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Decorative drawing: a small American settlement seen from a low hill. Not a photograph of this place.

Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts

33 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1994. It stands in Tisbury town. It lies in ZIP code area 02568. It stands on Ferry Boat Island. The Survey maps it on the Edgartown quadrangle.

Vineyard Haven within Dukes County

Then and now

1887 to 1994

The same ground, surveyed 107 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Vineyard Haven, surveyed 1994
Topographic sheet of Vineyard Haven, surveyed 1887

Topographic sheets covering this place

33 sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

71,194 words on this township

The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911 names this settlement in its chapter on Tisbury Town. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

This was the ancient name bestowed by the natives on all the territory covered by the village of Vineyard Haven, in the present town of Tisbury. The Sachem Ponit, in 1682, calls himself "of Nobnocket alias holmes his hole," and his jurisdiction extended north of a line drawn from the stepping stones to the head of Tashmoo, to include the entire neck. Eliot uses an adjectival prefix in various forms to indicate *'dry," one of which forms is Nunnob, which he abbreviates to Nob (Isaiah, XI, 15; XLIV, 3). In the Narragansett dialect the nasal sound of N is heard before the vowel, which accounts for the intrusion of the N in Nobnocket, giving us an etymology of Nob(n)ocket, meaning at the dry land or place. This may indicate that the original Nobnocket was a place where the Indians settled on the shore, an enclosed place, a designation which afterwards was extended to include the whole region above described as Ponit's Sachemship.^

Passage source: The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911.

The name of Holmes Hole became officially eclipsed in 1 87 1, as a result of persistent agitation on the part of a number of residents. The original name had in it but a faint suggestion of dignity or character, and to hail from a "Hole" was a source of chagrin to many of its inhabitants when traveling abroad. A number of substitutes were suggested, including Tisbury Harbor and Vineyard Haven, and the latter finding the most favor with the majority, it received its confirmation on Feb. 21, 1871, by the general government, when the Post Office Department officially adopted the name for the office. This new title is a more euphonious and appropriate name than -its predecessor, as the harbor has been the great haven of the Vineyard from time immemorial, and doubtless this last christening will survive for many generations.

Passage source: The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911.

Usselton is therefore to be reckoned as the first white man to establish a residence in the present limits of Vineyard Haven. Where his house was cannot be determined, but he has left his name upon the fine headland down the neck, known as Husselton's Head, a corruption of the settler's surname. In the division of the Chase property in 1726, the sixth lot was bounded by a "stake standing on the south side of a hollow called Usingtols hollow," which is the ravine just south of the Head, represented by the lane leading to Edward C. Lord's store. It may be surmised that here was the temporary abiding place of Francis Usselton, which gave it the name. This man first appears in New England at Wenham, Mass., where he married Sarah Barnes, Nov. 25, 1655, our first record of him, and there two children of this marriage are entered, viz: Mary, born Aug. 17, 1656, and John, born Sept. 20, 1657.^ The Essex County Court files furnish considerable evidence that Francis was a litigious man, as he is either plaintiff or defendant in civil and criminal suits in 1659 and 1660, a number of times; in the latter year he is called of Topsfield, the town adjoining Wenham. When he came to the Vineyard can not be accurately determined, but the first recorded date is Dec. 2, 1659, which overlaps that of record in Topsfield.

Passage source: The History of Martha's Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, published 1911.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Tisbury Town - it names this place 22 more 22 times.

Photographs

1 photograph,

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

Pilot Schooner "Alabama", Moored in harbor at Vineyard Haven, Vineyard Haven, Dukes County, MA
Pilot Schooner "Alabama", Moored in harbor at Vineyard Haven, Vineyard Haven, Dukes County, MA
Unattributed, . Library of Congress

Fires near this place

30 since 2015

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 30 fires within 5 miles of Vineyard Haven between 2015 and 2020, burning about 16 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning12
Missing data/not specified/undetermined10
Equipment and vehicle use4
Recreation and ceremony2
Fireworks1
Smoking1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
6 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
5 September 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
21 September 2020Recreation and ceremony1.3 acresMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
20 September 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
9 August 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
29 July 2020Smokingunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
27 July 2020Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named
14 June 2018Debris and open burningunder an acreMassachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Controlnot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Dukes County

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 15,013 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 15,013 specimens collected within 10 miles of Vineyard Haven between 1828 and 1975: 8,652 Animalia, 4,169 Plantae, 1,096 Chromista, 756 Fungi, 158 Bacteria, 134 Unrecorded, 48 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A AND P STARRETT, A B Seymour, A. A. Cohen and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Image SpeciesYear Collected by Where, as recorded
A photograph of the species Tipularia discolor, not of this specimenTipularia discolor (Pursh) Nutt.1828OakesMartha's Vineyard
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia flexicaulis, not of this specimenPolysiphonia flexicaulis (Harvey) F.S.Collins1839unknownWoods Hole
A photograph of the species Ectocarpus littoralis, not of this specimenEctocarpus littoralis (L.) Lyngb.1841B. F. D. RunkWoods Hole, Nobska Point, wash
A photograph of the species Polysiphonia fibrata, not of this specimenPolysiphonia fibrata (Dillwyn) Harvey1844Collector unknown
A photograph of the species Alosa aestivalis, not of this specimenAlosa aestivalis (Mitchill, 1814)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Clupea harengus, not of this specimenClupea harengus Linnaeus, 17581852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Menidia menidia, not of this specimenMenidia menidia (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Prionotus evolans, not of this specimenPrionotus evolans (Linnaeus, 1766)1852not recordedWood's Hole, Massachusetts.
A photograph of the species Ulva clathrata, not of this specimenUlva clathrata (Roth) C.Agardh1852G. W. Perry
A photograph of the species Acanthurus bahianus, not of this specimenAcanthurus bahianus Castelnau, 18551899not recordedWoods Hole, Massachusetts
A photograph of the species Alosa pseudoharengus, not of this specimenAlosa pseudoharengus (Wilson, 1811)1899not recordedMassachusetts, Katama Bay near Edgartown
A photograph of the species Balistes capriscus, not of this specimenBalistes capriscus Gmelin, 17891899V. EdwardsWoods Hole, Massachusetts

All 15,013 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Vineyard Haven: 1 past producer, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Dump Road PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Red Hill Pit and PlantSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Dukes County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Oklahoma Heights1.1 miles33
Lagoon Heights1.3 miles32
Eastville1.4 miles21
West Chop1.8 miles33
East Chop2.1 miles21
Vineyard Highlands2.1 miles21
Oak Bluffs2.2 miles32
Harthaven2.6 miles32

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 616143. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.