Vineyard Haven (Tisbury)

Excellent shops, fine restaurants, and a beautiful harbor are only a few of the attractions that make Vineyard Haven so special to tourists and residents alike.

The town that incorporates Vineyard Haven is called Tisbury, after a parish in England near the birthplace of the Island’s first governor, Thomas Mayhew. English settlement of the area dates from the mid-1600s, when Mayhew purchased the settlement rights from the Crown.

Owen Park, off Main Street (just beyond the shopping district), honors one of Vineyard Haven’s whaling captains. The town beach here is a fine place to watch the harbor. Ferries shuttle in and out, providing the Island’s year-round connection to the mainland.

On the opposite side of Main Street from Owen Park is the Old Schoolhouse Museum. Erected in 1828, this building has served many uses. It was once a carpentry shop, a school, and later served as the Congregational Church In front of the museum stands the tall white Liberty Pole, commemorating the daring of three young women who inserted gun powder in the base of the town’s liberty pole in 1778 and blew it up to keep it from being used as a spar by a British warship.

When the Congregationalists outgrew their little church in 1844, they built a neo-classic building on Spring Street that later became the Unitarian Church and eventually the town hall. Vineyard Haven’s municipal building is one of the Island’s most handsome architectural legacies of whaling days.

The Vineyard Playhouse building on Church Street was built in 1833 as a Methodist meeting house. Today it houses the Island’s only year-round professional theater company.

When ships were powered by wind and canvas, Vineyard Haven was one of New England’s busiest ports because of its strategic location on the sailing routes. Most of the coastwise shipping traveled through Vineyard Sound (13,814 vessels were counted in 1845). Holmes Hole, as this harbor community was called, provided a convenient anchorage. Here a ship and its crew could lay over com­fortably to wait out bad weather, pick up provisions, or take on an experienced local pilot who could negotiate the rips and shoals that were the special perils of this sea route.

In addition to Owen Park, the town main­tains War Veterans’ Memorial Park off Causeway Road (located just behind the fire station). The park includes playground equipment for young children and playing fields used by local ball teams.

There are many scenic places around the town: in addition to Main Street and the harbor, the Tashmoo Lake overlook on State Road, the nearby Tisbury Water Works, West Chop Lighthouse, and the area around the drawbridge on Beach Road are favorite spots for photographers.

TOWN GOVERNMENT

Fire – To report a fire: 911
Beach Street Station: 508.696.4246
Police – To report an emergency: 911

To report urgency, but no emergency: 311
Water Street Station: 508.696.4240

Tisbury Town Hall
51 Spring St PO BOX 1239
Vineyard Havent 02568
508.696.4200

TOWN OFFICIALS

Selectmen – Tristan Israel; Thomas Pachico; Denys Wortman; 508.696.4202

Town Administrator – John R. Bugbee; 508.696.4203

Accountant – Suzanne Kennedy; 508.696.4255

Ambulance Service (Business only) - 508.696.4214

Animal Control Officer – Laurie Clements; 508.696.4209

Animal Inspector – Maura Valley

Building & Zoning Inspector – Kenneth Barwick; 508.696.4280

Civil Defense Director – Richard Townes

Coastal & Marine Warden – John “Jay” Wilbur III.

Constables – Remo L. Fullin Jr; Mark Campos

Elections Warden – Barbara Silvia

Fence Viewer – Kenneth Barwick

Fire Chief – John Schilling

Gas Inspector – Michael Ciancio

Harbormaster – John “Jay” Wilbur III; 508.696.4249.

Moderator – Deborah Medders

Municipal Census Supervisor – Marion Mudge

Plumbing Inspector – Michael Ciancio

Police Chief – John Cashen

Shellfish Constable – Derek Cimeno; asst.-Donald MacGillivray, Robert Blanchard

Town Clerk – Marion Mudge; 508.696.4215

Town Counsel – Leonard Kopelman

Treasurer & Tax Collector – Tim McLean; 508.696.4250

Veterans’ Grave Officer – Arthur Dickson

Wiring Inspector – Raymond Gosselin

TOWN BOARDS, ETC.

Assessors – Angela Cywinski; Roy Cutrer; David Dandridge; 508.696.4206

Board of Health – Herbert Custer; Kenneth Garde; James Pringle; 508.696.4290

Board of Registrars – Alden Besse; Catherine Mayhew; Marion Mudge; Beatrice Silvia

Capital Program Committee – Shelley Carter; Hillary Conklin; Adam Cummings; David Doron; Muriel Mill; Bruce Campbell; Mary Ellen Larsen; Jonathan Snyder

Conservation Commission – Kevin Begley; John Best; Anne Good; Thomas Robinson; Nancy Weaver; Margaret Wolontis; Diane Nicholle508.696.4260

Council on Aging – Anthony Guyther; Sandra Johnson-Pratt; Albert Koster; Ruth Stiller; Connie Teixeria; 508.696.4205

Finance & Advisory Committee – Don Amaral; Bruce Campbell; Rob Doyle; Robert Franklin; Larry Gomez; Nancy Hall; Muriel Mill; Melinda F. Loberg; Jonathan V. Snyder: Antonio Teixeira; David W. Willoughby; Peter Hefler; Peter Goodale

Harbor Management Committee – Miles Carpenter; Jeremy Goodale; James Lobdell; Melinda Loberg; Jeff Robinson

Land Bank Commission – John Thayer

Library Trustees – Nan C. Carter; Barbara Lewis Howell; Ann Merry Metcalf; Anne Lucas; Sharon Knipmeyer

Martha’s Vineyard Commission – John Best; Nathaniel J. Orleans

Personnel Board – William Brown; William Cini; Paul Watts

Planning Board – Jamie Douglas; Anthony Peak; Henry Stephenson; Margaret Warnke; Robert Aldrin; 508.696.4270

Public Works Commissioners – Leo DeSorcy; Arthur Dickson; David Ferraguzzi; John Thayer; Frederick Thifault; 508.696.4220

Recreation Department – 508.696.4220

School Committee – John Bacheller; Robert Tankard; Maura Valley

Water Commissioners – Ralph Packer; David Schwab; Elmer Silva; 508.696.4230

William Street Historic District Commission/Tisbury Historic Commission – Marian Halperin; Judith Federowicz; Dana Hodsdon; Michael Levandowski; Richard Paradise; Margaret Sibert; Craig Whitaker; alternates: Linda Cohen; Bruce MacNelly; Peter McChesney

Zoning Board of Appeals – Michael Ciancio; Susan Fairbanks; Jeffrey Kristal; Frank Piccione; Victor Pisano; Daniel Seidman; Neal Stiller; associate member: Geoghan Coogan