Boston Lighthouse

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Boston Light

(Boston Harbor, Massachusetts)

Originally built in 1716 on Little Brewster Island at the outskirts of the Boston Harbor, the Boston Light was the first lighthouse with a tower and a glassed-in lantern in North America. Destroyed during the American Revolutionary War the light was rebuilt in 1783 and has since stood for over 200 years. The tower itself is the nation's second oldest.

In 1859 an additional fourteen feet was added to the height of the tower, bringing it to a total height of 89 feet, and a 12 sided second-order Fresnel lens was added. This lens is still in use today and focuses a 1,800,000 candlepower light that can be seem for up to sixteen miles away. The lens rotates around the light on machinery that was originally run by a clockwork mechanism. Today an electric motor is used to rotate the lens.

There have been sixty-six keepers of the Boston Lighthouse. Some serving for only a year or two, while others, like George Ball, served as a keeper of the light for forty-one years. The Coast Guard took over the operation of Boston Light in 1941.

The Boston Light is the only lighthouse in North America that has not been automated. Although scheduled for automation in 1989, preservation groups appealed the plan and funding was appropriated to keep the Coast Guard staff on the island. The Boston Light was named a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

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