Cooke House & Legacy Gardens
The Cooke House & Legacy Gardens
Discover one of Edgartown’s oldest homes and the surrounding Legacy Gardens, where history, nature, and community come together.
COOKE HOUSE & LEGACY GARDENS
51 School Street, Edgartown MA
Built in 1766, the Cooke House is one of Edgartown’s oldest homes and a rare example of Island architecture that still stands on its original foundation. The surrounding Legacy Gardens reflect the Island’s cultural and ecological heritage through native and heirloom plantings, interpretive signage, and seasonal programming created in collaboration with local educators, historians, and landscape designers.
OPEN TO THE PUBLIC SEASONALLY
The Legacy Gardens are free and open daily from dawn to dusk. Leashed pets are welcome, and visitors are encouraged to enjoy the space respectfully.
While the Cooke House is not currently open for tours, the gardens host seasonal events that bring Vineyard history to life through storytelling, music, food, and conversation.
VINEYARD PRESERVATION TRUST HISTORIC WALKING TOURS
The Martha’s Vineyard Museum is proud to partner with Vineyard Preservation Trust to feature the Cooke House as a key stop on the Trust’s popular Edgartown Historic Walking Tours. These immersive tours now include exclusive garden access and insight into one of the town’s oldest surviving homes. Tours run Tuesday through Saturday at 10:30 AM, June through August.
COOKE HOUSE & LEGACY GARDENS
One of the oldest houses on Martha’s Vineyard still in its original location, the Cooke House is a rare example of unaltered vernacular Island architecture. Built facing Edgartown Harbor—now obscured by later development—the home once offered sweeping harbor views. When Thomas Cooke Jr. inherited the house in the 1790s, he used an upstairs chamber as a customs office, taking full advantage of the vantage point. Today, the Harborview Garden features an artistic rendering of what the Cookes may have seen from those upstairs windows.
Whether you’re attending a program, exploring the plantings, or simply taking in the view, the Cooke House and Legacy Gardens offer a thoughtful place to connect with Vineyard history—rooted in the past, and still growing today.
Photography by Ray Ewing