It is a wonderful feeling to see your house spotlighted in the local newspaper. I experienced surprise and pleasure to see my house featured in a column by Mary Jane Carpenter this past week prior to a Martha’s Vineyard Museum-sponsored house tour at West Chop. My house, however, was not included in that tour.

It may have been a better service to do a write-up about one of the houses that was featured on the tour for the benefit of those attending. But since my house was brought to the attention of the Island, I thought it important to mention that the date cited in the story as its origin may be in dispute. Owners of old houses can get obsessive about dating their houses and tracking the ownership. I admit to doing this very thing and enjoying the search in an attempt at proving accuracy and authenticity. Through my years of researching the archives at the historical society, through previous Vineyard Gazette articles, and looking through old deeds at the courthouse, I have turned up information that mentions earlier dates of origin to 1720 and even more recently some evidence that could date the house to 1698 with the original owner being Isaac Chase, the father of the Abraham Chase which the author mentions in her piece.

In a further attempt to provide an accurate record for future generations looking up information from Gazette archives I wish to correct an error regarding the sale of the house in 1946. It was sold at that time by Elizabeth Jackson to Marian Warner, not to the Trotters. The Trotter family ownership began in 1970 after Mrs. Warner died while sitting on the front porch of the Great House.

Liz Trotter
Vineyard Haven