Faraway Martha’s Vineyard

A New Chapter for the Kelley House

Martha’s Vineyard knows a thing or two about New England tradition. Edgartown was once a centre of the American whaling industry, and its streets remain lined with stately captains’ houses and shingle-clad buildings. At its heart is Faraway Martha’s Vineyard, created from the historic Kelley House and its surrounding buildings. Blue Flag Partners took a property with roots stretching back to the 18th century and asked Workshop/APD to reinvent it without losing what makes Edgartown unmistakably Edgartown.

Enter Carly Simon

The clever part was finding a way around the nautical clichés. Workshop/APD found its muse in singer-songwriter and longtime Martha’s Vineyard resident Carly Simon. The designers imagined what she might bring into an old New England house, giving themselves permission to mix Edgartown’s Georgian architecture with the freer spirit of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. Warm sandy colours meet custom mid-century-inspired furniture, handwoven rugs, vintage objects, dramatic drapery and oversized cabinetry filled with curiosities. Bold dried flowers and greenery add an almost fantastical botanical layer. It’s coastal New England, but considerably less buttoned-up.

58 Rooms, Several Houses

The 58 rooms and suites are spread across the Kelley House and several neighbouring historic buildings, so layouts and proportions naturally vary. What connects them is the same relaxed design language: natural materials, tactile textiles and furniture that looks collected rather than specified from a catalogue. Some pieces deliberately have the character of something discovered at a flea market and brought home because you couldn’t leave it behind.

From Parking Lot to Garden

Perhaps the most important transformation happened outside. What had been a fragmented collection of buildings separated by fences and parking has been knitted together as a genuine hotel campus. The lobby was opened into a dramatic double-height space and extended into a library, leading towards a new central courtyard. The pool was relocated here too, surrounded by lush planting and soft grasses that bring some of Martha’s Vineyard’s wilder landscape into downtown Edgartown. A pathway through the grounds encourages both guests and locals to wander in rather than treating the hotel as a closed resort.

Sushi, Seafood and Summer Evenings

Food and drink reinforce that sociability. The historic Newes From America remains the hotel’s classic pub, while the outdoor Pelican Club takes things in a more playful direction with sushi and tropical cocktails. Around the pool, the Snack Shack keeps things deliberately casual. Together they make Faraway feel less like a collection of guestrooms and more like somewhere to spend an entire summer afternoon — preferably followed by a very long evening.

New England, Unbuttoned

Faraway Martha’s Vineyard succeeds because it respects Edgartown without becoming trapped by it. The shingles, historic houses and maritime history remain, but inside, Workshop/APD allows the island’s artistic and slightly eccentric side to take over. The result feels less like an exercise in heritage preservation and more like an old Martha’s Vineyard house inherited by a particularly stylish new generation.