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Bearing such names as “Absolute Heaven,” “Respite,” and “Simply the Best,” the 312 Carpenter Gothic Victorian cottages look as if they have been created from a fantasy of used-to-be. Decorated in sherbet colors and ornamented with gingerbread trim, they nestle as close as beads on a filigree necklace. With their peaked roofs, steep gables, double door entrances, cathedral windows, and fanciful balconies, they seem to have emerged from the pages of a children’s book that ends “happily ever after.” The story begins once upon a time (1835 actually), just off the coast of Cape Cod on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, where devout Methodists held camp meetings in Wesleyan Grove on a half-acre of sheep pasture. Tents were set up for retreats dedicated to prayer, reclamation, and conversion. By mid-century, close to 500 tents housed the thousands who attended.
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