The Lester H. Dana place, with its beautiful contemporary house on the summit of Manter’s Hill, off Tea Lane, and fifty-five acres of land, has been sold by Mrs. Dana to Mrs. Julia Green Sturges of New York.
Manter’s Hill, a Chilmark landmark since the beginning of the Manor, will be crowned with a year-round dwelling of imposing size at some time in the near future. The house is to be built for Lester Dana of Boston, who is in the process of purchasing fifty-five acres of the old Manter Place from Philip Siff, and the building will be done by the William G. Manter Co. of Vineyard Haven. William F. Swift, Vineyard Haven engineer and surveyor, will be in charge of the whole operation.
One of the most beautiful and perhaps the most imposing of the Vineyard’s old houses is to be presented by its present owners, Mr. and Mrs. Martin B. Faris of East Chop and New York, to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, whose trustees voted last week to accept this handsome gift.
An agreement to sell Edgartown’s handsome Dr. Daniel Fisher house on Main street, built in 1840 for that great whaling era figure, has been reached between Island Properties, who president is Dr. Alvin M. Strock, its owner for the past seven years, and a newly formed nonprofit corporation, the Daniel Fisher Corporation.
The old house on Main street, Edgartown, which has been referred to as the Edson house, has received an official and appropriate christening. It is now the Desire Osborn House, called after James Coffin’s youngest child, Desire Allen Coffin, who married John Osborn in 1813, and for whom the house was moved to its present site from the neighborhood of Mill Hill.
As readers may have noticed, I am often attracted to unusual houses. The house at 32 Planting Field Way in Edgartown is certainly unusual for the Vineyard.
On Wednesday the Court of County Commissioners for Dukes, met at the Selectmen’s Room in the Town Hall. Hon. Thomas H. Lambert, having taken the customary oath, took his seat with the board. Hon. Benjamin Davis was re-elected Chairman.
The following order was passed and the read by the Clerk: -
Dukes County, ss. In Court of County Commissioners, November Term, by adjournment, to February 3d, 1858.
A traffic-stopper in Edgartown this week has been the corner of Davis Lane and School street where the stately house which was once Davis Academy and is now the summer home of the G. Holmes Perkins family, of Cambridge and Philadelphia, has been emerging in a pale blue manifestation, with white trim.
An agreement for the sale of the Knowlton house on Davis Lane at School street, Edgartown, to Mr. and Mrs. G. Holmes Perkins of Cambridge by William Roberts of Edgartown, has been made. Mr. Roberts acquired the house, built by David Davis in 1838, in the summer of 1943, from the estate of the late Miss Cora B. Knowlton. Avery & Company are in charge of the transaction.
