Jay Harper lives on Martha’s Vineyard, but he’s in love with Wareham.

A 1994 Wareham High School graduate who currently works as a graphic artist and art director for several publications, Harper’s also a bit of a historian. A few years back, Harper was looking at "Wareham: Images of America," a book written by residents Lynda Ames and Susan Pizzolato, when he decided he’d like to see more on the history of the town.

“The book got me wondering what else was out there for pictures and stories,” he said.

In 2008, Harper turned that curiosity into a Facebook group called “Wareham, Massachusetts: The Greatest Town On Earth.” Since its inception, it's gathered almost 2,600 members, and has become a place for people to share info on the town’s history. Not only that, but it's become an informal forum for almost anything and everything.

Ames, a former historian/genealogy librarian at the Wareham Free Library, said she met Harper there years ago. As a key contributor to Harper’s Facebook group, Ames said she and others share a passion for Wareham’s past and the preservation of the town's history.

“(The group) gives Jay and I a place to get that info out to others with a like mentality,” said Ames, who said she is also a packrat for all things old. “(I like) communicating, learning and sharing (through the group) to a much larger audience than I could have reached through other means.”

Though the “Wareham, Massachusetts: The Greatest Town On Earth” group tends to focus on history, it’s become a place for people to share thoughts, ideas, pictures, news and news articles, and more on current events taking place in town and outside of it.

“The focus has been on history and memories, but the group has become more of a online community,” said Harper. “There’s more day-to-day information being exchanged, which is great. In addition to the private photos and scrapbook-type scanned materials, people are sharing posts from Wareham Week and other local media outlets, as well as from the other Wareham-related Facebook groups — from the Police Department and Harbormaster Department to class reunion groups and neighborhood groups, etc.”

He said he chose the name because he wanted it to be very clear what the group was all about.

“People see ‘Greatest Town On Earth’ and know whether or not this group is for them,” he said. “I’d hoped that everyone who loves Wareham as much as I do would join.”

KarenLu LaPolice lives in Kingston, Rhode Island, but her mother was born in Wareham in 1912. In the 1950s and ‘60s, she and her family would often visit cousins in town. She said she found the group through her cousin in Florida.

“After I saw the webpage, I hauled out my Onset-Wareham postcard album and started scanning and posting the cards and then some old photos,” she said. “People love seeing the old postcard views and learning the history associated with them.”

“People continue to make it their own,” said Harper, noting that the only rules of the group are no advertisements and no spamming to the page. “As soon as someone reports a post, it’s deleted.”

Barbara Bailey, another local historian, said she was pushed to the page by a friend.

“I enjoy the interaction of Wareham’s history buffs and the history I didn’t know about,” she said. “I like that I have the ability to add what I know of Wareham’s history to the page.”

Harper said there are a number of key and repeat contributors to the page, including Ames, LaPolice, Bailey, Ken Stuart, Richard and Andrew Griffith, Evelyn Santos, and Bill Fihlman, among others.

He said that since the beginning, posts have remained mostly positive, and it’s helped him stay close to home although separated from it by Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound.

“I can forget to feel homesick,” he said. “I really do love the area and hope to return there in retirement. When I see an old picture, I want to hop in my car and get a current picture and compare the two. The members of the group have done that for me out of their own interest.”