Gay Head Light - Public Access

Public Access

From the earliest days of its history, the Gay Head Light appears as though it welcomed visiting public. Early photographs depict visitors populating the lighthouse balcony and its surrounding grounds. In 1856, after the installation of the famous Fresnel lens, tourism to the lighthouse increased. Special steamship excursions from the Oak Bluffs Wharf took tourists to the Steamboat Landing dock below the Gay Head Cliffs, where waiting oxcarts provided transport to the lighthouse. Circa 1857, Harper's Magazine published an account of a visit to the lighthouse and its powerful new lens by writer David Hunter Strother: "At night we mounted the tower and visited the look-out gallery that belts the lighthouse at some distance below the lantern. Here we were surprised by a unique and splendid spectacle. The whole dome of heaven, from the centre to the horizon, was flecked with bars of misty light, revolving majestically on the axis of the tower. These luminous bars, although clearly defined, were transparent ; and we could distinctly see the clouds and stars behind them. Of all the heavenly phenomena that I have had the good fortune to witness — borealis lights, mock suns, or meteoric showers — I have never seen anything that in mystic splendor equaled this trick of the magic lantern at Gay Head." Public access was also documented by historian Edward Rowe Snow, who mentioned how Principal Keeper, Charles W. Vanderhoop, and his assistant, Max Attaquin, "...probably took one-third of a million visitors to the top of Gay Head Light between 1910 and 1933." After the Gay Head Light was electrified and automated in the mid-1950s - the lighthouse's Principal Keeper, Joseph Hindley, vacated the premises circa 1956, and the light was closed to public access.

According to the United State Coast Guard aerial photograph (lower right), and other photographic documentation and research provided by Vineyard Environmental Research, Inst., the following structures were still standing in 1958: the three story Gambrel-style Keeper's house; a large barn; the square, brick, three-story WWII observation tower; a small, so-called guest house or utility building at the edge of the cliffs, and the WWII concrete bunker just below the guest house. Circa 1960, all buildings except the lighthouse and the concrete World War II bunker were razed. Since 1958, the WWII bunker has slowly slid down the face of the clay cliffs toward the beach at the bottom of the cliffs near the ocean, where it exists today in the ocean's intertidal zone at the base of the cliffs.

In 1985, Vineyard Environmental Research, Institute (VERI), received a 35-year license from the United States Coast Guard to maintain the Gay Head Lighthouse and its surrounding real estate. In 1986, on Mother's Day, VERI reopened the Gay Head Light to the public for the first time since 1956. At the same time, the lighthouse was also made available for weddings and special functions. In 1985, when VERI's founder, William Waterway Marks became the light's Principal Keeper - he appointed his friend, Charles Vanderhoop, Jr., as Assistant Keeper, along with abutting lighthouse property owner, Helen Manning. Charles Vanderhoop, Jr. was born in the lighthouse while his father, Charles W. Vanderhoop, was serving as Principal Keeper from 1920-1933. In 1929, Charles W. Vanderhoop gave a lighthouse tour to President Calvin Coolidge just after his presidency ended. Charles W. Vanderhoop was the only Wampanoag to serve in the position of Keeper until his son, Charles Vanderhoop, Jr., was appointed Assistant Keeper in 1986. During the late 1980s, various other people from the community also served as modern-day Gay Head Light assistant keepers on weekends and on special occasions. In 1990, William Waterway Marks appointed Richard Skidmore and his wife, Joan LeLacheur, as Assistant Keepers. Richard and Joan became Principal Keepers in 1994 and remain in that position today. In 1987 VERI also opened the East Chop and Edgartown lights to the public for the first time in many decades.

After the Gay Head Light opened to the public, bus loads of children from all of the island's schools began to visit the light as part of their educational programs. In 1994, VERI transferred their lighthouse license to the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society (MVHS), which is now known as the Martha's Vineyard Museum. At the time, William Waterway Marks was also serving as a MVHS board member, and was installed as the first Chairman of the newly formed MVHS Lighthouse Committee, where he served for four years from 1994 to 1997.

Today the Gay Head Light is managed by the Martha's Vineyard Museum and is open to the public during the summer season, on special holidays, and for weddings and other private functions. In August, 2009, Principal Keeper, Joan LeLacheur, gave President Barack Obama and his family a private tour during their vacation on Martha's Vineyard. This lighthouse also appears briefly in the background of the movie Jaws as Chief Brody is driving to the beach.

Through dedicated work and sacrifice of the Martha's Vineyard Community, the Gay Head Light survives today as an iconic symbol of the island's maritime history. On June 15, 1987 - the Gay Head Light was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as Gay Head Light, reference number 87001464., while under the management of VERI through its United States Coast Guard License Number DTCGZ71101-85-RP-007L.