[4] The first lightkeeper was pilot James Shaw West who tended the light for thirty years, from 1818 to 1848.

[6] In 1976 West Chop Light became the last Martha's Vineyard lighthouse to be automated, but the original Fresnel lens is still in operation.

Shortly after the erection of the first West Chop Light in 1817, they sold this property and presumably moved into the lightkeeper's dwelling adjacent to the lighthouse.

During his term as lightkeeper, West oversaw the installation of new lamps in 1829, and in 1846 the lighthouse was rebuilt and moved away from the eroding bluffs, and a new dwelling built.

(The old dwelling was given to his youngest son Gustavus and moved to Music Street, West Tisbury.