South Main Street and Beach Street
This map is derived from part of a December 1914 map of Vineyard Haven made by the Sanborn Map Company of New York.
Numbers and KEY added by Stan Lair, c. 1980.
KEY.
Notes in Quotation Marks by Stan Lair, c. 1980.
[Additional notes in brackets by C. Baer, 1998.]"This whole area, years ago, was blocked off in the winter, at several times in the winter, for sliding, so the kids could take their sleds and slide from, well we called it McDonnough's[?] Hill. So we would start up by the Edgartown Road actually, and go all the way down to Dukes County Garage, in that area. All kinds of sleds operated here. They had what they called the double-runner sled, which actually was two sleds connected together with boards or whatever. The front slide was steered by the man or the boy in the front, with his feet. And he'd carry four or five people at once. We used to really zoom down that hill, too. There were a few accidents, but nothing real serious. And the kids always had a real good time there."
1. "Elizabeth Peakes (Burleigh House) (Harry Peakes mother)"
2. "Abner Foster -- Painter"
"The Foster Family property... right on the corner, where the Youth Center is."[Abner West Foster (26 Jun 1842 - 28 Oct 1919) was the son of Capt. Thomas Foster and Charlotte E. West, and became the husband of Esther B. Ware in 1899. He was listed as a "seaman" in 1865, a "laborer" in 1880, a "lodging house keeper" in 1900, and a "painter" in 1907 and 1910. He retired around 1910. He moved into this house sometime between 1880 and 1897, and probably lived there for the rest of his life. He was evidently illiterate. They had no children. See The Descendants of James Shaw West for more information.]
3. "Alvin H. Cleveland -- Carpenter"
"Alvin Cleveland. Alvin Cleveland was a carpenter, and he was one of the rescue crew, that famous rescue in the 1898 Gale, along with Frank Golart and a few others. They went out in a small craft and brought in sailors from the sunken vessels. Maybe got a medal for it. Alvin Cleveland - we called him Al Cleveland - he was a nice gentleman. I always liked him. Very generous. He gave me a few tools, a few of his carpenter tools. He was quite old at that time. In fact I still have a few today, of his old tools, and they're excellent, very very good tools that were made in the old days."[Alvin Hathaway Cleveland (27 Aug 1856 - 2 Apr 1935) was the son of William H. Cleveland and Elizabeth A. Winslow, and the husband of Hattie D. _____. See The Cleveland Family of Martha's Vineyard for more information about his family.]
4. "Kate Bradley"
"The next little house, as I remember, was owned by Nellie Cleveland. She was Morris Cleveland's wife. Maybe Morris owned it, I don't know. But I do remember going there as a real young boy with my mother. A lady by the name of Bessie Doane lived there - that would be Arthur Doane's mother, who now lives up in West Tisbury. And she was crippled, so she painted pictures, cards, and that sort of thing, and sold them. I used to go there with my mother and visit her. She was a friend of my mother's. Her name was Bessie Doane. I believe now it belongs to Frank Vincent, young Frank Vincent."[Morris Cleveland (1876-1943) was the son of Josiah Smith Cleveland and Emma W. Vincent. His wife, Nell Bradley (1879-1965) was the daughter of Sylvestus Bradley and Catherine Marsh Cleveland. See The Cleveland Family of Martha's Vineyard for more information about their families.]
5. "John + Hannah Revells -- Ice Cream + Harness Maker"
"Mrs. Revell's house. Hannah Revell. She was a nice old lady. She and her husband operated this place for awhile. He finally died and she carried on by herself. Everyone went to Mrs. Revel's for their ice cream. It is now Dr. Finkelstein's office, and home I believe. And Mrs. Revel had a walking cash register. She always wore a black apron, almost like a carpenter's apron, had the pocket in the front. And in the pocket she carried all her change. And if you bought something she'd make change out of her apron. Now everything here was very informal. You could sit anywhere you wanted to. Eat your ice cream in the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, or whatever. Out on the porch if you wanted to. And it was a very popular place. She was very friendly to all the young people and they all liked to go there. I know I used to go there quite a bit. And in later years I believe it was bought by Francis Duart, and it was made into apartments. Families lived upstairs and downstairs in the building. Finally it was bought by Dr. Finkelstein who remodelled it and has his office there now."6. "Elisha Luce -- Supt. of Streets"
"Elisha Luce House. That's right on the bend of the road there, and Elisha lived there for a long time. He was a relative of the Fishers, Albert Fisher's wife I believe was his daughter."7. "John S. Reynolds -- Master Mariner"
"John Reynolds house. That's near the corner of Causeway Road and Main Street. He was a boatsman, and I guess in his early days he was a skipper, some sort of a captain. But he did operate a catboat - I think it was down from the Dukes County Dock, down in that area. Captain John Reynolds. He had two daughters, one was Charlotte, the other one was George Dolby's mother. I forget her name."[Capt. John S. Reynolds (5 Dec 1860 - 6 Nov 1936) was a sea captain, fisherman, and merchant, the son of Jeremiah Reynolds and Puella Cleveland. He was the husband of Charlotte Coffin "Lottie" Hillman (4 Jan 1869 - Aug 1946), the daughter of George D. Hillman and Rebecca Davis Cleveland. They were "the first couple ever to be married in the present Baptist church at Vineyard Haven" on 11 May 1886.
His obituary reads, "Captain Reynolds was one of the small group of survivors of the age of Vineyard Seafaring, and he represented the best tradition of the sea and of the Island. He was born in Edgartown, and was married at the age of 24 after he had already sailed as master of a ship on one voyage.… It is believed that he was the only Vineyarder who commanded every type of sailing craft afloat, schooner, brig, bark and ship, on blue water voyages. His first voyage was as a seaman on the bark Perry which was lost at Bermuda when she dragged her anchor in a hurricane. His second was as boatsteerer on the schooner E. H. Hatfield. He saw every sort of marine emergency from wreck to mutiny, yet he was a successful captain and brought home profitable voyages of oil.… Captain Reynolds gave up the sea about thirty years ago, engaged in fishing and boating at Vineyard Haven. He was known and admired by hundreds of visitors as well as by his fellow Islanders. Until the time of his death the captain had been active and apparently in the best of health, the sea tan still deep on his cheeks and the gleam of the old time sailor in his eyes.… To him belonged the distinction of making one of the last whaling voyages from the port of Edgartown.… He was active in the Unitarian church.… In May Captain Reynolds was presented with the Henry Price veteran's medal to commemorate fifty years in Masonry."
"John S. Reynolds...at sixteen shipped as a seaman on the bark Perry which dragged ashore at Bermuda and was lost. He sailed as boatsteerer in the schooner E. H. Hatfield, was advanced to second mate, and at twenty-one became master of the same schooner, rechristened the Aurora. He filled the vessel in a year and a half but on the next voyage she began to leak and had to be abandoned." "Then came marriage, the Mattapoisett, the Francis A. Barstow, the James Arnold ["a fully-rigged whaleship...from New Bedford via Honolulu"] , and the Sunbeam, all with Charlotte, and the last voyage with a five-year-old daughter also. After these voyages, he never sailed again in blue water."
After their marriage they "sailed immediately on a two year whaling voyage in the Atlantic, aboard the barque Mattapoisett of Edgartown, of which Captain Reynolds was master. … This was the beginning of some ten years of ocean voyaging by Mrs. Reynolds, who sailed every sea save the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans with her husband, doubling Cape Horn three times. It is believed that she may have been the last survivor of the whaling wives who voyaged with their husbands.… During her long life in Vineyard Haven Mrs. Reynolds was active in various organizations, enjoying a wide acquaintance and a high degree of popularity".
A short chapter titled "Ten Years at Sea" is written about them in the book Whaling Wives, as were several newspaper articles. Here are some excerpts: "For her honeymoon Charlotte Reynolds, having become the wife of Captain John S. Reynolds, went on a whaling voyage of two years in the bark Mattapoisett, and not for ten years did she become a housewife at home." "The Bark Mattapoisett was the last whaling vessel to sail from Edgartown, and lay at what was then Osborn's wharf for years before she was finally sold for a song. A special feature of the Mattapoisett's quarter deck in its later years, perhaps on its last voyage, was the snug little room built for the occupancy of the 24-year-old commander and his bride, a girl of 17. … Her two-year bridal trip on the Mattapoisett was only the first of her world travels aboard a whaler, which continued for ten years and took them to every ocean in the world save the Arctic and Antarctic. …Mrs. Reynolds sailed the Behring Sea with her husband, voyaged along the Alaskan coast, doubled Cape Horn three times in a sailing ship and made port at scores of the widely flung outposts of civilization that existed in years gone by." "She said always that her whaling years were the happiest ones of her life. … Charlotte would remember… the mutiny on the James Arnold, the taking of a whale at midnight, the hurricane off Hattaras, and her stay at San Domingo when she met a black monarch and his wife who, Charlotte was told, had never before seen a white woman."
After returning from their voyages they settled in Tisbury, in 1897 on Beach Street, where they apparently lived until years after John's death in 1936. He "dropped dead in boat while scalloping"at the "marine railways" in Tisbury, aged 75.]
8. "Henery C. Swift -- Frank Swift's father"
"Frank Swift house. Frank ran a clothing business down in Vineyard Haven, on Main Street there, and he lived in this house with his family."9. "John Reynolds Barn"
10. "Henry Swift Barn"
11. "Mansion House Barn on Causeway Road"
"There's a barn on that area, actually on Causeway Road, but that's right on the corner. I believe it did belong to Marshall McDonnough. I don't know if it still does or not. We used to call it the Mansion House Barn. I think they kept carriages and stuff in it, from the Mansion House. Painted the same color anyway, sort of a light yellow, light brown I guess it was. Brownish yellow."12. "Elisha Luce Barn"
13. "John Reynolds Barn"
14. "Elizabeth Peakes bungalow"
Do you have any memories or photographs of these homes and businesses that you would like to share? Email me!
Return to Section #1.
Return to 1914 Tisbury Maps.
Return to Tisbury Records.