West Chop Light

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West Chop Light, as it appeared from the road in the early 1900s.
West Chop Light, as it appeared from the road in the early 1900s.

West Chop Light is a lighthouse station located at the entrance of Vineyard Haven Harbor in Tisbury, MA on the northern tip of West Chop, a few miles from the village of Vineyard Haven.

The first 25-foot rubblestone lighthouse and dwelling were built on the bluffs of West Chop in 1817.[1] Following constant erosion, the lighthouse was moved back in 1830, and again in 1846.[2]

The first lightkeeper was pilot James Shaw West who tended the light for thirty years, from 1818-1848.[2] His pay was $350 a year.[1] Subsequent lightkeepers were Charles West, 1849-1868; his son Charles P. West, 1869-c1909[2] The lighthouse was automated in 1976.[1]

The present 45-foot tall brick tower and dwelling were built in 1891. In 1976 West Chop Light became the last Martha's Vineyard lighthouse to be automated, but the original Fresnel lens is still in operation. The former lightkeeper's dwelling now serves as living quarters for the Menemsha Coast Guard Station.[1]

The West Chop Light Station has been on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places since 1987.[3]

[edit] First Lightkeeper

Capt. James Shaw West (1777-1859), the first lightkeeper[2][1] West was listed in the records first as a "mariner" and later as a "pilot." He and his wife first lived in the area of the "Neck" of West Chop which is now Hatch Road.

Shortly after the erection of the first West Chop Light in 1817, they sold this property and presumably moved into the lightkeeper's dwelling adjacent to the lighthouse. (In 1842, they purchased a 30-acre lot known as the "Point Lot" which surrounded the lighthouse property.)[4] Capt. West was lightkeeper of the West Chop Light for thirty years. During his term as lightkeeper, West oversaw the installation of new lamps in 1829, and in 1846 the lighthouse was rebuilt and moved away from the eroding bluffs, and a new dwelling built.[1] Capt. James Shaw West died of "palsy" in 1859, at the age of 81.[4] His children included Capt. Abner West (co-inventor of the Holmes & West Harpoon[5]) and Capt. David Porter West (1814-1886) (a whaling captain and a scholar of Japan in the 1850s.)[4][6]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f West Chop Lighthouse History
  2. ^ a b c d Banks, Charles E. The History of Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Vol. II. (Dukes County Historical Society)
  3. ^ National Register of Historic Places
  4. ^ a b c Descendants of Capt. James Shaw West (1777-1859) of Tisbury, MA
  5. ^ Two Flue Irons
  6. ^ Banks, Charles E. The History of Martha's Vineyard, Mass. Vol. III. (Dukes County Historical Society)
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