Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1990. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“Union Chapel is an historic octagon-shaped church building in Oak Bluffs, on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. The church was built in 1870 as a non-sectarian worship space in an area dominated by the Methodist summer camp meeting known as Wesleyan Grove.”
Wikipedia article Union Chapel (Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 11 National Register listings in Dukes County · listed in 1990 · category: Building · one of 1 National Historic Landmarks in Dukes County.
National Register reference number.90000677- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
Fires near this property
29 since 2015
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 29 fires within 5 miles of Union Chapel between
2015 and 2020, burning about 16 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson.
Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted
here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
Reported cause
Fires
Debris and open burning
15
Missing data/not specified/undetermined
7
Equipment and vehicle use
3
Recreation and ceremony
2
Fireworks
1
Smoking
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 14,703 specimens
collected within 10 miles of Union Chapel between 1828 and
1975: 8,457 Animalia, 4,103 Plantae, 1,084 Chromista, 747 Fungi, 147 Bacteria, 119 Unrecorded, 46 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A AND P STARRETT, A B Seymour, A. A. Cohen and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
2 workings within 5 miles of Union Chapel: 1 past producer, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Oak Bluffs, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 2000 and 2020: 4 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 lightning.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
County Road at Webaqua Road in Oak Bluffs was closed due to flooding, as was Worcester Avenue, Carol Lane at County Road, and the intersection of Norris Avenue and Wing Road.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
9,102 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Statement of significance
MAR 28 1990 soriying mfinia lf s gonitidered the significance of this propery in retaton t0 orher prope Biluf Es. Massachuserts Jnationally statewide [xlocally Applicable National Register Criteria XA Criteria Considerations (Exceptions) Areas of Significance (enter categories from instructions) Architecture Religion -c JE ]G Period of Significance 1870-1940 Significant Dates 1870 1871 Cultural Affiliation N/A Significant Person N/A Architect/Builder Pratt, Samuel Freeman State significance of property, and justify criteria, criteria considerations, and areas and periods of significance noted above.
Oak Bluffs Christian Union Chapel retains integrity of location, design, materials, workmanship, feeling, and Built during 1870 and 1871 on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Union Chapel, in continued use since construction as an interdenominational house of worship, is significant as the first nonsectarian religious building to be erected on the Vineyard in a community that until 1870 was noted primarily for its strong association with offered islanders and seasonal visitors regardless of religious affiliation not only an opportunity to worship but a gathering place for cultural activities.
The Chapel is also important as the single surviving major work of the locally significant architect, Samuel Freeman Pratt, who designed for Oak Bluffs numerous cottages and the sprawling Sea View Hotel (1870-1872), now demolished. And as an exemplar of the octagonal mode of design following in the tradition of the creative vision of Orson S. Fowler, Union Chapel is the only extant historic eight-sided building on Martha's Vineyard. The Christian Union Chapel thus fulfills Criteria A and C of the National Register of Historic Places at the local level. As an early example of a planned subdivision designed on romantic ideals, the community of Oak Bluffs was laid out originally in 1867 adjacent to the Eamed Methodist camp meeting at Wesleyan Grove, which was founded in 1835.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 90000677, 32 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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