Bertha Johnson

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Bertha Gertrude Tripp Johnson (1892 – 1976)

Owner of antiques store

2037 Main Road, Westport Point

Bertha Johnson

Bertha was born in Jamaica Plains, Boston in 1892, the daughter of Abel W. Tripp and Emaline Arnold Tripp.  Her mother was from Westport Point. She spent her childhood in Boston and by 1930, she rented a house in Suffolk with her sister, Helen J. Tripp.  She was a secretary in an insurance company and her sister was a teacher.

She moved to Westport Point with her husband in 1939 to the home she inherited from her aunt, Annie M. B. Tripp Wilkins, in 1936.  Before 1936 she would stay at the so-called Tripp Bungalow on Drift Road in the summers. She also was one of the heirs of 20 acres of property on Horseneck Beach from her aunt.  She and her sister, Helen J. Tripp eventually donated the strip of land to the town of Westport from the river through Baby Beach on Cherry and Webb through the path to Westport Town Beach. The State took over parts of their land.  Bertha’s sister, Helen also moved to Drift Road at the Point.

Bertha was a practicing Christian Scientist and was a close friend of Dorothy Curtis, also a Christian Scientist.  She was an active member of the Westport Art Group as was her husband, Sydney.  She and Sydney entertained friends and family in the summers at their home and were frequently mentioned in the Fall River notes on happenings in Westport.

Together Bertha and Sydney set up an antique shop in the outbuilding behind their home at the Point and operated it for decades, beginning about 1936.  They rented out the main house in the summer and moved into the antique shop where they lived on the second floor which they approached by a ladder.  They added a tiny bathroom and a kitchenette by simply putting a lean-to onto the back wall which to this day still has the shingles on the inside.  They attended many auctions where they purchased antiques and sold them in their shop.

Bertha was well known in Westport Point.  She was very short, but drove a large car and it seemed no one was driving because of her small size.  Neighbors said they put a large stone at the end of her property at the river side so she could drive down to the water’s edge without going over the edge.