Standing in front of Shearer Cottage in Oak Bluffs, third from the right is Charles Shearer, who founded the guest home in 1912 with Henrietta Shearer. Standing at the far left is Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Among those sitting on the porch is Lilian Evanti, the first nationally recognized Black opera singer. Also pictured are Lillian Evanti, Hazel Shearer and Henry Robbins. Lee Van Allen
The Inn at Shearer Cottage was the first Black-owned guest home in Oak Bluffs. The guest home was first bought by Charles and Henrietta Shearer in 1903. (Alvin Buyinza/MassLive)
Lee Van Allen always said she should write a book about her great-grandparents’ historic guest home in Oak Bluffs, a small town on the northern tip of Martha’s Vineyard off Cape Cod.
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