Work began on Tuesday on the road from the Middle Road to the top of Peaked Hill, the contract having been awarded to R. W. Balam, Boston con­tractor, who is engaged in putting through several jobs on the Island. The road is to be surfaced, after the grading is completed, and will supply a government way to the observation post that is planned for the Island’s highest point.

 

The Vineyard had a faint fore­shadowing of the tumult of war this week, when windows were — rattled and houses were shaken by the firing of big guns at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod and by target practice by two warships offshore.

 

Plans for the protection of property and persons on Martha’s Vineyard in the event of a war emergency have been pushed forward this week by the special committee appointed for this purpose by Governor Saltonstall. A meeting was held at the town hall in Tisbury on April 3, at which all the town chairmen were present, save one. H. M. Crist presided as coordinator. Others present were Dr. Francis C. Buckley of Oak Bluffs, Raymond V. Chipman of Tisbury, Francis A. Fos­ter of West Tisbury, Leonard C. Van­derhoop of Gay Head, and Richard L. Colter of Edartown. Ernest J.

The section of Peaked Hill which the government proposes to take for the purpose of establishing a signal station represents only a small part of the Peaked Hill property so-called. The entire property comprises 150 acres, and the part chosen by the gov­ernment is a four and a half acre plot, which includes the site of the triangu­lation point monument previously erected there. It is not, as a matter of fact, the highest point of the Vine­yard’s loftiest eminence, 311 feet in height, but it is regarded as line of the most beautiful. It is the peak nearest the Middle Road.

Garrett Hagen, of the United States Department of Justice, has completed a search at the registry of deeds in Edgartown looking toward the acqui­sition of Peaked Hill by the federal government for the purposes of a sig­nal station. The hill at present is owned principally by John Wesley Whiting. Preliminary surveys were made some time ago.

 

Mr. Hagen was assisted by a secre­tary and representatives of the federal engineers, and was accompanied also by a car and a chauffeur.

 

 

 

 

Dukes County boasts a total of 3,799 “housing units,” for its 5,669 inhabitants, according to revised figures issued by the U.S. Bureau of the Census for 1940. At the time the tally was made 1,699 of the houses were occupied, 524 were vacant and for sale or for rent, and 1,576 were vacant for other reasons.

The six Martha’s Vineyard observa­tion posts will participate with the 700 similar posts scattered throughout New England in the communications test of the Air Defense Command which will be held this morning be­tween the hours of 10 a. m. and 12 noon. The test is being given for the purpose of instructing observers of the Aircraft Warning Service and setting up a well-working telephone circuit between each observation post and the army information center at Mitchel Field, New York, headquar­ters of the Air Defense Command.

 

Although nothing official has been announced, it is learned on good authority that U.S. Army engineers have been making a survey of certain portions of Gay Head and Cuttyhunk within the past week, with a view to establishing suitable locations for fortifications should they be needed. The location favoried in Gay Head is the land lying between the lighthouse and the Vanderhoop estate, opposite the drive. This land is owned by the county, and is the site visited annually by thousands of people who go to Gay Head to see the cliffs.

 

More memories of Dr. Daniel Fisher, whose place in Vineyard life was interestingly told in an article by Martin B. Faris, present owner of the beautiful Dr. Fisher House at Edgartown, published in a recent issue of the Vineyard Gazette, are contained in a letter written to Mr. Faris by Henry Franklin Norton. By permission of Mr. Norton and Mr. Faris the letter is presented here as a postscript to the earlier article.