Sold in Vineyard Haven: $2.7 Million "Cottage" on Lagoon

A home built in 1938 near the Lagoon in Vineyard Haven has been sold for $2,695,000, according to Dukes County land records.

Patricia and Geoffrey Banfield sold their property at 147 Lagoon Avenue June 21 to John and Lupi Robinson of North Haven, CT.

In a blog post on MV Patch last fall, local real estate broker Carol McManus shared some of the history of the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home, which last changed hands in 1993 for $485,000:

This house is called The “Rose Covered Cottage." One of the buildings was an old fishing shack built-in 1850. In 1938 the fishing shack was renovated into a house, and the whole property was renovated again in 2000.

What was happening on Martha’s Vineyard in 1850? The 1850 census shows that all the island residents were white, Protestant, and of English ancestry, much as they had been for centuries except for the Native Americans who were here, long before the English arrived It couldn’t have been easy to be an immigrant, speaking another language to live on the Vineyard at that time.

As the rest of the nation was becoming more diverse, the island stayed the same, except for whaling-ships. There was much more diversity on whale-ships. Legend has it that they were the nation’s first racially integrated workplaces, and certainly did house a variety of nationalities.

In 1849 more than 200 Vineyard men left in the first nine months, surely the Island’s fastest exodus. More than ever the Vineyard suffered from a shortage of men. It was not only adventurous single men who left. Among those departing were heads of families who were eager to strike it rich in California and saw little chance of doing so at home.

— Carol McManus, Sandpiper Realty

Find more Martha's Vineyard real estate news and property listings in our Real Estate section from Zillow. You may also be interested in:

• Vintage Vineyard Haven House Sold for $3.3 Million

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