Fate of Vineyard icon up for vote
Chilmark to decide whether Home Port restaurant stays
CHILMARK - The fate of the old-time Home Port restaurant overlooking Menemsha Pond, a favorite place on the island to catch a sunset and a lobster roll, is in the hands of the town tonight.
Residents will vote at a special town meeting on whether the beloved Martha's Vineyard icon disappears or gets a new lease on life.
Two weeks ago, they faced the choice of letting the town buy and raze the 88-year-old restaurant in favor of a public park and parking area, or pave the way for a private sale that some feared would result in a "McMansion" rising above the idyllic view of Menemsha Harbor.
But in the last couple of weeks, Bob and Sarah Nixon, Chilmark residents who have restored two inns in this tiny up-island village, agreed to buy and operate the storied restaurant if voters turn down a sale to the town. Add a Hollywood element to the scenario: Nixon is an environmentalist and filmmaker who co-produced the 1988 Oscar winner "Gorillas in the Mist".
So tonight, if Chilmark residents vote down the proposal to allow the town to purchase the Home Port for $2 million, the Nixons can move to buy the place and preserve it.
One way or the other, the Home Port property will be sold. After 36 years in the business and 25 years as its owners, Will and Madeline Holtham want out. They agreed to sell the restaurant and adjoining waterfront parcels to the town three years ago, but voters found the $3.9 million price tag too high.
The Home Port, housed in a rambling building, only serves dinner, no alcohol, and has limited parking, yet the wait for inside table reservations is one week. The menu, which features lots of seafood - quahog chowder, steamed lobsters, fish platters - offers full meals averaging $45 and takeout fare about half that price.
Most patrons - carpenters and celebrities alike - line up at the simple take-out window in the rear, with a well-worn menu nailed to it.
Lines are longest and parking most difficult when a glorious sunset is forecast. Couples, families, fishermen, and day sailors vie to share one of the heavy metal picnic tables on a wrap-around deck facing the setting sun.
Amid all the high-end restaurants on the Vineyard, islanders have a soft spot for the old seafood restaurant.
Doug Seward, a Chilmark resident, recalled being with his twin brother on the porch of the Home Port in 1954 watching Hurricane Carol approach the Vineyard.
"That place is an important part of this community," Seward said last week.
"Every kid in town worked at the Home Port. It was a rite of passage.
"There is no reason, sentimentally or economically, to tear it down, and it won't be," he predicted.
At his home on Chappaquiddick Island, Bob Enos, a marine engine mechanic, reminisced about family pilgrimages to Home Port.
"We went at least once a year and on special occasions, like when our grandparents came over from Falmouth. I've taken my kids there," he said.
Enos lamented a way of life disappearing on the island.
"I'd feel sad if it went, just another piece gone of the island I grew up with," he said.
"Access to our water is disappearing. When we were kids, it was private property then too, but no one cared. Not today."
The fate of the Home Port has been an emotional touchstone since July, when selectmen disclosed the agreement to purchase it. For many islanders, the restaurant is a symbol of the low-key life they enjoyed before the Vineyard, long a quiet haven for celebrities, became a vacation favorite for politicians in the 1990s.
Since then, exploding real estate prices made home ownership a fantasy for working people, many of whom are tradesmen hired to tear down old island homes and to build oversized houses in their place.
Selectman J.B. Riggs Parker spearheaded the town acquisition plan.
"We will never have a better opportunity to acquire this property at an affordable price," he said.
"I'm concerned that a buyer will try it for a few years then sell it. What will the price be then, $7 million?" he said, noting the town's annual operating budget is $6.2 million.
For weeks before the Nixons' offer, the town had been riven by impassioned opinions in local newspapers. Some residents grudgingly asked voters to approve the town purchase.
"I'm a changeling," said Clarissa Allen, who runs a family sheep farming business in Chilmark and was an influential signer.
"I supported the town purchase before I knew the Nixons were willing to get involved. They are a good family and they know what they are doing. That's what I am going to say at town meeting."
Sarah Nixon said she and her husband had spent a month considering the purchase.
"We want the best thing for the town," she said last week in a telephone interview from the couple's Washington, D.C., home.
A Home Port closure would probably benefit the Nixons' nearby Beach Plum Inn & Restaurant, but Nixon said she wants to see it remain open for more than one reason.
"We have a great kitchen, but my guests also want to eat at the Home Port," she said.
"Hey, I want to be able to eat at the Home Port." 