West Chop

"The Cedars," a turn-of-the-19th-century hotel at West Chop, as it appeared in the early 20th century.

West Chop is a residential area located in the town of Tisbury, Massachusetts on the north end of the island of Martha's Vineyard. It is a peninsula surrounded on the north and west by Vineyard Sound and on the east by Vineyard Haven Harbor. A lighthouse, West Chop Light, stands at the north end of the chop. It is accessible by car from Vineyard Haven by two roads, Franklin Street and Main Street.

West Chop has no obvious commercial businesses or stores, it used to have its own zip code (02573) and a seasonal post office, but these were closed during cutbacks to the USPS. It also has a private seasonal country club, the West Chop Club, and a nine-hole golf course, Mink Meadows Golf Club. There is also a small graveyard, the West Chop cemetery.

West Chop has been a popular summer resort area since the late 19th century, and has been the summer home to many notable residents, including Panama Canal engineer Gen. George W. Goethals,[1][2][3] Yale president and U.K. ambassador Kingman Brewster, Jr.,[4] United States Secretary of the Air Force James H. Douglas, Jr.,[4] and composer George Chadwick.[4]].[5]

In the summer of 1888, a steamboat wharf was completed at West Chop with regular steamship landings from the mainland,[6] and throughout the 1890s the West Chop summer colony boasted two hotels, a bowling alley, a billiard hall, and tennis courts.,[7] although today only the club's tennis courts and small private docks remain.

Notes

  1. ↑ Flemish-American heroes
  2. ↑ 1914 Map of Vineyard Haven, Mass. - Section #2C: East of Main Street, South of Crocker Ave., North of Owen Park
  3. ↑ Vineyard Gazette Online
  4. 1 2 3 From Martha's Vineyard National Bank to Around West Chop
  5. ↑ Martha's Vineyard Hotel, Martha's Vineyard Inn, Martha's Vineyard Bed and Breakfast, Thorncroft Inn, Marthas Vineyard Island, (800)-332-1236
  6. ↑ "The Vineyard Gazette". 10 Aug 1888.
  7. ↑ Hough, Henry Beetle. Martha's Vineyard, Summer Resort 1835-1935. (Tuttle Publishing Co., 1936)

References


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