place

West Chop Light

1817 establishments in the United StatesLighthouses completed in 1817Lighthouses completed in 1891Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in MassachusettsMartha's Vineyard
National Register of Historic Places in Dukes County, MassachusettsTourist attractions in Tisbury, Massachusetts
West Chop Lighthouse Martha's Vineyard Ma
West Chop Lighthouse Martha's Vineyard Ma

West Chop Light is a lighthouse station located at the entrance of Vineyard Haven Harbor in Tisbury, Massachusetts, on the northern tip of West Chop, a few miles from the village of Vineyard Haven.The first 25-foot (7.6 m) rubblestone lighthouse and dwelling were built on the bluffs of West Chop in 1817. Following constant erosion, the lighthouse was moved back in 1830, and again in 1846.The first lightkeeper was pilot James Shaw West who tended the light for thirty years, from 1818 to 1848. His pay was $350 a year. Subsequent lightkeepers were Charles West, 1849–1868; his son Charles P. West, 1869-c1909; George F. Dolby (1909–1919); James Yates (1919-?); and Octave Ponsart (1946–1956) Sam Fuller has also been mentioned as a lightkeeper.The present 45-foot (14 m) 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 dwellings are now vacant but remains property of the U.S. Coast Guard and off limits to the public. The West Chop Light Station has been on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places since 1987.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article West Chop Light (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 41.480797222222 ° E -70.599780555556 °
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Address

West Chop Light

Main Street
02586
Massachusetts, United States
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West Chop Lighthouse Martha's Vineyard Ma
West Chop Lighthouse Martha's Vineyard Ma
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Nearby Places

WCAI
WCAI

WCAI (90.1 FM) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, WNAN (91.1 FM) in Nantucket, and WZAI (94.3 FM) in Brewster, are NPR member radio stations serving the Cape Cod and Islands area of southeast Massachusetts. They broadcast primarily news and information programming and are owned by the WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston. WCAI's studios are located within the Newton Wing of the Conservatory building on the Falmouth campus of Cape Symphony on Highfield Drive in Falmouth, and its transmission facilities are located in Tisbury. Its studios were formerly at the Captain Davis House at 3 Water Street in Woods Hole (a census-designated place in Falmouth); in October 2024, WGBH announced it was selling the Davis House as part of ongoing budget cuts. The station, which first went on the air in 2000, was founded by independent radio producer Jay Allison and his organization, Atlantic Public Media, with construction and operation duties assigned to WGBH. Atlantic Public Media has also produced local programming for the station. WNAN went on the air on March 15, 2000. In 2005 the third signal, WZAI, went on the air, to improve broadcast coverage for the Cape and Islands. An online stream of the station is also available. In 2007, the station won the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, often called the Pulitzer Prize of broadcast journalism, for a 20-part series called "Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands". The series was produced and reported by Sean Corcoran, and it highlighted numerous poverty issues in a region that often is thought of as playground for the rich. WCAI was the only radio station to win the award that year. In 2020, the station rebranded as CAI, as part of a larger rebranding underwent by WGBH (which similarly dropped "W" from its branding organization-wide). Apart from being owned by WGBH, there is no connection between the Cape and Islands NPR stations and WNCK in Nantucket, which formerly simulcast WGBH's primary radio service and later WCRB, a classical music station owned by WGBH. WCAI itself carries WCRB's programming on its second HD Radio channel, which was added in late 2013 after WCAI boosted its power.