The 'head' and heart of Westport

By Grant Welker

Courtesy of the Herald News

October 18, 2007

Photos by Jon Alden

Westport - Perhaps the smallest of the town’s three villages, the Head of Westport also forms a dividing line between the more developed north part of town and the quiet woods and rolling pastures of the south part of town.

The Head of Westport is not far from the necessities: The Dartmouth Mall is four miles away, downtown New Bedford is seven miles, and downtown Fall River is eight miles. The library, senior center, historical society, elementary and middle schools are within walking distance.

The village and its surroundings are far more country than city, though.

The Westport Land Conservation Trust, which manages the Forge Pond Conservation Area, has helped preserve acres of farmland to the south along the east bank of the river to keep them from being developed, including the 28-acre Gifford Hilltop Farm on Horseneck Road, the 90-acre Chapin White Farm on Pine Hill Road and the 18-acre former Zodiac Farm on Horseneck Road.

To the north of the village, the nine-acre Forge Pond Conservation Area on Forge Road offers two wooded parcels around Forge Pond. Walking trails circle the pond and fishing spots line the pond and Noquochoke River.

The 78-acre Mike Ferry Farm just to the north on Gifford Road is also protected, meaning its use as a farm is guaranteed.

Starting in the early 1700s, the Head, once known as Westport Village, became the manufacturing center of the town, with as many as nine mills going north to the Westport Factory area.

The area was attractive to early manufacturing because of the 40-foot natural fall line at the meeting of the Noquochoke River and Bread and Cheese Brook, and the proximity of east-west land routes and southern water routes, according to records at the Historical Society.

Ship hulls were often built at the Head, rolled to the river and placed on casks at low tide, to be floated down the river at high tide down to Westport Point. There, they were finished for their particular uses — whaling, fishing or coastal trade. Records show 58 vessels were built in Westport from the late 1700s to the mid 1800s, some as large as 300 tons.

“Launchings were joyful events and the rum ran freely,” says a plaque at the grassy area at the intersection of Old County and Drift roads, near where the village’s first settler, Richard Sisson, built his home in 1671.

After the 1850s, shipbuilding and milling declined and the area became a residential neighborhood, home to many former sea captains. Some of those homes from the 1800s are still scattered around the neighborhood. The Head is now much quieter, with few commercial buildings. Sometimes the only sound you hear is the river that was, and in some ways still is, the village’s lifeblood.

“It’s a wonderful little spot,” said Samantha Ladd, who owns Osprey Sea Kayak with her husband, Carl. “There are more younger families around. It has a good energy.”
A village wouldn’t be the same without a general store as a gathering place, and R & S Variety has been that place for 30 years.

“It’s a gathering spot, it always has been,” said Ron Meunier, who owns the store with his wife, Susan. “People come here and sometimes gab for hours. They’ll come in the morning, get a newspaper and talk about what’s happening in town.”

Meunier says the Head is one of the nicest areas in town.

“It’s really beautiful, especially where the river is,” he said. “There are so many historically significant houses, it’s right near the schools, we have our own post office and church, it’s not far from the highways. It’s a nice section of town.”

The Historical Commission has been working to make sure the historical houses are maintained, attempting twice to get the village designated as a historical district. The designation would give the commission the authority to review changes made to homes to ensure that period architecture isn’t replaced with vinyl siding, loud colors or picture windows. Westport Point was named a local historic district in 1992.

Two of the oldest schoolhouses around are at the Head — the circa 1841 Bell School on Drift Road, now the Historical Society, and the circa 1833 Wolf Pit School on Old County Road.

With its bustling commerce in centuries past, the Head was once the biggest village in town, not the Point or Central Village, said Historical Commission member and Head resident Anne “Pete” Baker.

“This,” she said, “is what made Westport.”

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