Fairhaven (Massachusett: Sconticut[1]) is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the South Coast of Massachusetts where the Acushnet River flows into Buzzards Bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. The town shares a harbor with the city of New Bedford, a place well known for its whaling and fishing heritage; consequently, Fairhaven's history, economy, and culture are closely aligned with those of its larger neighbor. The population of Fairhaven was 15,924 at the time of the 2020 census.[2]
Fairhaven was first settled in 1659 as "Cushnea," the easternmost part of the town of Dartmouth. It was founded on land purchased by English settlers at the Plymouth Colony from the WampanoagsachemMassasoit, and his son, Wamsutta.
Fairhaven is the home of the Acushnet Company, a world-renowned manufacturer of golf equipment under the brand name Titleist (now owned by Fila). Fairhaven is also home to Nye Lubricants, a firm dealing in industrial lubricants and whose history dates back to 1844 and the whaling industry.
Fairhaven is located in the 10th Bristol state representative district, which includes all of Fairhaven, Marion, Mattapoisett, and Rochester, as well as a portion of Middleborough. The town is represented in the state senate in the 2nd Bristol-Plymouth district, which includes the city of New Bedford and the towns of Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Mattapoisett. On the national level, Fairhaven is a part of Massachusetts's 9th congressional district, and is currently represented by William R. Keating. The state's senior member of the United States Senate is Elizabeth Warren, and its junior senator is Ed Markey.
Fairhaven is governed by a representative town meeting, run by a five-person select board (expanded from three seats in 2022)[16] and a town administrator. The town has one public library (the Millicent Library), one fire station, a central police department, and one post office (zip code 02719). The Fairhaven police department is located on Byrant Lane, a half-mile east of the center of town. The police, fire, and rescue all are located at the same site on Washington Street.
Joseph BatesJoseph Bates (1792–1872), sea captain, minister, temperance advocate, and reformer who was a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the theological architect of Sabbatarian Adventist theology; his boyhood home (191 Main Street) is now a museum dedicated to his life and work
(1804–1867), physician and a ranking and influential (but short-lived and controversial) leader in the Latter Day Saint movement, who acted as second in command to Joseph Smith for a brief period in the early 1840s
John Cook Bennett
(1823–1892), marine painter and photographer
William Bradford
(1896–1966), multi-millionaire businessman, horse breeder, and art collector who mainly lived in Great Britain; born in Fairhaven but educated in Great Britain, he restored and expanded Anglesey Abbey, his country seat, in Cambridgeshire. Lord Fairhaven was the grandson of Henry Huttleston Rogers
The 1st Baron Fairhaven
(1775–1842), a sea captain, moved to Chile in 1819 where he became an important part of that country's early Navy
Paul Delano
(1809–1898), a native of the town, Delano became a prominent trader with Russell & Company, smuggling opium in China. He was the maternal grandfather of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and created Fairhaven's Riverside Cemetery, where many Delano family members are buried
Warren Delano Jr.
(born 1961), noted conceptual artist and sculptor, known for his installations using found human-made and natural objects
Mark Dion
(1900–1963), football back and coach
Carl Etelman
(1875–1946), one of the most prolific yacht designers of the twentieth century, and whose office was in Fairhaven
William H. Hand Jr.
(1832–1907), architect and engineer who became known as the "Father of the American Skyscraper"; Fairhaven native
William Le Baron Jenney
(1819–1891), author of the classic novel Moby-Dick, twenty-one year old Melville stayed briefly in a rooming house in Fairhaven and on January 3, 1841, set sail from here in the whaleship Acushnet.[18]
Herman Melville
"John" (1827–1898), the first Japanese person to live in America
Manjiro Nakahama
(1809–1891), attorney, soldier, writer, and prominent Freemason. Pike is the only Confederate military officer or figure to be honored with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C. (in Judiciary Square). A Massachusetts native, he taught school in Fairhaven as a young man
Albert Pike
(1952–2004), of Superman fame, the summer resident kept a sailboat, the 40-foot (12 m) sloop-rigged Chandelle, at a Fairhaven shipyard and sometimes flew into New Bedford Regional Airport to pick it up or to stay in town during a stopover en route to Martha's Vineyard
Christopher Reeve
(1882–1945), 32nd President of the United States; summer resident
Captain Slocum's SprayJoshua Slocum (1844–1909), the first man to sail alone around the world, and his ship, the Spray. The Spray originally belonged to Captain Eben Pierce of Fairhaven, a whaling captain, who gave the derelict boat, slowly deteriorating in a ship cradle in a meadow on Fairhaven's Poverty Point, to his friend, Captain Slocum. Slocum spent thirteen months in Fairhaven while working on the Spray, making her fit for open-ocean sailing. Fairhaven oak formed much of the boat's refitted structure. The Spray and her one-man crew returned after nearly three and a half-year to the very cedar spile that was used for her launch.
(1835–1905), American’s first renowned orchestra leader and founder of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, had a Fairhaven summer home surrounded by spacious gardens from 1887 until shortly before his death in 1905
Theodore Thomas
(1810–1906), the first American woman to sail around the world and the first American woman to visit China while sailing with her husband, a merchant ship captain
Mary Ann Tripp
(1804–1886), the sea captain who rescued Manjiro Nakahama and with whom Manjiro lived during his time in Fairhaven
