10416. (mounted photo) West Chop Light Station, Martha’s Vineyard c.1870 – 1882. Large, early view shows a lovely close scene as the keeper with his wife and one other gentleman pose for the camera on the stoop in front of the dwelling and lighthouse tower. The keeper is holding a Light House Establishment issued Bardeau telescope. The view is clear and close and includes the early lantern room with Fresnel lens inside. The image size measures 6 ½” x 8 ½” and it is mounted on its original mount. The overall size is 10 ¾” x 14″. The harbor at Vineyard Haven was Martha’s Vineyard’s busiest in the nineteenth century, and is protected by two areas of land known as East Chop and West Chop. To aid vessels heading in and out of the harbor as well as coastal traffic passing through Vineyard Sound, Congress appropriated $5,000 on March 3, 1817 for a lighthouse on West Chop. The first lighthouse at West Chop, a 25-foot rubblestone tower, was erected along with a stone dwelling in 1817. In 1843 Keeper James West reported that the tower and dwelling were both leaky. The inside of the tower was coated with ice in winter. The keeper also pointed out that the bluff on which the lighthouse stood had eroded to within 37 feet of the tower’s base. For these reasons, the station was rebuilt in 1846. A round stone tower and a stone Cape-style keeper’s house shown here were constructed about 1,000 feet southeast of the old location. The 1846 tower was later enclosed in shingled wooden sheathing, creating in an octagonal form. This was apparently done to cut down on leaks. A steam-driven fog signal housed in a new building was added in 1882, and the same year a one-and-a-half-story, wood-frame assistant keeper’s house was built, thus dating this image to before 1882. Beautifully composed with some of the best detail I have yet seen of this station during this early period. Photo is close and clear, just a hint of soiling to the mount. (VG+). $435.