Thomas Tate has spent more than 30 years as the president and owner of Tate Builders Inc., a design-and-build construction company located in Vineyard Haven. In this role, Thomas E. Tate has overseen the construction of custom homes on Martha’s Vineyard for some of the country’s most noted personalities. The Fourth of July 2014 marked the one-year anniversary of one of the most unique construction projects the island of Martha’s Vineyard has ever seen. Richard and Jennifer Schifter had purchased nine acres of property in Chappaquiddick in 2001 and completed construction of a 8,300-square-foot home on a bluff overlooking the water six years later.

 

They began to notice some erosion of the bluff in 2012. Later that year, they learned that the bluff was in danger of falling into the sea, along with their house. Upon hearing that, the Schifters quickly took action. Early in July of 2013, the house was lifted off its foundations intact and loaded onto 20 red dollies. The entire house was then moved along a trench away from the eroding bluff and set down on a new, safe plot of land.