Thomas W. Whitfield (1882-1944)
The grandson of Captain William H. Whitfield, Thomas Woodbridge Whitfield was the town’s second-longest serving Selectman, serving 27 years from 1916 until his death in 1944. (Interestingly, his replacement Walter Silveira—elected in a special election following Whitfield’s death—went on to become the longest serving Selectman, 44 years.) Whitfield operated clambake pavilions at Fort Phoenix and Lincoln Park and in 1922 built Fairhaven’s first movie house, Whitfield’s Premiere, a 550 seat theater later called the Princess Theater in what is now the American Legion building on Main Street. He lived in a large waterfront home near Fort Phoenix and his boat house is rumored to have been a storage place for liquor during the Prohibition.
