About Mr. History Person

Mr. History Person

Mr. History Person is the nom de plume of Fairhaven native Christopher J. Richard. He has been writing about his hometown's history since 1980. In the Fairhaven Advocate he began answering readers' historical questions in a weekly column that ran from 1998 until 2001. He contributed historical feature stories and continued to answer questions in the monthly Navigator magazine from 2001 to 2011.

In 1995, Mr. Richard helped create some historical walking tours for Fairhaven's volunteer Tourism Committee. The following year he was hired as the Director of Tourism for the town. In that capacity he researched and wrote a number of brochures on different aspects of the Fairhaven history. From spring through fall each year he guided historical tours in Fairhaven center, in the Poverty Point neighborhood, at Fort Phoenix, in North Fairhaven, and in Riverside Cemetery. In 1999, he developed a group of historical guides at Fort Phoenix who in 2003 became the original members of non-profit Fairhaven Village Militia. In 2016, he created the "Pirates & Privateers" presentations that were performed on Friday mornings at Fort Phoenix for ten summer seasons. He  was twice interviewed about Fairhaven history on the Boston Channel 25 Chronicle program and was featured as a local history expert on the HGTV program Houses With History, Season 2, Episode 1, "The One With Mark Twain."

In 2024, Mr. Richard retired from the Office of Tourism. He continued to volunteer in Fairhaven for another year. At that time he began updating and publishing his Navigator articles at https://christopherrichard.substack.com/.