From the May 17, 1940 edition of the Vineyard Gazette: Simon Pinkham, Vineyard Haven police officer, holds the distinction of having apprehended and landed the first striped bass of the season. Pinkham landed four fish, of about five pounds each, at South Beach on Tuesday, using the standard surf-casting gear.

These are the first stripers landed this spring, although their presence has been suspected since the alewives arrived, this small variety, often called “herring” bass, usually appearing with the alewives.

Last year, with much warmer weather, bass were landed weeks earlier than this.

The construction in West Chop of two seven-room houses, strongly verging on the modernistic, has literally “started something” in the way of comment here. Designed by Putnam, Cox and Saltonstall, these houses are being built for Mrs. Joel E. Goldthwait and the West Chop Trust, respectively, and are built from the same plan, save that there is a reversal in the arrangement of rooms. Mr. Saltonstall, of the architectural firm, is the son of Mrs. Goldthwait.

The houses are boarded within and without with plywood, three-eights of an inch in thickness. There are no shingles or other covering, and all joints must fit with exact nicety as there is no opportunity to use the customary flashing around windows and doors to prevent leaks. Inside there will be no paper on the wooden walls. The ceiling are of sheet-rock, and the lower floor is cement. There are no door or window casings, simply a light beading, and the windows are so large and so numerous that from without the building looks commercial, while from within, there is a sense of not being housed at all.

The architecture, generally conceded to be modernistic, when studied may not prove to be so entirely modern at all. The layman who knows little or nothing of such things, detects characteristics that appear to be quite aged. For example, the flat roofs of porches and the single-storied portion, finished and railed to serve as balconies, reached through French windows; the regular windows, low from top to bottom, but broad from side to side; have a Spanish touch. The low, pyramidal roof also lends itself to this scheme.

The veranda is flat-roofed, the roof being supported by plain iron columns, as is also a slight overhang on the front of the house; and the termination or “break” at the opposite corner of the house is concealed by a slashed apron effect, after the order of the western false front, except that it is inclined from the second floor to the ground level.

The rooms are attractive and the interior arrangement is convenient and pleasing. The presence of an iron pipe rail on a stairway appears a bit odd and out of place, in one instance, while a curved wing, extending from floor to ceiling and half-concealing the staircase, strikes an unusual note in the other house.

Tapping the walls either inside or out, one may feel a sense of insecurity and it is true that a determined man with a heavy jackknife, could effect an entrance or escape through the walls at any point with little difficulty. The framing, however, is as heavy as usual in such houses, and the chimneys, fireplaces and piping all add to the weight and strength. It will not be practical, however, for the occupants to be careless in putting up pictures or clothes hooks. But the joints in the plywood are plainly visible, and there is a timber behind each joint. If these are followed, there will be no danger of weakening the walls.

Carpenters of H. C. Hancock and Son, engaged in constructing the houses, say that there has been a flood of comment, chiefly that houses so different in appearance clash with the Island style of architecture. To which some of the workmen have replied that the Island style, if there is one, would be difficult to find. This is a true statement of fact, for the reason that the Island is credited with possessing few houses that are true examples of any recognized type. Though they may follow a type in essentials, characteristics of others were added by the designers. Out of sight of other dwellings, there is no apparent clash, and unusual in appearance though they are, they do not appear too difficult of pleasant acquaintance.

The Vineyard Gazette has just started a new year of publication, Volume 95, of which this issue is Number 2. We are getting on with the last lap of the first century.

Sometimes we wonder what the Island was like on that May morning in 1846 when Edgar Marchantm then about 30, struck from the Seth Adams hand press the first copy of the Vineyard’s first newspaper. It must have been an interesting and a delightful place under the spring sun, with the whaleships at the wharves and the flocks of sheep in the pastures.

It is still, we think, an interesting and delightful place, largely because of the legacies which have come down to us from the past. May the Island continue to grow old without losing them!

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

library@vineyardgazette.com