Fairhaven

Fairhaven shares a harbor with New Bedford, once the world’s largest whaling port, and was also active in the trade until its downfall in the late 1800s.

Both communities were part of the Dartmouth land purchase the Pilgrims made from the Indians in 1652 and both felt the American Revolution’s heavy toll. Fairhaven men fought the war’s first naval battle in May 1775. Three years later, the British struck both sides of the harbor, burning down the fort Fairhaven erected in their absence and raiding New Bedford’s ships and downtown to devastation.

Fairhaven's anger began building toward New Bedford in 1790, when New Bedford erected a bridge over the harbor and blocked Fairhaven's Oxford section from the water, earning it the nickname, "Poverty Point." During the War of 1812, Fairhaven residents grew upset with New Bedford for its opposition to U.S. embargoes and incorporated into their own town.

Fairhaven later became known as the place where Capt. Joshua Slocum fixed the sloop Spray, which he used in the first boat trip around the world alone in the 1890s. The community also has presidential ties, with former U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt frequently visiting his grandparents at their Walnut Street home as a child and returning as the nation’s leader. Today, the Delano homestead is a bed and breakfast honoring the family.

The town's most prominent resident was Henry Huttleston Rogers, the chief executive of Standard Oil Co. Rogers showered his hometown with architectural gems, including the town hall, high school and public library. He lived in New York City, but often traveled to his Fairhaven mansion in his 225-foot steam yacht Kanawha and played host to famed writer Mark Twain.

Buzzards Bay, South Coast, Massachusetts, fishing, vacations, tourism, inns, attractions, sites, inns, B&Bs, bed and breakfasts