Oak Bluffs Campground

Oak Bluffs Campground Review

This 34-acre warren of streets is tightly packed with more than 300 gaily painted Carpenter Gothic Victorian cottages with wedding-cake trim; these date mainly to the 1860s and 1870s, when visitors coming for Methodist revivalist services began to lease lots and built houses for summer use. As you wander through this fairy-tale setting, imagine it on a balmy summer evening, lighted by the warm glow of paper lanterns hung from every cottage porch. This describes the scene on Illumination Night at the end of the Camp Meeting season—which is attended these days by some fourth- and fifth-generation cottagers (and newcomers: some houses do change hands, and some are rented). Attendees mark the occasion as they have for more than a century, with lights, song, and open houses for families and friends. Ninety-minute tours of the area are conducted at 10 am on Tuesday and Thursday in July and August.