A Working Waterfront: Scenes from the Vineyard Haven Harbor
The Black Dog Tavern is one of two restaurants on the Vineyard Haven waterfront.
The Black Dog Tavern is one of two restaurants on the Vineyard Haven waterfront.
The Gannon and Benjamin wooden boat building business is yet another piece of working waterfront.
The Gannon and Benjamin wooden boat building business is yet another piece of working waterfront.
Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway burned down in 1989 but friends rallied to help rebuild it.
Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway burned down in 1989 but friends rallied to help rebuild it.
Vineyard Haven harbor is the gateway to the Island.
Vineyard Haven harbor is the gateway to the Island.
Owen Park, a popular spot for sunbathers and boaters.
Owen Park, a popular spot for sunbathers and boaters.
Once there were whaling ships, now there are paddle boarders.
Once there were whaling ships, now there are paddle boarders.
All ashore who's going ashore.
All ashore who's going ashore.
Vineyard Harbor Motel is the lone motel on the harbor.
Vineyard Harbor Motel is the lone motel on the harbor.
From Owen Park to the Lagoon Pond drawbridge, decades old, family-owned businesses pepper the Vineyard Haven waterfront. Among them are the Black Dog Tavern and the Black Dog Tall Ships, wooden boat builders Gannon and Benjamin, the Vineyard Haven Marina, the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard, and R.M. Packer Company, a fuel supplier and marine barge operation.
The waterfront architecture is haphazard, but that is perhaps Vineyard Haven’s charm — not quaint, per se, but certainly unique, plus it’s rare for any town today to look much the same as it did 50 years ago