Albert Lees III has sold the Westport Point wharf that bears his family’s name and says he couldn’t be happier about the way things have turned out

Westport oyster farmer Kerian Fennelly and family recently purchased Lees Wharf, 2065 Main Road, for a price of $950,000, according to town property records.

The deed also lists the Thomas Mayhew R.T. as a purchaser — the wharf was built in 1830 for whaling agent Thomas Mayhew.

The transaction not only maintains the wharf’s long ties to Westport’s maritime tradition but it moves the property from one oyster enthusiast family to another.

“‘The Wharf’ is now the same as it always was; a home and a fish business connected to the water in the same way it has been for 200 years,” Mr. Lees said.

The first floor, which had housed Al and Cindy Lees’ company — Lees Wharf Oyster Company, will become home to Mr. Fennelly’s thriving oyster business, Riptide Oysters. Mr. Fennelly farms oysters in the Let, a short distance east and beyond the bridge from the wharf, and at other locations.

“I was not going to sell it to just anyone,” Mr. Lees said, but to someone who would keep this a working waterfront business.

“It’s just the perfect fit — for us and for Kerian and family,” Mr. Lees said. “They are in their 30s, full of energy and doing great things with oysters.”

The upstairs is a residence — “a one-of-a-kind home” — that Mr. and Mrs. Lees still occupy for the time being.

Although the wharf had been in the Lees family since 1929, the year that Al Lees (Mr. Lees’ grandfather) and his wife Elizabeth bought it from Bill Whalon, it  had left the family for a time.

In 2007, Mr. Lees III bought it back from the Gifford family.

“I was single at the time and it was perfect. I lived upstairs and enjoyed some of the best views in Westport in every direction.”

At night, “in the middle of a big storm, wind howling, there’s no place better — tight as a drum, solid as a rock. In the summer, there’s no place I’d rather be. In the winter, well … “

It is strong and tight because Mr. Lees has devoted his time there to restoring the old wharf back to a condition that leaves it ready for generations of wild weather to come.

“The first thing I did was hire a New Bedford company to lift the wharf up,” replace badly rotted underpinnings and put in a concrete footing. “It’s now up to the height of the water level in the 1954 hurricane.

After their marriage, it “remained a fabulous spot for us,” but when they decided that the work of operating the oyster company was becoming “just too much,” they made the decision to move on.

“so now we are enjoying working alongside Riptide Oysters in the Let and watching a dream of ours continue to be a reality. Westport’s river system is alive and vibrant with untold numbers of farm-raised oysters that will provide entertainment and enjoyment for countless people for many years to come.”

Long history

The wharf now known as Lees Wharf has been at the center of Westport’s maritime life since its construction in 1830. ‘Coasters’ tied up there, sometimes several deep, to unload fish, coal, lumber —almost everything the growing fishing and farming community needed. Ship’s supplies were sold at the wharf and it housed a general store at various times.

The bustling place “was a magnet of activity for locals and tourists alike; a place where all strata of society intersected,” Mr. Lees wrote on leeswharf.com

In September of 1929, the Lees family took the plunge and bought the wharf.

“It was a momentous year for my grandparents; the birth of their first child, their first business, and then one month later the October stock market crash. Timing is everything …” Through the depression that followed, the wharf “provided one of the few constants that people could depend on … the sights sounds and smells of the working waterfront.”

In 1954, Hurricane Carol slammed the Point, washing away buildings and boats. ‘The Wharf’ remained “steadfast,” but things there would never be quite the same. “The Point and ’The Wharf’ were destined to become a picturesque backwater village at the end of a dead-end road by the creation of a 15-mile road to Horseback Beach that bypassed the Point …The old wooden bridge that held so many memories for so many generations ceased to pass down Main Road by Lees Wharf in 1963. From that time forward, ’The Wharf; struggled as a viable retail fish business,”Mr. Lees wrote.

It isn’t the hub of activity it once was, Mr. Lees said, “but it is strong again, it is home to a thriving  shellfish business — full of activity and energy … We could not be more pleased.”