are nice.
> 
> Serious question. Did only light skinned families have camera's or were we doing the
> same thing to ourselves that the white folks were doing?


I noticed that too.


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## Saravana (Sep 4, 2017)

PretteePlease said:


> Wow these are nice.
> 
> Serious question. Did only light skinned families have camera's or were we doing the
> same thing to ourselves that the white folks were doing?


So you had to come in and ruin the good feeling, uh?  

To answer your question, cameras were prohibitively expensive in the 50s, and only wealthy families  could afford to capture themselves on photos as part of everyday life. The common man had to go in a studio to get his pic taken, or in the alternative, be part of some photographer's portrait collection. In the US and in most black countries outside of Africa, wealthy blacks tended to be lighter skinned, so the family pics are not surprising.

I still enjoyed looking at those pics. I am a sucker for vintage.


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## larry3344 (Sep 4, 2017)

Saravana said:


> So you had to come in and ruin the good feeling, uh?
> 
> To answer your question, cameras were prohibitively expensive in the 50s, and only wealthy families  could afford to capture themselves on photos as part of everyday life. The common man had to go in a studio to get his pic taken, or in the alternative, be part of some photographer's portrait collection. In the US and in most black countries outside of Africa, wealthy blacks tended to be lighter skinned, so the family pics are not surprising.
> 
> I still enjoyed looking at those pics. I am a sucker for vintage.



They are lovely pictures regardless.


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## OhTall1 (Sep 4, 2017)

RossBoss said:


> It just dawned on me that I have a book with many of these pictures on my coffee table. It contains pics from the 1950s and earlier in Annapolis, MD. The Banneker-Douglas Museum in Annapolis has a hand in preserving many of these pictures and I highly recommend that people visit it when they are in town. Very beautiful and historic building, I have attended several lectures and art shows there.


I remember seeing this exhibit in 2011 when it was in Annapolis.  Interesting, especially since this was a high school project:


> The _*Music to Our Ears* _project was a collaborative effort between Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Banneker-Douglass Museum, Banneker-Douglass Museum, and Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation. In response to the overwhelming community call for increased information on Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches, the _*Music to Our Ears*_ project empowered students at Southern Senior High School to serve as researchers for a community-wide documentation project.
> 
> During the spring 2011 semester, students from Southern Senior High School’s African American History class met with historians and community members, studied news articles and images of the beaches, and visited the area once occupied by Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches. Their research led up to oral history interviews with Anne Arundel County community members with personal and professional connections to Carr’s and Sparrow’s Beaches. The student-led interviews and research were used to create the _*Music to Our Ears *_exhibition.


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## RossBoss (Sep 4, 2017)

@OhTall1 

I believe this is one of the exhibits I saw as well. I love the museum and the area that it is in. It makes a nice day trip and the town has a lot of quaint restaurants and is rich in history as it is just a few blocks away from the old historic 4th ward.


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## Femmefatal1981 (Sep 4, 2017)

nysister said:


> We need more 'safe spaces' with just 'us'. No PC, PoC. Just us being comfortable, being included, being happy, being together.
> 
> There's nothing wrong with that. I miss old Brooklyn for that reason.


This...

Imagine being able to go the the beach, relax and let your hair down with no white people. We didn't know what we had...


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## nysister (Sep 4, 2017)

Femmefatal1981 said:


> This...
> 
> Imagine being able to go the the beach, relax and let your hair down with no white people. We didn't know what we had...



I wonder if anyone foretold that something we'd fought so hard for would have such unintended negative results.


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## RUBY (Sep 4, 2017)

PretteePlease said:


> Wow these are nice.
> 
> Serious question. Did only *light skinned families *have camera's or were we doing the
> same thing to ourselves that the white folks were doing?



I was wondering when someone was gonna mention this  . That was the thing that stuck out to me.


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## RossBoss (Sep 4, 2017)

nysister said:


> I wonder if anyone foretold that something we'd fought so hard for would have such unintended negative results.



Unpopular opinion: I believe that with many of the men of the CRM, their chief concern was integrating into the white world and not so much as upholding an independent Black society. I have studied that era extensively and while I believe that their hearts were in the right place, I think the forbidden fruit that was white society was irresistable and looked upon as a white man's ice is colder train of thought. As soon as the white man gave up his segregation, Black men, as well as the women who were just going along with the desires of their husbands, just abandoned all of these spaces that we created.


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## nysister (Sep 4, 2017)

^^^ Very interesting hypothesis, it would explain certain actions that happened afterward when it comes to trying to work up as a whole vs. individually. @RossBoss


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## RossBoss (Sep 4, 2017)

nysister said:


> ^^^ Very interesting hypothesis, it would explain certain actions that happened afterward when it comes to trying to work up as a whole vs. individually. @RossBoss



Yes, all you have to do is look at their behavior that they exhibited during their pursuit for integration as well as after it was accomplished. It would be clear to see that upholding a Black society independent of White America was not on the agenda.


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## PretteePlease (Sep 5, 2017)

RUBY said:


> I was wondering when someone was gonna mention this  . That was the thing that stuck out to me.



I must have been a strange child because looking at family photos I was like um where the black folks at  
I mean a few looked like they had a lil kink in the hair or fullness in the lips but for the most part I was like OK!
Mind you the photos were black and white but most of the folks in the pics looked dark white or mixed to me as a kid. 

I knew my grandma's mom passed. It was a 9-5 thing. She was black when she got home, that is until her blacker than asphalt
husband picked her up from work one day.  I know she lost that job but don't remember if she got another job passing. 

That being said I love looking at old pics. Someone in my family is evil and won't even let us get the pics for an hour to make 
copies. She is a mess.


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## RUBY (Sep 5, 2017)

RossBoss said:


> Yes, all you have to do is look at their behavior that they exhibited during their pursuit for integration as well as after it was accomplished. It would be clear to see that upholding a Black society independent of White America was not on the agenda.



I think that a lot of people would not like to admit that in some ways black people thrived under segregation. There is something to be said for separate but equal if that is truly the case. Its just a shame that desegregation brought along a mentality that white was right and that everything that they had must have been better and therefore we must pursue it.


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## larry3344 (Sep 5, 2017)

RUBY said:


> I think that a lot of people would not like to admit that in some ways black people thrived under segregation. There is something to be said for separate but equal if that is truly the case. *Its just a shame that desegregation brought along a mentality that white was right and that everything that they had must have been better and therefore we must pursue it*.



From the written accounts and the pictures I see I'd argue that the mentality was there during segregation and ling before then. Just instead of white it was people closest to it.

I don't mean to be a Debbie downer but the only way for segregation to have even remotely work. You'd need to divorce class from whiteness...amongst many black communities especially among the diaspora class and whiteness is too closely tied to make me believe that colorism would not have been practiced if white people were absent if anything it would have worsen because they'd be the 'new whites'

Absence of white people has never meant absence of white supremacy. I think internally there would have been blacks who wanted desegregation because they felt persecuted within their own community.

This is an outsider perspective of course I am not AA.


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## lavaflow99 (Sep 27, 2017)

*Saw this in the Washington Post recently and thought of this thread.*

*Historically black beach enclaves are fighting to save their history and identity*



By Troy McMullen July 27


*Historically black beach communities struggle to maintain their heritage*




View Photos
Towns, including Highland Beach near Annapolis, Md., and Sag Harbor Hills in the Hamptons in New York, feel pressure from gentrification.
Sag Harbor Hills and the neighboring districts of Ninevah Beach and Azurest are unique among beach communities in the Hamptons, the collection of affluent towns on the eastern end of New York’s Long Island long known for attracting wealthy summer residents. 

Founded in the village of Sag Harbor after World War II, in an era of deep segregation in the United States, they were home to a robust African American population. Developers offered parcels of land in parched areas of the village for just a few hundred dollars or more. Working-class black families purchased much of the land, eventually creating several communities linked by dirt roads along Route 114.

Though their roots are working class, these neighborhoods of modest ranch houses and bungalows today are a haven for middle-class and upper middle-class black families, populated by doctors and lawyers, artists and academics. They rank as the oldest African American developments in the Hamptons and are among a handful of beach communities in the United States with African American roots.

_[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s childhood summer home in East Hampton, N.Y., lists for $52 million]_

The racial makeup of the districts kept home prices down for decades with many white buyers choosing to live in other parts of the village.

Yet that is changing as home prices in the Hamptons continue to rise, says Dianne McMillan Brannen, a broker with Douglas Elliman who has lived in Ninevah for more than 25 years. “Investors are being lured to these areas now and are looking for bargains,” she says. She estimates that about a dozen homes sold to investors last summer, up from four or five the previous year. “We welcome investment, but there is a real concern that these areas will lose the cultural identity that made them distinctive.”

Sag Harbor is not alone. Across the country, some historically black beach communities that have long escaped major property development and an influx of real estate investors are increasingly fending off both.





Historically black beach communities date back as far as the 1930s in a handful of coastal areas across the United States. (Cheriss May/For The Washington Post)
As values soar in surrounding locations, pricing out many second home buyers, historically black beach enclaves from American Beach near Jacksonville, Fla., to South Carolina’s rural Sea Islands are seeing sharp increases in development and new home buyers.

Like gentrification debates raging in largely urban areas across the nation, the increase in new money, along with a generational shifts, is sparking concerns in some historically black beach communities about the possible loss of their culture and identity.

“The irony is that many of these places were deemed undesirable when African Americans first moved there,” says historian Andrew W. Kahrl, author of “The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South.” “Some of these areas are gold mines today, but those luxury resorts in parts of coastal Georgia, South Carolina and around the Chesapeake were havens for African American life and culture.”

Historically black beach communities date back as far as the 1930s in a handful of coastal areas across the United States. Many sprang up during segregation when blacks were either barred from whites-only beaches or simply unwelcomed. While most were in the South, many took shape in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, evolving into beachheads for thriving economic and social life for African Americans.

Audrey Davis grew up spending her summers in Highland Beach, a historic African American enclave near Annapolis. The town was a haven for affluent black Washingtonians seeking refuge from segregation and drew many black intellectuals including Paul Robeson, Booker T. Washington and Langston Hughes.

Her grandfather, teacher and author Arthur P. Davis, in the 1940s purchased the two-story wooden home that her parents still own today. “It was actually made from reclaimed wood from a whites-only hotel across the street,” says Davis, who is director of the Alexandria Black History Museum in Virginia. “Our whole family would gather there in the summer because we cherished the sense of community.”

But, she says, there is not a month that goes by that her parents do not receive a letter or two in their mailbox asking if they would consider selling the house. Though the waterfront community is relatively small — about 100 year-round residents — there has been a gradual uptick in home sales the past few years. The once-remote location of Highland Beach is slowly growing more integrated, with about 20 white and five Hispanic residents making Highland Beach their home, according to census data.

“Younger people looking for an affordable home on the water are mostly interested in the area,” she says. “My hope is that new people to the community will have the same sense of its history and importance as we do.”

African American homeownership along South Carolina’s Sea Islands dates to 1865 when the Union army issued orders to give freed black men the island chain and abandoned rice plantations. Despite decades of decline, fueled by ravaging storms and overzealous development, a dwindling number of black families still live and work on the islands today.

Known as the Gullah, they are descendants of enslaved Africans who lived in the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

A firm population count of blacks on the Sea Islands is difficult to obtain. But as part of an application for protected status in 2005, the Gullah/Geechee estimated their total population in the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida at 200,000, according to Marquetta Goodwine, co-founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition.

Though much of the island chain in South Carolina has been declared a Cultural Heritage Corridor by the National Park Service, that has not stopped developers from chipping away at waterfront locations. Property projects large and small now dot many locations, and some locals fear it will eventually resemble Hilton Head, the upmarket waterfront resort in South Carolina that was once home to the Gullahs.

“They’re communicating with the developers, but when you have a multimillion-dollar development coming into an area, it’s always going to be an unequal conversation,” says Bernie Mazyck, president of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.

_[Sharing a little peace and quiet with the neighbors]_

Oak Bluffs, Mass., a sliver of Martha’s Vineyard that is home to a lively African American population, has long attracted wealthy second home buyers. But the town holds a unique history for African Americans.

Located seven miles off the Cape Cod coastline, on the northern tip of the Vineyard, its harbor drew freed slaves and laborers in the 18th century and white locals sold them land. The town eventually became a popular destination for freed blacks, who came to work in the fishing industries.

_[Quiet luxury by the water in the Palmetto State]_

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks began buying and renting summer homes in Oak Bluffs, eventually turning the town into a mecca for successful African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. vacationed in Oak Bluffs, as did Joe Louis, Harry Belafonte and Dorothy West, a Harlem Renaissance writer. Barack Obama made regular trips to the town during his time in office.





Highland Beach is a historic African American enclave near Annapolis. The town was a haven for affluent black Washingtonians. (Cheriss May/For The Washington Post)
Oak Bluffs Beach, known as the Inkwell, is a famed stretch of sand some say was named by Harlem Renaissance writers who came to the Vineyard and found inspiration near the water and thus named the beach that was once segregated from the white beach.

Yet despite its history and oceanfront location, Oak Bluffs has not experienced the same kind of real estate squeeze as other historically black beach communities, says Richard Taylor, a real estate executive and director of the Center for Real Estate at Suffolk University in Boston. He is also the author of “Martha’s Vineyard: Race, Property, and the Power of Place.” He credits local officials, who have tightened already demanding rules on residential development to fend off new buyers’ dreams of building larger homes closer to the ocean.

And while the town has seen a fair share of new buyers — white and black — the Vineyard’s long history of celebrating African American culture has kept it as a vibrant location for black homeowners, Taylor says. “We have film festivals and book clubs and churches all dedicated to the history and culture of African American life,” says Taylor, who has owned a home in the East Chop section of Oak Bluffs since the 1970s. He pointed to the popularity of the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard, a preservation effort started in 1997 by a local high school teacher. “Black culture is deeply integrated into a way of life on the Vineyard, and that’s helped keep this history vibrant and alive.”

In Sag Harbor, the influx of money underscores the challenges facing many historically black beaches. While home prices and the pace of sales are falling across the Hamptons, Sag Harbor is bucking the downward trend.

Last year, the median price of a house in the Hamptons fell 5.3 percent from 2015, while the number of sales was down 13.7 percent, according to appraiser Jonathan Miller. But Sag Harbor saw a 25 percent increase in the median home sale price in 2016 compared with a year earlier, rising from $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

Though homes in the historically black sections of Sag Harbor have not yet reached those sales levels, prices are rising, says Frank Wimberley, a 90-year-old artist who has kept a home in Sag Harbor Hills almost half his lifetime. Still active today, the abstract painter creates new works in a studio at the back of his modest beach bungalow.

“It’s worrisome because it’s beginning to feel like a takeover,” he says. “These areas were born when blacks were unwelcome in a lot of places. And for me and many longtime residents, they will always be places of special significance.”

Brannen, the broker with Douglas Elliman, is more blunt. “Rising home values are good, but eventually this part of Sag Harbor will look like just another upscale beach resort,” she says. “And I don’t think anyone wants that.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/real...692bbfae913&wpisrc=nl_evening&wpmm=1#comments


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