Beautiful family summer home with private beach. Mattapoisett / Buzzards Bay

'Fairwinds' is a year round / summer residence located in Mattapoisett, MA. It is on a dead-end street leading to the Ned’s Point Lighthouse. The lighthouse and park is a major attraction for sailboarding with steady winds, free parking and water access. It's also a wonderful spot for picnics and kite flying! Mattapoisett is on Buzzard's Bay between Fairhaven and Marion. There are ten bedrooms, two baths upstairs and one downstairs. There is also an outdoor, enclosed, hot & cold shower for rinsing after a day at the beach. You'll have direct water access with a private sandy beach (below high tide can be a little rocky, but that's Mattapoisett). There is a spacious back yard and a closet full of yard games for the kids and the adults too. Once you get settled in you will not want to leave the property. We just know you'll fall in love with Fairwinds and want to come back year after year, like so many of our loyal tenants. History and General Information: Mattapoisett was settled in 1750 and officially incorporated in 1857. Originally a part of Rochester, the area had most likely been visited by European traders and sailors. There is also evidence of prior Wampanoag Indian settlements, including burial grounds, throughout the town. In fact, the word Mattapoisett is Wampanoag for 'a place of resting.' Early industry included logging and farming, but Mattapoisett became best known as a center for shipbuilding and whaling. Some 400 ships were built in the town's shipyards from 1740 until the 1870s, including the Acushnet, the ship that Moby-Dick author Herman Melville sailed on and later deserted. The town supplied many of the whalers used on the East Coast in the first half of the nineteenth century. The last one, the Wanderer, was built in 1878, shortly after the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania. With the decline of whaling and associated shipbuilding, Mattapoisett transitioned into a popular summer vacation spot for prominent New York and Boston residents, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Today, the town is largely a suburban community, with most residents commuting to jobs in greater New Bedford, Providence or Boston, or operating businesses targeting summer tourism. A fictitious future Mattapoisett features largely into the 1976 novel Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Mattapoisett, Massachusetts is the only known town in the world with the name Mattapoisett. 'Fairwinds' ~ A Brief History: The house was built in 1928 by Dr. James K. Stoddard. A shingle style summer cottage with dark green shutters. The waterside of the house was shaded by a two story porch, open at ground level and screened above for sleeping. It was sited originally at the edge of the beach, where the lawn ends today. The 'Great Hurricane' of 1938 damaged the house significantly, as did Hurricane Carol in 1954. The front porch was swept away, landing on the Trumbull property beyond the boatyard where it became their front deck. Water inside the house was 4'-5' deep. You can still see the marks on the wall inside the entry. Before the summer of 1955 my grandfather, Arthur Rotch, who had purchased the house in 1952, had it raised up and moved back from the water to its present location.