It can still be accessed by boat, or perhaps less easily by land at low tide from the marshes of Plum Island State Park.
By the late 1800s there was a hotel, operated by the MacKinney Family, a school where Grape Island's children attended class from April to November, and a number of small cottages and houses owned by seasonal and year-round residents.
The island witnessed considerable decline beginning in the 1920s as more and more families left for the towns of Ipswich, Rowley, Newbury, and Newburyport and elsewhere.
Well known in the area, and sometimes referred to as the "Hermit of Grape Island" (a reference he hated), Lewis Kilborn continued to live on the island much like earlier generations had, collecting rain for his water supply, heating his house with a wood stove, fishing, and heading into town in his boat for groceries.
He listened to the world's events through a transistor radio and would read any and all books and newspapers that friends and relatives would bring him.