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Health & Fitness

18 Henry Hough Lane, Chilmark

An amazing property in Chilmark right off Middle Road. It is located on Henry Hough Lane named after the famous managing editor of the Vineyard Gazette.

This comfortable and airy Chilmark retreat offers panoramic water views from its peaceful hillside setting atop a ridge off Middle Road. Set on three pastoral acres, and abutting miles of conservation trails, this four bedroom contemporary features a gourmet kitchen, a spacious great room with a stone fireplace, enclosed porch and a spacious two-level ocean-view deck. Two master-suites with private baths and balconies overlook Chilmark Pond and the Atlantic. And it is located conveniently close to the Chilmark Center and the beaches.

This amazing property is located on Henry Hough Lane that is named after the famous owner and a former managing editor of the Vineyard Gazette. In 1920 when  Henry married his wife Betty, he received the eight-decade-old newspaper as a wedding gift from his father.

Hough's love for Martha's Vineyard began when his family summered on the unspoiled island's quaint beauty, among the island's natural citizens and the old whaling families seafaring trade. When Henry was a child, "three and four-masted schooners still sailed by laden with lumber and fat green fishing trawlers and sword fishing boats" and hailed from island harbors.

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Hough was educated at Columbia University, survived the Great Depression as well as World I and II, and died in 1985 at the age of 89. In the Vineyard Gazette, he published highlights of world events alongside the local tidbits that only a country newspaper could cover.

The Houghs used their newspaper's influence to stop the growth for profit threatening to erode the natural beauty of Martha's Vineyard. As mainland commercialism spread, developers looked at prime waterfront property for vacation homes and high-rise hotels. Hough speared his writing campaign to save the island. Being a conservationist and naturalist,he essentially deposited valuable property in land trusts.

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He and his brother donated their inherited Fish Hook land, consisting of "a hundred acres of trees, a brook, a swamp, a deep ravine, a bog, a peat hole where ducks found refuge and almost a quarter of a mile of shore. Today it is a part of the Cedar Tree Wildlife Sanctuary." Hough said, "No matter what change, there is a substance that remains that should be preserved for the future to live over again in its own way."

18 Henry Hough Lane, Chilmark

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