Duration: 3:58

http://www.vineyardhavenmarealestate.com Tour Vineyard Haven, MA neighborhoods, condominium developments, subdivisions, schools, landmarks, recreational areas, and town offices. Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts is a town on beautiful Martha's Vineyard, the world-renowned island and vacation spot off the coast of Massachusetts. Excellent shops, fine restaurants, and a beautiful harbor are only a few of the attractions that make Vineyard Haven so special to tourists and residents alike. The town that incorporates Vineyard Haven is called Tisbury, after a parish in England near the birthplace of the island's first governor, Thomas Mayhew. English settlement of the area dates from the mid-1600s, when Mayhew purchased the settlement rights from the local Wampanoag. Owen Park, off Main Street just beyond the shopping district, is named for gramophone innovator William Barry Owen, whose wife donated the parcel for public use. The town beach here is a fine place to watch the harbor. Ferries shuttle in and out, providing the island's year-round connection to the mainland. On the opposite side of Main Street from Owen Park is the Old Schoolhouse Museum. Erected in 1828, this building has served many uses. It was once a carpentry shop, a school, and later served as Vineyard Haven's Congregational Church. In front of the museum stands the tall white Liberty Pole, commemorating the daring of three young women who inserted gun powder in the base of the Vineyard Haven's liberty pole in 1778 and blew it up to keep it from being used as a spar by a British warship. When the Congregationalists outgrew their little church in 1844, they built a neoclassic building on Spring Street that later became the Unitarian Church and eventually the town hall. Vineyard Haven's municipal building is one of the island's most handsome architectural legacies of whaling days. The Vineyard Playhouse building, on Church Street, was built in 1833 as a Methodist meeting house. Today it houses the island's only year-round professional theater company. When ships were powered by wind and canvas, Vineyard Haven was one of New England's busiest ports because of its strategic location on the sailing routes. Most of the coastwise shipping traveled through Vineyard Sound (13,814 vessels were counted in 1845). Holmes Hole, as this harbor community was called, provided a convenient anchorage. Here a ship and its crew could lay over comfortably to wait out bad weather, pick up provisions, or take on an experienced local pilot who could negotiate the rips and shoals that were the special perils of this sea route. In addition to Owen Park, the town of Vineyard Haven maintains War Veterans' Memorial Park off Causeway Road (located just behind the fire station). The park includes playground equipment for young children and playing fields used by local ball teams. For other town tours visit http://www.virtualhomes.com . For towns in MA visit http://www.ma-virtualhomes.com . For MA relocation information go to http://www.relocationma.com . For a MA MLS map search visit http://www.virtualhomesmls.com .